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Archiver > GENMSC > 1998-12 > 0913212478


From: "Cynthia M. Van Ness" <>
Subject: Re: Dumb Newbie Question
Date: Wed, 9 Dec 1998 14:07:58 GMT


On Wed, 9 Dec 1998, Margaret J. Olson wrote:

> Let me play devil's advocate ...

[good explanation snipped]

> Second ... if this person is saying "Will you all go to your library and
> copy everything you can find on Williamson" they are asking you to do
> their research. If they say "I need the pages from Dills History of
> Greene County, Ohio, would someone with access to that book be so kind
> as to look up and send me pages 22-35 and any others mentioning the
> Haines family" they've already done some research and need help in getting
> copies from sources. If Dills is unindexed, they've really done research
> if they know the page numbers!

Just one problem in this otherwise excellent explanation of why someone
might be posting demand after demand. I believe that every American is
served by a public library in some form or another, even if it is a small
county branch that, in a big county, is a *long* drive away. (Perhaps
there really are counties with zero public libraries--I'd like to hear how
common this is.)

Of course these small rural libraries in *your* state don't have any
genealogical materials pertaining to *my* state, so librarians solved
this problem decades ago with a system called interlibrary loan (ILL), in
which a library that doesn't own a certain title can borrow it from one
that does.

If a researcher is that savvy that she knows the author, title, and page
numbers of the material she needs, as per Margaret's example, chances are
high that anywhere in the US she can telephone her local library and place
an interlibrary loan request. Rural librarians are painfully conscious of
the fact that they can meet only some of their users' information needs
and are therefore experienced in making use of ILL. They might even
request the copies and mail them out with a small bill for photocopying
expenses, eliminating the necessity for a trip to the library.

Therefore, (big surprise) my sympathies are with the original author. I,
too, see certain newsgroup regulars posting demand after demand for
look-ups, with little evidence of ever making use of offline resources
such as ILL or LDS family history centers, or even the phone call or
written request to a repository.

-=*=-+-=*=-+-=*=-+-=*=-+-=*=-+-=*=-+-=*=-+-=*=-+-=*=-+-=*=-+-=*=-+-=*=-+-=*=-
Cynthia Van Ness, M.L.S. |Co-moderator, Buffalo NY USA genealogy page:
| http://freenet.buffalo.edu/~roots
If information were power, librarians would rule the world. (C. Stoll)

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