Genealogists spend many hours in libraries searching for that elusive book or piece of information that will tie everything together. Here are a few tips and techniques that may help you make your next visit more productive.

Many libraries have online catalogs. Decide just what you want to accomplish in your next visit and search the online catalog to determine what books or other materials you may want to look at. With a specific list in hand to begin with, your time can be spent doing actual research, not roaming the stacks to see if they have any books on the subject you are interested in. If the catalog has something called "keyword search" you may search under any term at all and view the results. Some examples of good keyword searches might be – obituaries, vital statistics, church records, Oneida county, Zinser family – the results from these searches may lead you to an unknown resource. By using keyword searches you don’t need to know the exact form that a subject heading might take. If you find a catalog entry that interests you always look at the subject headings listed at the end of the record. If you see one that seems relevant, selecting it will lead you to other records with the same subject. Also check to see if there is a part of the website with general library information for information on specific collections that are available, hours of operation and email address. For example, the New York State library has online "handouts" on specific topics in genealogy that you can print out at home.

This is a wonderful resource developed by the former Reference librarian at Mid-York Library. It has listings for public and academic libraries, historical societies, museums and some municipal sources. Each library is listed individually with an overview of their collection and sometimes with specific holding information on old newspapers, obituary indexes, atlases, DAR records, etc.

The NYS library has undertaken a project to preserve old NYS newspapers on microfilm. They have a database on their website divided into NYS Newspaper Microfilm at the State Library, NYS Newspaper Microfilm around New York State. Any microfilm at the State Library may be borrowed for free through your local library. The other libraries may have different borrowing rules or not lend at all.

It is usually best to search from the most specific to the less specific geographic area. For example if you were looking for an obituary index for newspapers you might want to try in this progression:

Obituaries – Canastota

Obituaries – New York State—Madison county

Obituaries – New York State

Obituaries – United States

Don’t forget resources such as old city directories to locate families or narrow down possible year of death between census. There are old maps from the late 1800’s that actually list names of families on them. There are many other such materials that you may find in a library to help you find information on your ancestors. Try Who Was Who or the current Who’s Who to locate famous family members. Encyclopedias may have articles information on people in your family as well as Current Biography.

Take a quick walk around the library, see what kinds of books they have available keeping in mind that some of the rare books may be in locked storage (which is one reason to use the online catalog before you visit). Magazines are not usually listed in the online catalog so you may only find what they have during an actual visit.

Librarians are there to help patrons, not do your research for you. If you want to ask a question please keep in mind they don’t have time to hear your whole family history so ask direct questions and please keep it brief!