Sunday, January 6, 2013

The house is silent...



The cousins left yesterday, which means that the house is now quiet and I can concentrate on the project. Friday I visited the library here in Iola, and I have a few things to say about it.

1. This library is one of the most lovely libraries I've seen. It beats mine in Maryland by a long shot.
2. Their librarians are kind, approachable, and they take advantage of teaching opportunities (more on that later).
3. The area for genealogists is extremely well laid out and conducive to study.


I stepped in and wandered around a bit to get my bearings. The purpose of my visit was twofold. First, to locate said library and secondofly to inquire after back issues of the Iola Register. While grandma kept all the newspaper articles that make mention of their travels to the Philippines, there aren't any dates on them and I'd like to get proper full citations for the archive.


Having found the genealogy room, I stared balefully at the microfiche machine upon which I could read the Iola Register archive. My old ignored near-nemesis. This was the machine that in libraries growing up I was "too young" to use and when I got older I foolishly assumed that I couldn't use them for anything useful anyway. Now that I am going into a field where knowledge of... shall we say 'older technology' is useful, I recognize that I need to get along with microfiche and learn to be friends. It's important to note now that as a piece of older technology, microfiche is a little old-fashioned (though not as exclusive as the card catalog). The machine in the library was particularly old-fashioned as it is a small town midwestern machine, so I couldn't just walk up and introduce myself.

The librarian who helped me was kind and correctly assumed that I didn't know how to use the microfiche machine. She showed me how to roll the film and maneuver the screen as well as print off anything I found before she retreated into the other dimension where all librarians reside when they head back to the circulation desk. Once introduced, Mademoiselle Microfiche and I got along quite well. In fact I really enjoyed getting to know her and I think we'll be friends.

Pictures to follow.

[edit 1/7 11:33am: PICTURES ADDED YAY!]

No comments:

Post a Comment