Using Libraries and Archives for Genealogical Research

Undersanding OCLC World Cat's FIRST SEARCH: the combined card catalog of thousands of libraries.

Using the University of Michigan Libraries for Genealogical Research.

Sharon Breevort perpared a wonderful bibliography of useful genealogy resources, annotated to show which libraries near Ann Arbor own them. Sharon is both the webmaster of the GSWC site and the compiler of this list.

Genealogical Library Master Catalog
GenealogyToday topic: Libraries

The National Genealogical Society's Genealogical Standards includes Guidelines for Using Records Repositories and Libraries.

 

OCLC World Cat's "First Search"

Most libraries now have "First Search" in their collection of online databases. Think of it as an international catalog of books owned by libraries in the United States and, to a lesser extent, in foreign countries. In addition to books, there are several databases of other materials, for example, articles.Use "First Search" to find out what books exist, which libraries own those books. You can search by author, title, subject and keyword. Once you find a book that interests you, you can click to see a list of libraries owning the book. If an owning library has a genealogy and local history collection in the library, probably that library will not lend the book on ILL. However, many academic and non-genealogy libraries will own a book as just a part of their regular collection, and those libraries often will send the book out on ILL. Seek the advice of the Reference Librarian in the library if you find a book you would like to obtain. It is not the case that you will necessarily find any book owned by at least one library in the United States or that if you find a book, you will necessarily get a listing of every owning library... but you can find most books and many owning libraries!

OCLC is geared towards libraries and librarians, but they have one page on their site that explains OCLC to the library user. They also offer a good page that explains what databases are in First Search and how to use First Search.

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Using the University of Michigan Libraries for Genealogical Research.

There are several libraries in the Univerisity of Michigan Library system. Those most often used by genealogists are The Harlan Hatcher Graduate Library, which has a strong general collection, The Bentley Library on North Campus, which was originally called Michigan Historical Collections, and the Clements Library of Americana.

There is an unpublished guide to using the Harlan Hatcher Graduate Library, available in the library. GSWC member Sharon Breevort updated that guide and posted it on the GSWC website. See: GENEALOGY A Guide to Family History Resources at the Harlan Hatcher Graduate Library, Prepared by Don Callard, November, 1988 Revised and expanded by Sharon L. Brevoort, August, 1999. One room that is especially useful in the Grad Library is the map room. Two titles that are especially valuable to the genealogist areAndriot's Township Atlas of the United States and the multi-vlume Atlas of historical county boundaries. To find maps in the map library, search Mirlyn, the University Library's online catalog, using these special instructions for finding map resources in Mirlyn. Not all holdings of the map library are in Mirlyn, though, so ask a librarian in the map library to show you how to use the card catalog in the room as well.

The Bentley Library serves researchers of Michigan history and families and staff there are very used to working with genealogists. Sharon has prepared an excellent page that gives both information and links for the Bentley Historical Library.

The William L. Clements Library houses original resources for the study of American history and culture from the fifteenth to the early twentieth century. Again, I am simply going to refer you to Sharon's excellent page of information and links for the University of Michigan's Clements Library.

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Thanks to Graphics by Chris for book graphic used on this page.