Ancestry Magazine

Some may feel that services and resources at the Family History Library are already among the finest offered in the world. The fact is that service delivery at the library has not changed dramatically in more than a century. We are endeavoring to create a new library that embraces the latest technology and enables researchers to experience greater success in discovering their family histories. The goal is to provide this success whether they are at the library or at their home accessing the records via the Internet.

Under the direction of a new Family History Library development team led by Stephen Young, the manager of patron services in the library, we have created a plan that will guide our efforts to provide better support to more genealogists, regardless of whether they are visiting the library in person or via the Internet.

The first step in the plan was to consult with current library patrons to understand their research needs. We wanted to learn how successful we were in assisting them in their research objectives. We also visited with library volunteers and staff to discover how they viewed service levels in the library and to provide them with a chance to suggest improvements to the library’s service delivery.

That effort began a year ago and has already changed the library. We have established a new reference unit, the FamilySearch Unit, on the main floor. Here, staff members and volunteers are dedicated to identifying new library users and providing one-on-one guidance to ensure their success in finding ancestors.

A new version of the Patron Desktop was also unveiled and has proven to be an effective gateway to the resources of the library.

Evening and Saturday classes are now the norm. Our research series classes are now a regular part of the training program at the library. These Friday and Saturday workshops, focusing on research opportunities in specific countries and regions around the world, provide library visitors with mini genealogical seminars several times a year.

We recently initiated a test of a new means of service delivery on the main floor of the library. We are attempting to identify new library users and provide them with personal support from the moment they arrive. New patrons are asked about the goals of their v isit and are then guided to the resources they need. A volunteer then follows up to ensure that patrons are finding success in achieving their goals.

In coming months, visitors to the library will notice other changes. More classes will be available on the Patron Desktop and eventually via the Internet, as will a knowledge database that contains answers to common questions and many valuable research aids.

In the British Isles Reference Unit, several projects are paving the way for similar efforts in the rest of the reference units. The English Jurisdictions Database will be made available to library users, allowing them to enter the name of the locality in which ancestors lived and to learn all of the jurisdictions that created records about the people living in that community. The British Periodical Database is being updated and will soon become available. A British version of the Periodical Source Index ( PERSI ) will permit library patrons to discover articles published about their families or the localities in which they lived that have appeared in British genealogical or local history periodicals.

In addition to improving existing tools, the Family and Church History Department is continuously developing databases and software that will dramatically simplify the process of finding ancestors. The new tools are designed to deliver family history resources to any home with Internet access and will be announced to the public only after exhaustive testing has proven their reliability. Descendancy research will also be promoted. Many researchers have traced direct lines as far back as records permit. Now they can identify additional ancestors by working from known ancestors in the past to the present. In each generation, researchers identify the descendants of the siblings of their d irect ancestors. These cousins have long been neglected and will now find their rightful place in family histories.

It is our hope that the efforts described here will help the Family History Library truly become a library for tomorrow—a library that is useful to visiting patrons as well as virtual patrons visiting from anywhere in the world from their home computers.

Raymond S. Wright III, Ph.D., AG, FUGA, has been director of the Family History Library since September 2003. He is formerly a professor of family history at Brigham Young University, and is also a prolific writer and researcher in the genealogy field.