Today this blog is going to be primarily aimed at those who are new to genealogy, as those of you who have been doing this a while should all about today’s topic. Full disclosure this may come off as a bit of a rant, but I am doing my best to encourage everyone to see life through the eyes of a librarian.
When you submit a request to a librarian, the best thing you can do is to have patience. Patience to understand that the librarian may have other requests ahead of yours, that they may work late and thus come in late or maybe they just have an appointment that delays them getting to the office. The worst thing you can do is to call/e-mail in the evening and then call the following day to see if your request has been worked on yet. I would say at a minimum give a librarian 3-4 days before you make contact again, a week would even be better. A week gives the librarian time to look at your request and to figure out what type of research needs to be done especially if that request is more complicated.
Librarians wear many hats, in my particular job I don’t just do genealogy but have to work a busy Reference Desk as well. Sometimes as much as I would like to work on a request, I just can’t get away from the desk to do proper research. Other librarians may have to cover a Circulation Desk or they may have classes to teach. Never get the idea that the librarian you are dealing with is spending their day reading for pleasure while working, they are too busy for that.
The best requests that librarians deal with are those who tell us “Oh no hurry, just get to it when you can”. Those who are patient genealogists who know that yes their request will get answered, it just might take some time.
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