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You have been looking at CGS blog posts and SIGs and meetings and events and you have been wanting to get involved, but you just don’t know how. You live a bit far away. You work, you take care of your family, or you just are cozy with your coffee in front of your computer when you have free time.
We get it. Truly (I say, as I enjoy a cup of hot coffee in my pajamas on a Saturday morning while I write this). What if, hear me out. What if we let you help from WHERE YOU ARE?!? Not only that, but it’s detective work, just like we love!
The Library Committee is looking for volunteers to help with our deaccessioning work. This is a task that can be done from home or in the library alongside other committee members. The committee has been working on this for over a year. So far, we have completed our family histories. Next, we will look at books that were published prior to 1923 that are out of copyright and most likely to have been digitized.
The task involves looking up the books at the FamilySearch and other websites to see if the book has already been digitized and is available for free from one or more reliable source. When we find a book online that matches our copy we then sell, give away, or discard the book.
Our objective is to reduce the size of or library and to make space for some of the many books that continue to be donated to the society. This is important work that can be done at your convenience and is a big help to the society. If you are interested or have questions please contact Chris Pattillo, Library Committee Chair at [email protected].
Some computer skills are needed. Training will be provided. And to show you how easy it is, we are going to do one together right now!
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Using the spreadsheet that the committee has logged the titles in, we are going to pick one to work on. We may need the author, too, so keep your sights on the CGS site, too, where you can search the library (did you know you could do this?!?!?). Then we are going to look on four sites for this book: FamilySearch, HathiTrust, Internet Archives, and Library of Congress.
Let’s start with this book: Calendar of wills and administrations relating to the counties of Devon and Cornwall. The spreadsheet notes this is from 1914 and is vi, 324 pages. Just in case I need it, I’m going to the CGS Library Catalog to learn more. I put the title in quotations and found this record:
Now we are going to login to FamilySearch (you must have an account to search) and search the digital books. We are again going to put our title in quotations. FamilySearch responded with, “Sorry, but nothing matched your search terms.” Let’s try “Edward Alex Fry (Edward Alexander)”. Not sure how that shakes out name-wise, so I tried all combination of names and FamilySearch told me that it was tired of me now. If I had found this book, I would have logged it in the spreadsheet and also provided the unique FamilySearch number for the book. And if it were a book about California, I would have noted, “Y but Keep.” We are California! We keep the California books in all formats.
Moving on, I visit HathiTrust. I do not need to login here— just go to the search tab and select, Collection, and then Title. WOW! NINE RESULTS! Now I get to detective. Is the book at CGS one of these books? If so, which one?!?! We look at the catalog year, description and call number that are all in the initial spreadsheet:
Of the nine results, three were published in 1914 and six in 1808. Examining the three that match our year, they seem to have the same number of pages (324) and the same vi listed before it. Without seeing the book from our library and really comparing, I don’t want to assume these are the same books. We will add the URL to each book in the spreadsheet and make a note that three were found.
In case I can find something definitive, I continue this and search Internet Archive (aka The Wayback Machine) where I click Advanced Search and enter the title. No results. I also search Books/Printed Material on the Library of Congress site. My search does come up with a result in the Library of Congress, however, it’s an actual book, not a digitized one. So our spreadsheet will note the HathiTrust digitized copies as the possibilities.
See how easy and fun this was?!? We did a book together in just a few minutes. Sign up now, get training, and help keep our library orderly from your cozy pjs and cuppa joe! Contact Chris Pattillo, Library Committee Chair at [email protected].
Helpful Links
Events: https://www.californiaancestors.org/events-and-education/
Special Interest Groups: https://www.californiaancestors.org/special-interest-groups-for-members/
Calendar view: https://www.californiaancestors.org/cgs_calendar/
