[Genealib] Genealogy Room set-up

[bhill at berkeley.edu]

I'm a little late getting to the discussion, but was surprised to see no
mention of the Library of Congress call number system.  Is it that rarely
used for genealogical collections?

The California Genealogical Society's library uses the LC system.  So does
the Sutro Library in San Francisco, which is a branch of the California
State Library in Sacramento.  Most of our patrons seem to be somewhat
familiar with the LC system, either from using the Sutro Library, or
because many have a pretty good level of education - all of the local
university, state college, and community college libraries use LC.

The local history portion of the CGS collection shelves in an arrangement
that sounds very similar to the Allen County Library with its modified
Dewey system.  When I explain it to patrons as being "similar to time
zones, from east to west, and from north to south within each zone" they
really get it.

CGS has posted a "cheat sheet" listing the states in alpha order and
showing the beginning call number for that state's range.  In each state's
call number range, the statewide periodicals come first, then other works
covering the whole state.  Then the counties in alphabetical order,
including all the cemetery books, church records, periodicals, etc.
pertaining to that county.  Finally there is a range of city histories in
alphabetical order, although CGS doesn't collect many city histories
unless they have "genealogical content."

There is usually no need to modify the call number initially assigned by
the Library of Congress, unless their cataloguer has really blown it.

CGS does have one shelving problem in that a professional genealogist
willed his personal collection many years ago, but the terms of the will
stipulated that his collection be kept separate.  Since the separate
collection is also assigned LC numbers, they are frequently found
mis-filed with the main collection.

Barbara Hill