Week 32: At the Library (52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks)

This week, Amy Johnson Crow’s prompt is “One of my favorite things to do when I was little was going to the library. (It still is!) It's really no surprise that I ended up getting my Masters degree in library science. This week's theme is "At the Library." Do you have any librarians in your family? What about fond memories of going to the library or help that you've received from a librarian?” Click here to check out all of the themes for 2022.

Growing up, the public library was only ½ mile from my home. I loved going to the library, because it was free, it was air conditioned (something my home wasn’t) and it was quiet. Being the youngest of nine children and being an aunt by the age of seven, having a quiet place was heaven.

When I became interested in genealogy at the age of 14, it was the library that I went to, to find books on how to do genealogy. It was this library that I found out about my older half siblings’ ancestry, they descended from the Wisconsin French-Indian Fur Traders. 

When I reached by mid 20’s, I started to research my family history a little bit more and travelled to nearby communities and always started in their library. I even found a library open on a Sunday, in the town that I was born in. This was great, especially as a working parent, my research time was limited to weekends or using my vacation days for researching.

In 1999, my husband and I relocated our family to Lake Havasu City, Arizona. So of course, the first thing I did was check out the library. They had recently built a new library. However, I could not find any genealogy section. When I asked about it, they didn’t seem too concerned. I was bummed and confused. It wasn’t until around 2003 that I stubbled across the Lake Havasu Genealogical Society Library. I found out through the society, that the public library will donate all genealogical books to the society library. I thought this was strange, because perhaps they should at least have some beginning genealogy books?

Anyway, the library seemed very cluttered and I was overwhelmed by what I considered was disorganization of their books. The card catalog was hard to use, because I had no idea where in the library the book would be located. 

By 2011, I returned to the library and decided to join the society and find out more. I came in on Wednesday’s because it was the day the library was open from 9am-5pm. A whole day dedicated to genealogy. I volunteered to help at the library and when the volunteered Librarian asked if I wanted to take over Wednesdays, I jumped at the opportunity.

I approached the Society Board about doing classes. After raising almost $500 from my classes, I offered to revamp the library foyer which looked more like a back storage area than a welcoming entrance to the library. I gave them my design ideas, tearing up the old carpet and putting down some press-on tiles in the bathrooms and by the front & side door and putting press-on carpet squares between the two. I offered to paint the foyer and bathrooms. I also offered to rearrange the computer setup and clear out and organize the foyer area. They agreed and since they are closed during the summer, I decided to work on it in August.

When I was done, I made sure that I did not throw anything away, I moved the tall file cabinets that were in the foyer to the back corner of the library. They scaled down from four cabinets to only two. I moved the copier that was located between the front windows to the front of the research room along with a short file cabinet and the lateral file cabinet that was in the back corner of the library. They even had an extra desk that I moved out of the foyer to the back corner. I moved two nice side chairs and end table into the large foyer for a sitting area. I donated short bookshelves to fit along the pony wall that separated the foyer from the research room. I left one desk in the foyer for the sign in sheet. They had mini refrigerator that they use to sell water and soda and I left that in the foyer next to a new small storage cabinet that I donated to store extra soda, water and supplies for refreshments for the general meetings that the society has from October to May. The painted glass in the wall hanging between the bathrooms was from a garage sale. It was too pretty to get rid of. So I had the piece cut so that the chip corners were removed and my husband made the frame. It fits perfectly on the wall, below the needlepoint of the society's logo.

I also organized some of their wall hangings for the foyer, which freed up some wall space between the front two windows so that I could securely anchor the bookshelves to the wall. They were just at the end of the rows of some other bookshelves they had.

Later on, I tried to start a new chair fundraiser, but no one was interested in it. I didn’t like the chairs didn't match. My husband’s work was getting rid of eight non-wheeled chairs and I kept eight matching wheeled chairs and we got rid of the rest. I noticed that some of our older members struggled with their balance getting in and out of moving chairs. 

One of our members even donated a large TV that was mounted above the Computers, over the left side opening of the pony wall. Now when they do classes or even have general meetings, they can use the tv for a display. We found out, there is not a bad seat in the room.

Those lacy curtains  have been removed. Another member donated some black out drapes that we can pull shut to help with energy cost during the summer months when they are closed. Plus another member donated some nice pull down shades for the two front windows so that we don’t feel like we are exposed to everyone walking past the library windows. 

Before I moved back to Wisconsin in 2020, my last project for the library was reorganizing their books and periodicals. We transitioned from a stand-alone Access catalog system to LibraryThing. Now their patrons can view their book and periodical collection online. I made sure to organize the books a little better, weed out duplicates and books that would not help in genealogical research. Also, many of the help books were so out of date, so those were reduced too. 

Check out their website at lhgs.weebly.com

Remember to have fun and Just do Genealogy!