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Roots: digging for your family tree at the library

Posted on August 1, 2012 by dmguion

When I lived in the Chicago area, the Newberry Library was one of my favorite places. I occasionally had occasion to cross paths with “the cemetery lady,” a researcher who knew more about cemeteries than just about anyone else in the area. And why shouldn’t she hang around the Newberry? It has one of the best genealogy collections in the country. If you’re serious about tracing your family tree, be prepared to learn a lot about cemeteries. And the best place to start learning about them, or anything about your ancestors, is at the library. Your local library does not … Continue reading →

How to use online library databases

Posted on March 7, 2012 by dmguion

A library catalog is a database as opposed to a search engine. Libraries offer many other databases for research besides the catalog. (Everyone does research, by the way, even though not everyone writes about the results.) In some ways you use them the same way you use the catalog, but there are important differences. I will illustrate using an online library database called Academic Search Complete. Academic Search Complete, like all databases, is organized by fields. That is, a complete record will contain separate fields for such things as author, title, subject, journal title, various standard numbers, etc. You can … Continue reading →

Crowdsourcing at the library: editing Wikipedia

Posted on January 4, 2012 by dmguion

Recent decades have seen growing power of crowdsourcing. Wikipedia, which has been around for ten years now, is based in part on this notion: the combined research efforts of many people of varying backgrounds and opinions can provide better information than a single expert can find. That has proved problematical in practice. Libraries have become part of the solution to at least one problem, as Wikipedia has recently sponsored dozens of editing marathons (editathons) in libraries nationwide (and also more in Great Britain). Originally, crowdsourcing meant that Wikipedia and other similar organizations invited a broad spectrum of the general public … Continue reading →

Library services for the unemployed

Posted on November 23, 2011 by dmguion

According to a 2010 study of perceptions of libraries, 37% of respondents said that they have used the library more often since the economy tanked. Another study revealed that 10% of the US population used library computers for some kind of job help. Libraries and librarians have therefore been among the first responders for people who have lost their jobs, offering vital unemployment services. Nowadays many people turn first to Google and other search engines for their information needs. That doesn’t mean that an Internet search can completely satisfy them. It can’t, for instance, help unemployed people identify personalize what … Continue reading →

WorldCat: a librarians’ tool the public can use

Posted on September 14, 2011 by dmguion

Libraries of any size probably rely on the various services of a company called OCLC. No one else needs to know anything about most of them, but you may have seen a reference librarian look up something for you on WorldCat. That’s a tool you can use as easily as you use your own library’s catalog. It’s free and available from your home as well as the library. WorldCat aspires to be a universal library catalog. It hasn’t made it yet, but it shows the holdings of about 27,000 different libraries in more than 170 different countries. Even though it … Continue reading →

Online library catalogs: using them despite their imperfections

Posted on July 20, 2011 by dmguion

In this post, I will summarize the development of online library catalogs. Once I have pointed out the problems and the reasons for them, I will explain how you, the ordinary users, can make the most efficient use of them for finding the information (or entertainment) you want. No perfect technology for library catalogs has ever existed. The earliest catalogs were bound books. Every time the library got something new, a record of it had to be written in the catalog. With the card catalog, the library could update its holdings continuously without ever having to disturb previous entries. For … Continue reading →

Helping the reference librarian help you

Posted on June 18, 2011 by dmguion

Go ahead and ask. She's not doing anything more important than your question!

Do you need help answering a question? Ask a librarian. Specifically, ask a reference librarian. You’ll usually find at least one at the library’s reference desk. Now, some libraries are starting to do away with reference desks as a special service point. In some cases, at least, that means they have decided to have the librarians roam the library, or parts of it, looking for people who need help. If you see a librarian at a desk who seems to be busy with paper work, go ask your question. You will not be interrupting anything important. The librarian needs something … Continue reading →

Search engines, online library catalogs: how they work

Posted on June 11, 2011 by dmguion

Most people begin to search for information using Google or other search engines. They turn to library catalogs later, if at all. When they get to the catalog, they have trouble using it if they expect it to work anything like Google. Some library and information technology professionals have drawn entirely wrong conclusions from that fact. One faction says it demonstrates that online library catalogs are obsolete, that the software system that runs them is old fashioned and difficult to program in, and therefore that we need to abandon the catalog. Another declares that people would use the catalog more … Continue reading →

How not to do research

Posted on June 30, 2010 by dmguion

Here are some posts from a thread on an email list I follow. I am deleting anything that could identify the particular libraries where the posters work, although they are clearly all academic libraries. 1. A scenario reported by one of my colleagues: student sitting at a computer not 5 feet from the reference desk where said colleague is stationed. He’s been there for quite a while. As his friends walk by, he asks them how to find something, how to do something. Colleague asks repeatedly if he needs any help and is rejected every time. Then he starts phoning … Continue reading →

Especially for researchers: that means you!

Posted on June 2, 2010 by dmguion

Research conjures up images of a scientist in his lab or a scholar toiling away in the library working on his or her next tome. That’s research, to be sure, but it can also be a college student writing a term paper. For that matter, it can be finding out information about cars before heading to the dealership or checking out the classified ads. What is research? It’s the systematic process of investigation of some subject of interest by gathering and analyzing information about it. Usually research results in some kind of action. Writing a report is one possible outcome. … Continue reading →

Reading, Writing, Research

a librarian's blog for anyone who needs to do research (this means you!) or otherwise wants to use the library

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