It is always enlightening to see what other genealogical societies are doing—at least, from a perspective such as mine, leading my own countywide genealogical organization. Our organization uses social media to get out the word about our own offerings, but we also share news about nearby societies. After all, sometimes those groups just down the road may be sharing the very resources or presentations that might be of interest to our own members. We don't see that as competition, but rather as enrichment in helping members find the information we need.
This past week, our group was hosting a speaker who is a librarian working at a facility over one hundred miles away from us. Her topic for our online meeting was examining the experience of Dust Bowl emigrants in settling in our local agricultural region—what she called a fascinating yet heartbreaking story.
Meanwhile, I had been promoting an event on our social media which was hosted by an association located nearly one hundred miles away from us in a different direction. In reviewing the material before posting it, I noticed several other details about this group's offerings.
What really caught my eye was the fact that not only does this group have the same "problem" most other genealogical organizations have—members donating their used family history books to us—but they had gone one step beyond in resolving the overflow engulfing their storage shelves. They found a way to catalog those books and offer them to the public for a modest donation in such a way that people could find that information and access the offering: they posted their list online.
Calling their collection by a simple, point-blank moniker—"excess books"—this group created a spreadsheet and uploaded it to their website. And I, knowing I would be traveling through that area this past week, put in a bid to pick up three books, including one written by a distant cousin of mine.
The process was simple, and the volunteer society member kind enough to work with my travel schedule made it possible to accomplish my goal. I was elated to snatch up these out-of-print books for such a bargain basement price.
Fast forward to this past week's society meeting for my own organization. Our speaker—remember, she is a librarian specializing in genealogical research—mentioned her own local organization's difficulty in dealing with so many donated books. Fresh off the high of my recent purchase, I mentioned the ease I had in obtaining some titles I had long wanted to buy (for the right price).
I think a light bulb went off in that librarian's mind, and I noticed she quickly jotted down the name of the society which offered the spreadsheet online. Perhaps now there will be another genealogical society offering an easily-accessible list of reasonably priced family history volumes for bargain-shopping genealogists.
In case you're wondering, the book I was seeking was History of Old Pendleton District, written by Richard Wright Simpson (1840-1912), cousin to my second great-grandfather Thomas Taliaferro Broyles. Where I found the book listing was when I scrolled to the very bottom of the landing page for the website of the Santa Clara County Historical and Genealogical Society. Clicking on the words "Click here" brought me to the spreadsheet listing their available used books. From that point, all I needed to do was follow the instructions to email them and show up at the agreed-upon time to claim my books.
Granted, you may be reading this post from halfway around the world from Santa Clara, California, so this might not be helpful information for you. But how many local societies in your area have the same excess books problem? Thinking about ways to get the word out and share our resources using the updated tools at our disposal now is key.
I'm planning to share this one small idea with the other local societies in my area. Just mentioning it to others, I can see how simply hearing it sparks more ideas in other people's minds, too. We're all stronger when we share helpful ideas and resources.
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