Monday, August 5, 2013

New Books For Genealogy Reference On Display

What do you do at home with an oddball piece of furniture that just doesn't seem to "fit" anywhere or have a real purpose?  Throw it out?  Await divine inspiration? Keep moving it until its "out of sight, out of mind"?  Libraries have this same problem with furniture.  Fortunately, librarians can be a resourceful lot and re-purpose many things.

Such is the tale of the pictured bookstand.  It's moved all over the building for a number of years.  Yes, bookstands generally hold books.  But what books? And where?  Then it hit.  We should display new Genealogy/Reference books!!  We already do this for fiction, non-fiction, videos, audiobooks, etc., so why not in Genealogy?  A new book is easily overshadowed by all the other items in that collection and may go unnoticed for quite sometime because researchers believe they've seen all the books we have on a certain location or topic.  Just look at all the wonderful new resources that might have been missed but are now on display:
  • 1890 Genealogical Census Reconstruction: Ohio Edition, Volume 1
  • 1890 Genealogical Census Reconstruction: Mississippi, Volume 1
  • 1890 Genealogical Census Reconstruction: Mississippi, Volume 2
  • Blacks Found in the Deeds of Laurens & Newberry Counties, South Carolina: 1785-1827
  • Boston Births, Baptisms, Marriages, and Deaths, 1630-1699
  • Canary Islands Migration to Louisiana, 1778-1783. the History and Passenger Lists of the Islenos Volunteer Recruits and Their Families
  • Collection of Upwards of Thirty Thousand Names of German, Swiss, Dutch, French and Other Immigrants to Pennsylvania from 1727 to 1776
  • Index to Alabama Wills, 1808-1870
  • Passenger Arrivals at the Port of Baltimore, 1820-1834
  • Passenger Arrivals at the Port of Charleston, 1820-1829
  • Passenger Arrivals at the Port of Philadelphia, 1800-1819
  • Pioneers and Makers of Arkansas
  • Some Alabama Pioneers
  • State Census of North Carolina, 1784-1787
Genealogy books aren't cheap.  These 14 titles cost approximately $500!  Wondering where the funding for these new items came from?  Money generously donated to the library as a memorial by friends and family allowed these to be purchased in memory of the dearly departed.  We hope their gifts to the library benefit you in your research on your next trip to the library as well as future researchers in the the years to come.