Genealogy Research Easy Access Tip! This information is excerpted from "How to Do Research on the Internet" http://www.researchonline.net/res1.htm Permission is explicitly granted to repost this message to other mailing lists. More Stuff you won't find in the search engines! One of the things I enjoy doing most at the library is to browse the shelves to see what I can find. Now you can do it "virtually" and not have to worry about all those book mites (grin). Browsing the shelves can turn up a wealth of information for research, and - combined with a little patience - and the availability of inter-library loan; allow you to retrieve virtually anything for your own research. For the following example, I accessed the PAC (public access catalog) at Augusta (GA) State University. Their name for their catalog is ATLAS; most every library has their own name or acronym. The same techniques can be used at virtually any library, and there are about 200,000 with internet access in the U.S. now with thousands more in Europe and other places. A good list (though not complete) of libraries may be found at http://www.cyndislist.com. The Reese Library of ASU may be accessed at: http://www.aug.edu/~library/ and their gateway to TELNET access to their library catalog is at http://www.aug.edu/~library/atlas.html Once you log in, you'll be presented with a screen offering 1 - Title, author, subject search, and 2- keyword search. Now you can browse these to your heart's content, but let me show you a technique that you can use to really research the library's holdings (not just act as a tourist (grin)). Once you find a book that looks promising, there are two ways to look for other holdings which may be of interest. I noted while looking for the SUBJECT "Hammond family" (s=hammond family) that the call letter for the books were CS71 (this is true for most libraries - but not all as some use different numbering schemes). I then issue a CALL NUMBER request (c=cs71) and I am presented with the following list: # Call Number -------Author-------- ---------------Title----------------- 1 CS71 A211 1 Ebbott, Elizabeth. Descendants of Colonel John Emery A 2 CS71 A298 1 Felton, Eileen Lapham The Albee-Lapham heritage of Portla 3 CS71 A3 198 Albertson, John Jay, Albertson-Drusendahl lineages / by 4 CS71 A35X 1 Albin, Ethel Winifred The Virginia Albins : the history o 5 CS71 A362X Alden Kindred of Amer Directory / Alden Kindred of Americ 6 CS71 A38 19 Boggs, Marion Alexand The Alexander letters, 1787-1900 / 7 CS71 A39X Ames, Winthrop. The Ames family of Easton, Massachu 8 CS71 A43 19 Chrisman, Charles E. The Allen family history : descenda 9 CS71 A43 19 Miller, Norma Carter, Allens of the southern states / Nor 10 CS71 A46954 Jones, Zona Perry, 19 Aulwes family history and genealogy Actually Reese Library has over 2,000 titles of family histories: this is just the first 10. One book that looks interesting appears, so I type in its number for a detail view: DETAIL VIEW AUTHOR: White, Paul Richard, 1950- TITLE: Taproots, a Virginia & Carolina legacy LIBRARY HOLDINGS: SP.COLL. 1. CALL NUMBER: [S.C.] CS71 .A98 1986 -- Spec coll -- NonCirculating/---------- MATERIAL: Book CALL NUMBER: CS71 .A98 1986 AUTHOR: White, Paul Richard, 1950- TITLE: Taproots, a Virginia & Carolina legacy / by Paul R. White. EDITION: 2nd ed. PUBLICATION: Nashville, Tenn. (6235 Brownlee Dr., Nashville 37205) : P.R. White, c1986. DESCRIPTION: xv, 860 p. : ill. ; 29 cm. NOTES: Bibliography: p. 706-737. NOTES: Includes index. SUBJECT: Ayers family. SUBJECT: Blackwell family. SUBJECT: Virginia--Genealogy. ADDED ENTRY: Taproots, a Virginia and Carolina legacy. Now this detail record gives me several key pieces of information: 1. The book is non-circulating at this library, but that does not mean that I cannot request it via inter-library loan. Some other library may have it. Just last week I received a very rare book on Georgia Civil War Newspapers which states in the fly leaf that only 300 were printed. 2. The Subject classifications at the bottom of the record detail reveal: A. Ayers family and Blackwell family - this particular book deals with these two families although the title would not reveal that B. Virginia--Genealogy - this library classifies books under the subject heading Virginia--genealogy. I can use this designation to do a subject browse of all their books on this subject. Note the two dashes and the capitalization of the subject headings is important. Actually most all libraries use this same subject classification scheme. Once you learn the ones in your area of research interest you can use them most anywhere. 3. The real boon in this record for me is the address of the author, and his year of birth. I can now use switchboard to get his phone number, or write a letter if the address appears to still be the same. Other ways of searching available using this catalog include ISBN number (the first 5 digits are the publisher), ISSN, LCCN, OCLC, and REFERENCE In conclusion, TELNET and access to libraries in your geographic area of interest can turn up a lot of information that is often overlooked by the casual researcher. Learn to use these tools and your research efforts will be much easier and more effective. .. Carol P. Martoccia .. 903 East Fifth Street .. Greenville, NC 27858 .. Pridgen Home Page: http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Meadows/6297 Rootsweb Archives: http://searches.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/listsearch.pl LISTMANAGER FOR PRIDGEN ROOTSWEB LIST AND FOR NCWILSON ROOTSWEB LIST