Yesterday I was able to attend library advocacy day in Albany with CLRC.  CLRC sponsors a bus for librarians and library school student to lobby legislatures as part of NYLA‘s Library Advocacy Day.  As a student, the price is kept low to allow us to see and learn the process and network with librarians.

The day started early, with the bus leaving at 6am from Syracuse.  We arrived in Albany just before 9am, after stopping in Utica to pick up additional attendees.  After going through security it was up many flights of stairs to our first meeting.

Important lesson #1: Tuesday is Lobby Day in Albany.  You will be standing and walking quite a bit, particularly while waiting in line at security.  Additionally, there is a long wait for elevators.  Stairs are easier.  Wear comfortable shoes and be ready for some exercise.

We met with three legislatures and one legislature’s aide in the first half of the day.  It was not at all what I was expecting.  We discussed the legislative priorities and other talking points; we listened to children and parents on why the library was important to them; we listed to some legislatures lobby us about Medicaid reform (random, I know); we thanked them for their prior support and asked for them to continue to do help us.

Important lesson #2: Every year the same general things get said.  They know what is coming and so do we.  So why continue to go?  If you do not, they will forget about your cause and cut your funding even further.

Then came lunch.  Not normally something I would discuss, except for what happened afterwards.  We left the security zone to go to the cafe just outside it for our hour long break.  When we went to go back into the Legislative offices, the AFSCME members had arrived to lobby.  These are Union members and their numbers were impressive.  It was an hour and a half wait to get back through security, meaning we would miss all of our afternoon appointments.

Important lesson #3: Bring a lunch and stay inside the security zone.  You never know what will occur.

As such, we went to the Cathedral of Immaculate Conception and the New York State Museum for an hour and a half, then went to find the bus.  And so we waited for the bus.  Due to the congestion for lobby day, we finally were able to get on the bus an hour later than planned.  In that time, I was able to talk with librarians and library trustees from the area, who had wonderful advice for a soon-to-be graduate.

Important lesson #4: As in all other parts of life, go with the flow and change directions as needed.  Opportunities present themselves if you look for them.

We made it home around 6:30pm and then I did homework until I crashed.  I really enjoyed the opportunity and have to thank CLRC for allowing MLIS students to attend at such an amazingly discounted price.  I look forward to attending in the future and, hopefully, going through leader training so that I can help others in talking with our elected officials.  Remember, support your libraries!

Can you believe I am in my second week of my last semester in graduate school?  I sure can’t.  The past year and a half went so much faster than I ever imagined.

I am taking some awesome classes this semester, which is definitely the right way to finish.

• Library Planning, Marketing and Assessment: I think this will be the most important class I take in my collegiate career.
• Information Resources: Organization & Access: An overview on metadata, indexing and the like.
• Museum Development: This is for my CAS, but the skills are for all non-profits and the professor will allow me to use libraries as examples in the projects.  This will really help with my goal to become a library director one day.
• Internship: 2 credits worth.  I think I found a cool one and will give more information when it is firmed up:-)

So here I go again.  One more semester left of school, then I receive my Master’s degree and get hooded.  How awesome is that?

Go to your local public library branch again. Examine the local history, archives and/or special collections section. Ask a librarian if you don’t know if your library has special collections or where they are located. Be sure to check the reference section, too, as many of the newer and more valuable books are held in that area. If you have a genealogy blog, write about what you find in your library’s local history and special collections.


Slightly late, but better than never;-)


At the Onondaga County Public Library Central Branch, the Local History/Genealogy room is amazing.  It is on the 6th floor and contains a tremendously large amount of books and microfims.  Some of the items I have used in the past or need to check out that are useful to my searching are:

The Buffalo & Erie County Public Library is digitizing its Local history File and putting it on Flickr.  According to the website, “The Local History File is the Library’s most comprehensive resource for Buffalo research. It is an index to select Buffalo newspaper articles. References to books, vertical file materials, scrapbooks, and magazines are also included. 

The Local History File covers Buffalo and Erie County people, places, things, and history. It was started in 1936 as a WPA project and now includes about 300,000 entries on over 100,000 index cards. Most citations date from 1930-1982, but some go back as far as the 1890s and as recent as this year.

Repository: 
Grosvenor Room, Central Library, Buffalo and Erie County Public Library, 1 Lafayette Square, Buffalo, NY 14203-1887. www.buffalolib.org“

Up until I went back to school in August, my favorite way to volunteer in the genealogy world was through Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness.  I began by going to cemeteries to take photographs of tombstones (or grave sites if there wasn’t a headstone) for people.  This became a “date” day, once or twice a month, for my fiancé and I, where we would drive around Onondaga county and see who could find the most tombstones, walking up and down the rows in the cemeteries (see why he’s a keeper?!?).  Eventually it progressed to my doing searches at the library, mostly for city directories and obituaries, and at the courthouse, where I never had much luck unfortunately.

I also volunteer for FamilySearch Indexing, mainly for the 1892 New York census.  I did not do nearly as many names as I had hoped, but I like knowing I was part of the group that got this project finished.  Just today I received an email from the president of the Western New York genealogy society, to which I belong, asking if I would be willing to to help transcribe or proof read the 1865 New York census, which they are putting online.  I jumped at the chance to be part of this project, as state census’ are a tremendously helpful, but often overlooked, resource.  I am also excited to become an active member of the society, despite living too far away to make meetings.

I have received three main things from volunteering in the genealogy world.  First, I learnt about new resources and practiced finding them.  Prior to volunteering with RAOGK, I had no idea how useful city directories were.  This has helped in my research tremendously.  Second, I have gotten a lot of practice in deciphering handwriting.  Although I am still much better at seeing a name I am looking for in a document compared to transcribing unfamiliar handwriting, I will learn this skill and I will learn it much faster than if I just practiced with my ancestors handwriting.  Third, I have discovered a possible career.  I realized how much I love genealogy, not just researching my family, but other families as well.  This has lead me to get my masters degree in library science with the goal of working in a genealogy and local history library.  Eventually, I would like to become a certified genealogist and help people with their search that way, but it will be a few years before I get to that level.

I highly recommend volunteering in whatever capacity you are able.  It helps improve your research skills, introduces you to new people and record groups and builds up good genealogy karma, which will hopefully lead to more genealogy happy dances!

Amy Coffin at the We Tree blog is challenging bloggers to become better genealogists, with a new prompt each week through her 52 Weeks to Better Genealogy:


Week 1 is: Go to your local public library branch. Make a note of the genealogy books in the collection that may help you gain research knowledge. Don’t forget to check the shelves in both the non-fiction section and the reference section. If you do not already have a library card, take the time to get one. If you have a genealogy blog, write about what you find in your library’s genealogy collection.



As my library is part of a large county library system, I went to their website and started searching for genealogy books that I have not yet read.  I have requested the following, which will be delivered over the next few weeks as they become available:


Finding your Italian Ancestors: A Beginners Guide by Suzanne Russo Adams: I have a long list of microfilms to order from the FHC for my Italian ancestors.  This book will hopefully help me see where to take the search beyond the FHC.


In Search of your German Roots: A Complete Guide to Tracing your Ancestors in the Germanic Areas of Europe by Angus Baxter: One of my goals this year is to trace my German ancestry further, this book is highly rated to help me do just that.


Tracing your Pauper Ancestors: A Guide for Family Historians by Robert Burlison: This guide is for tracing your English ancestors who were affected by poverty.  As I have found some living in workhouses, this book will be very useful for finding additional records on them.


Genealogy by George G. Morgan: It’s by George C. Morgan, how can I not read this?


Who Do You Think You Are?: The Essential Guide to Tracing your Family History by Megan Smolenyak: See above title, just replace author name:-)


Finding Anyone, Anywhere, Anywhen by Noel Montgomery Elliot: This should be useful in my goal to find living relatives this year.


Social Networking for Genealogists by Drew Smith: I have wanted to read this since it came out and my library has just recently bought it.


Google your Family Tree: Unlocking the Hidden Power of Google by Daniel M. Lynch: I need some assistance in setting up Google alerts for my ancestors.


The Oxford Guide to Library Research by Thomas Mann: There is a chapter in here on genealogy.  It should also be helpful for my current schooling.