I took this picture to promote my trip to the Midwest Genealogy Center in Independence, Missouri but then realized that it could serve a research purpose as well.
It’s great to browse the stacks, but a picture is worth 1,000 words. This quick photo captured the spines of the books in the Hancock County, Illinois, section of the published books section. The picture can be a quick way to re-browse the stacks later, but browsing the stacks does have limitations. What is on the spine may be incomplete or misleading. There may be books containing significant amounts of Hancock County (or whatever my county of interest is), but that are shelved in a different section of the library because the book covers multiple counties, is too large for this section of materials, be out for binding, etc. Don’t ignore searching the card catalog–in fact, try finding these books in the catalog and see what subjects they are cataloged under to find books outside this immediate area on the shelves.
And books can be shelved in the wrong place–but catalog searches won’t find that either.
Don’t rely on browsing to find everything. But it can be a way to find some things and as a starting point to finding more materials.
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