Helping Patrons Find Their Roots: A Genealogy Handbook for Librarians

摘要

As the title suggests, Helping Patrons Find Their Roots: A Genealogy Handbook for Librarians by Janice Lindgren Schultz is a beginning primer on family research. Not always an expert in genealogy, Schultz found the part-time job she took in 1987 as a page in the Genealogy and Local History Department of Mid-Continent Public Library in Independence, Missouri, spawned a passion which led to a career in the field. Retiring from her position as Branch Manager of the Midwest Genealogy Center in 2013, Shultz has continued to be active in the subject area, contributing to a number of blogs and authoring two books, the latest of which, Helping Patrons Find Their Roots: A Genealogy Handbook for Librarians, focuses on beginning American genealogy with an introduction to European and Canadian family research. As Shultz explains in the opening chapters of the book, prior to the 1970s, family research was primarily concerned with documenting one's blood line and consisted mainly of identifying names and dates to add to a family tree or descendant chart-genealogy. However, today family research may also encompass unearthing details, extraordinary or mundane, about the lives of ancestors to create a broader picture of past generations and their relationship to the present and enhance personal understanding of larger historical events-family history. From beginning to end, Shultz guides librarians through the process of assisting family researchers, offering tips for ascertaining exactly what someone hopes to accomplish with their research and providing expert advice on locating information in a variety of online services and print resources located in family history centers, libraries, courthouses, churches, and cemeteries scattered throughout the United States.