Tuesday's Tip: Using the Internet Archive Lending Library

This past week, I came across a fabulous new-to-me resource: the Internet Archive Lending Library.

Now, if you've been doing genealogy for a while, you probably already know about the Internet Archive, a repository of free digitized out-of-copyright books and documents: books that have your ancestors' names in them; city directories; county histories and biographies; church membership and history books; fraternal organizations' membership lists; newspapers; and vital and cemetery records books, just to name a few.

You may also be aware of the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine, a handy tool for finding digitized archives of those obsolete genealogy websites that may have had part of your family tree on them.

There are even video and audio files, and live music. There's historical software, and vintage video games, and TV news. You could spend days, weeks, years browsing through the goodies on this site, and still never glean all its treasures, because it is being added to in great quantities, daily.

But did you know that besides all those great, free, out-of-copyright books, you can also access some that are still under copyright? Think about it! No more waiting for weeks for an Inter-Library Loan book to arrive at your public library. No more restrictions on where you can access the ILL, as some lending libraries require you only access the loan inside the borrowing library's building. Yes, you can access these books in the comfort of your own home, in your jammies.

Here's how you get to the goodies. Go to the Internet Archive Lending Library link. You may wish to bookmark it. Click on the "Account" tab in the top menu.

You'll need to log in. If you aren't already a registered user, click on the words "Join us" to the right of "Anonymous User."

Either way, once you've registered and/or logged in, you'll see "Get a Virtual Library Card. Fill out the form (don't forget to read and agree to the Terms of Use) and submit. You're done with your first step!

Now return to the Lending Library main page. A good place to start is to click on the "Browse by Subject / Keyword" link.

You'll then view this page with an alphabetical list of subjects. I use the CTRL+F feature (hold down the Control [CTRL] key while clicking the F key to bring up a search box for the page) to search for subjects I'm interested in. You'll note that "genealogy" only brought up one hit. "History" brought up 57 hits. "Family," however, brought up 1,267 hits.

Clicking on these subject links brings up the list of titles within that subject category. You can then click on the title link for more information about that book. Once you find a book you'd like, click on the "Borrow" link underneath the slideshow of the book images.

If it is available, you'll be prompted to either read the book in your browser (the easiest option, as you won't have to download software), or download and open it with Adobe Digital Editions. This is free software that you can install right from that page.

If the book is not available, you'll get a notice that it's already checked out, and you'll need to try again later. Putting a book on hold is not possible right now, although the Internet Archive website states they hope to add it in the future.

Now there are some restrictions. Remember, these are books that are still under copyright. You can't copy the books to your computer's hard drive. You can download five books at a time; each will expire after two weeks and automatically be "returned" (removed from your device) when that time period expires.

The Frequently Asked Questions link is in the left-hand menu of the Lending Library main page, or you can go directly to the FAQ page here.

Now go find a good family or local history book to borrow!

Tuesday's Tip: State Resource Blogs

If you're reading this blog, chances are you read other genealogy blogs. In fact, you've probably got a long list of them that you've added to your feed aggregator, such as Feedly. But as a genealogist, have you considered reading the blogs of the archives, libraries, and historical and genealogical societies of the states where your ancestors lived? For instance, as a Washington State resident, I follow the Washington State Archives blog: "From Our Corner," and the Washington State Library blog: "Between the Lines." Because I have so many ancestors from Michigan, I also follow the blog for the Michigan Digital Archives (Seeking Michigan), called "Look." There are numerous other state-level blogs I follow, especially those that might update me on digitized city directories or newspapers for my Online Historical Directories and Online Historical Newspapers sites.

How did I find these? Some I discovered while visiting the state websites in search of other resources. Others I found deliberately by doing an online search. Some of the search terms I used on Google were:

• "[name of state] State Archives" blog
• "[name of state] State Digital Archives" blog
• "[name of state] State Library" blog
• "[name of state] State Historical Society" blog
• "[name of state] State Genealogical Society" blog
• "[name of state] State Museum" blog

How will these blogs be beneficial in your genealogical research? They will:

• enhance your learning of the history of the state, its resources, and its historical figures, and thus how your ancestor was impacted and affected by such events and individuals
• give you understanding of the policies and procedures of obtaining genealogical and historical resources
• help you discover new and updated resources, including databases, photographs, maps, newspapers, directories, yearbooks, biographies, art and artifacts
• caution you about facility closures, record access restrictions, and possible negative impacts upon genealogical research in order for you to make a call to action

If you are reading this from a non-U.S. country--or have traced your American ancestors "across the pond"--don't hesitate to discover provincial, regional, and municipal archives, library, and society blogs in those nations as well. Use Google Translate to assist you in any language challenges.

Finally, for my fellow Americans, don't forget the Library of Congress blogs (yes, there are more than one!) and the National Archives (NARAtions) blog. Happy reading, happy learning, happy hunting!

Tuesday's Tip: Delpher

I am a huge fan of digitized online books. Google Books, the Internet Archive, Project Gutenberg, Hathi Trust Digital Library, Making of American (Cornell University and University of Michigan), FamilySearch Books, and HeritageQuest (available through participating libraries) are all resources I use quite regularly in my genealogical research. Imagine my surprise when I discovered yet another digitized online library, highlighting the digitized books, newspapers, magazines, and radio bulletins of the Netherlands! This is Delpher, a source for all researchers using historical sources. The English translation of the purpose of the website lists that it is for scientists and journalists who want to expand their research a step further, for genealogists who search for undiscovered pieces of family history, and for students working on their theses.

The first thing I see when I go to Delpher is this page:

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Because I have Google Translate in my Chrome Toolbar, it soon becomes this:

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If you don't have Chrome, you can go to Google Translate and enter the URL for this site, http://www.delpher.nl. It will bring up this page, translated into English from Dutch.

The first thing I wanted to check out was their books, which I accessed via the Book/Boeken icon under the header. There is also a tab at the top of the page. There is the Basic Books Collection and the Google Books Collection. The Basic Books Collection is a "combined offering of books from the special collections of the university libraries of Leiden and Amsterdam and the Royal Library. You will find over two million pages from more than 11,000 old prints from the Dutch-speaking region from the period 1781-1800. It consists primarily of historical, political, theological and literary works." This collection is held on the website.

The Google Books Collection is held on the Google Books site, but can be searched and accessed from Delpher. It consists of 80,000 of the first 160,000 copyright-free books from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries digitized from the Royal Library. There "is a wealth of information at your disposal. The subjects of the books are very diverse; both fiction and non-fiction has been included in the offer."

Keep in mind that most of these books are in Dutch (and other non-English languages). However, as a genealogist, this site is useful in searching names and locations for genealogical and historical purposes. Once a search result is found in the book, you can choose the Text/Tekst tab on the right side of the display. This text can then be copied and pasted into Google Translate. I plan on learning the history of many of my Dutch ancestral locations this way.

The digitized newspaper collection ranges from 1618 to 1995. The English translation of the description of this collection states: "Dig into the past with old newspapers from the Dutch East Indies, Suriname, the Netherlands Antilles and the United States. [Historical news] in more than nine million pages of newspapers from the 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th centuries - including ones from the Second World War. View thousands of newspaper articles, news, advertisements, and family announcements."

I found the Text/Tekst feature unhelpful in the newspaper collection. However, I could easily pull up Notepad and transcribe the article and translate it with Google Translate. What I did find helpful were lists of births, marriages, and deaths when I searched on Ferwerderadeel, an ancestral municipality. This definitely will be an area where I'll be searching for my ancestor's names, especially for emigration lists. Clicking on the Details tab gives me the source information (newspaper name, publication place and date, and page number) for citation information.

Next, don't think the magazine collection won't be useful for genealogy. The description states: "Search full text of 1.5 million pages from 80 old journal titles that have appeared in the second half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century. You'll find a lot of (new) information in general, cultural, literary, religious, scientific, political, sporting and economic journals that are available. There are magazines for the general public, such as the Dutch Revue and Our Own Magazine, and there are journals, including the Journal Marine and Lawyers Journal." This collection is also a great way to learn about the cultural aspects of the Netherlands.

Finally, under More, you will find radio bulletins: "View 1.5 million digitized typescripts from the 20th century (period 1937-1984). The ANP Radio Bulletins [collection] provides news every day, as it was read on the radio. Along with the digitized newspapers and magazines this collection provides an interesting picture of the new consumption then."

I encourage you to check out Delpher, even if you don't have Dutch heritage. I did find a number of other European books in their collection. It's definitely a website worth adding to your digital library!