In a message dated 2/28/2012 4:58:33 P.M. Pacific Standard Time, Geralyn Barry [email protected]_ (mailto:[email protected]) writes: Message: 7 Date: Tue, 28 Feb 2012 16:32:16 -0800 From: Geralyn Barry <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [COTIPPERARY] Local History Books To: [email protected] Message-ID: <[email protected]> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Ann, there are sometimes copies of particular books relating to Irish local history that do not show up in WorldCat. I'm not sure why that is. But I noticed that some of the Irish local history books I have requested through interlibrary loan were obtained from libraries of small Catholic colleges or religious institutions. I was surprised to get these books on loan from places much closer to me than I had expected from looking at the listings in WorldCat. (I live in the US, in Oregon.) Some of my requests have also come from libraries in the college system of the state of California also - which one would think could be found in WorldCat, but apparently not. I'm guessing that not all libraries are part of WorldCat. The interlibrary loan person at my local library has ways of finding these copies, so the library must have other resources that they check besides WorldCat. Can any librarians out there shed light on this? Geralyn Wood Barry in Oregon, USA Geralyn, Libraries have a choice whether to participate in Worldcat lending. They actually make money for doing it which is why the small but excellent genealogical library in Seattle called of the Fiske Foundation (_www.fiskelibrary.org_ (http://www.fiskelibrary.org) ) is a member. The charge helps to support the library. I am sure librarians have other ways to access systems that we don't. Worldcat.org is useful in many ways. Sometimes I find a book is close to me and don't have to use ILL, sometimes I know what I want and would like a citation, and sometimes I don't know what I want but searching on a keyword will bring up some good possibilities. Speaking of small Catholic colleges, many of them have long had an interest in Irish history, and therefore a collection exists there. When I first wanted to read Prendergast's "Cromwellian Settlement of Ireland" (about 1878) and it was hard to find, ILL got it for me from the library at Gonzaga U. in Spokane. Now it has been reprinted, but I doubt that they reproduced all those great big foldout maps. In fact, I think it has already been digitized and is online too. That book, by the way, is a goldmine of lists of names. (We love those, don't we?) Ann Lamb