[Genealib] Genealogy Room Set-up

[Brannan, Joyce]

This really points out the importance of having a "GOOD" catalog, and having it in more than one location.   If I am researching my Stiles family, what good is having the library by location?  I have Stiles in New Jersey, England, Ohio, Virginia, and New York.  If the arrangement is by location, and I don't know to look in all those places, I will not find everything.  Biographically doesn't work either.  If the name is in a book with other names, how will it be shelved?
A good cataloger, who understands genealogy research, should take the time to add extensive contents notes making it possible to search for almost everything, everyplace, and any name in the catalog.  With computers we can do this.  Unfortunately, most libraries don't have the budget to allow a cataloger the time to enhance a record this way.  And, many catalogers do not see the value of taking the time to do it.
When I am doing research, I prefer a "local history" room where items that are truly locally specific are housed separately.  For everything else, I prefer it be shelve by Dewey.
I become so frustrated when people come in here and haven't used our catalog and Alabama Room helps to see what we have before they show up.  Our archive files are all region specific and filed as we get them. But the index info is online.  I realize that many small libraries aren't online, but if they are, find out what they have before you go!
Joyce Adams Brannan
Technical Services Librarian
Julia Tutwiler Library
University of West Alabama
Livingston, AL 35470
205.652.3677
jbrannan at uwa.edu





>>> "Kate Stirk" <stirkk at juno.com> 7/7/2009 4:29 PM >>>
I admit to having very strong feelings on this topic because I'm usually only allowed a few hours to do research while my dear spouse is waiting as patiently as he can...

Please think about your researchers. Put the collection in order by region, then by state and within the state by county. Alphabetically by county. The library in Macon, Georgia is this way.

When people come in to look for family- they look for the county where events happened. Having all the books on that county (marriage, deeds, wills, cemetery, church, etc) together makes it so much easier for your patrons.

Please do not do it strictly by Dewey- those collections are so hard to use because the marriages are all in one area, the cemeteries in another....

There is a library (which shall remain nameless) close to me that has gone Dewey- and they do not have a catalog in the genealogy area....I just quit going there. No catalog, books on a county in a variety of shelves- chaos for a researcher.

When I go in a genealogy library done strictly by Dewey, I know the catalogers made the decision not the genealogists.....



Kate Stirk, Librarian
Chattahoochee Technical College, North Metro Campus
StirkK at Juno.com


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