I originally wrote this article in April 2012 for my local genealogy society’s newsletter. For some reason, they never published it. Oh well, I think it is informative. I hope you agree and concur with me about the future of real books and the libraries that hold them.
Spring brings me a struggle of sorts…a struggle between my two foremost passions, Gardening and Genealogy. During the cooler days of fall and rainy days of winter, sequestering myself inside the house surrounded by books, folders, and genealogy websites is easy. But right around the start of April, I need to be in the garden. This year, my ancestors won out over gardening, at least during the first of the season.
This April, I found myself visiting both my cousins and libraries. All the while checking off items on my ever-growing Genealogy “To Do” list. Visiting with my cousins was easy…They would give me a big box of old family photographs, and I would spend a few days scanning every picture. The libraries offered a similar experience but in a much more purposeful way.
Having dappled in genealogy since 1993, I had always wanted to visit the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. Circumstances and the ever-expanding wealth of online resources had kept the library at bay for decades. But this April, I finally made the pilgrimage to what should be called the Center of the Genealogical Universe. The library is a fantastic place for genealogists of any skill set. I want to share my impressions, what I found, and how I made the most of my limited time in Salt Lake City.
The library is in downtown Salt Lake City, just a mile from the state capitol. It is easy to find, immediately adjacent to Temple Square, but beware of the many one-way streets in the area. For the unfamiliar, one wrong turn could require several blocks of travel before you can turn around to get back on track. I found some limited paid parking ($8 per day) within a block of the library, but I recommend the large lot boarded by North Temple, South Temple, N 300 West, and N 200 West streets. At only three dollars a day and free on Saturday, it’s a bargain. The walk was not bad either; it was two blocks and only took about five minutes.
The library has five floors, three above ground and two below. Each floor has an information desk, and what seems to me to be an army of LDS volunteers and missionaries, ready to help you find whatever you are looking for.
Things seem to be in flux throughout the library because of the digitization effort. I was told every book would be digitized and made available online. I have no idea what this will mean for the library. My concern would be that someday, the brick-and-mortar institution of libraries, in general, could become a thing of the past. And the change was evident at the Salt Lake Library. For example, about half the books of surnames were gone. Gone, not in the library! And as is my luck, everything concerning my surnames was missing. I was assured that anything I wanted was already online “inside the library” and soon on the Internet. Large signs told of the digitization project, but I still saw many confused faces.
I made the most use of the third floor, the library’s top floor. This is where you will find books on the United States and Canada. Other Canadian books are located on the ground floor in the International section. Everything is arranged geographically, as you might expect, so just check the front of the aisles for the state you are interested in. Because the library uses the Dewey Decimal system, individual counties or parishes are not on the shelves alphabetically. There is a guide at the information desk for locating the call numbers for any given state and county/parish. And herein is my concern about completely doing away with books. Often, I find great information just by checking the shelves for a particular geographic area. It’s a mode of research you can do most efficiently by looking at a shelf of books. For anyone without any research plan, simply knowing where an ancestor lived would be enough to keep you busy for hours using this approach. One could search call numbers for a given area in a digital library, but that would not be as much fun!
On this trip, I approached my research a little differently. Through the work I had already done at home, I already knew the books I wanted to review. Because I could always go online for “online” books or order films sent to my local Family History Center, I focused solely on books I could only see in the library. From home, I went online to Family Search and obtained the call numbers for all the books I wanted to review. (By the way, I have also looked for these same books at the Sutro, and they have some. But the Family History Library had all of them.) The Family Search Catalog will allow a search by author’s name, book title, call number, etc. The online catalog will also include the book’s location in the library or at the significant Family History Centers. Because much of my work involves south and southwest Louisiana, many of the books I wanted were all in the same general area (same floor and call number range). Using the Family Search catalog, I learned that most books I was interested in were also from the Los Angeles Family History Center. I noted this as I might plan a trip to the Center in Los Angeles, which is considerably closer for me than Salt Lake City.
With a list of the books I wanted, I incorporated the titles and call numbers into my To-Do list. I use an Excel spreadsheet for this document. My To-Do list is a list of everything I want to accomplish on future field trips. For instance, if I want to visit a given cemetery, I will list the cemetery’s name and address, leaving a column for a zip code. I can then sort by zip code and geographically line up all the outings. I put the book’s call numbers in the zip code field for my trip to Salt Lake City. Then I had a top-to-bottom list of every book I wanted, nicely lined up.
Next came the fun part…photography! While you can copy what you want at the library, there is a fee. Purchase a library debit card and stand in line for a copy machine. Or just do like several people were doing, take digital photographs of the pages you need. I have a system for this.
I always take a picture of the outside of the book (spine and cover) and then the page showing the publisher and ISBN(s). Next, I photograph the pages that interest me, making sure the page number of each page is also in the picture. Over the two days I spent in the library, I took nearly 500 photographs. The library staff has no problem with researchers taking photos, just as long as you are not using a flash. The flashing would be a significant distraction if everyone were doing it!
I spent very little time doing actual “research” in the library. I did not need computers or online materials. All I wanted were photographs of specific pages from select books. And I typically took several pictures from each book. Generally, I photographed every page concerning the surnames I was interested in.
In some cases, I verified a source reference from earlier researchers. In these cases, I even knew the page number of the book. I ensured that I got that page or pages and anything else concerning the person or family I am researching.
And that’s it! Now that I’m home, I have put all the pictures I took into folders on my computer by book. Because I took photos of the book covers, nothing gets mixed up.
I would highly recommend the Family History Library. It was well worth my time, and I’m sure it will be worth yours also. If you plan, your visit will be even more successful. As for my garden, I planted everything a little late…early May, so my first harvesting has been a little delayed. But I have lots of research to keep me busy in the meantime.
Aaron Tassin, MLIS 