If you were unable to attend our program, Uncovering Your Family History With Ancestry® Library Edition, you may find our handout useful. It is a Word document and is located here.

Like most of the Internet, our exlusive web resources are not static. Case in point: Gale Virtual Reference Library (GVRL for short).  This is our online collection of reference books which you can access – as ebooks – any day or hour of the week with your Library card. We are continually purchasing new titles to keep this current.

Some are new editions. These include:

• Alternative Energy, 2^nd Edition
• Bowling, Beatniks, and Bell-Bottoms: Pop Culture of 20^th Century America, 2^nd Edition
• The College Blue Book, 39^th Edition
• The Gale Encyclopedia of Mental Health, 3^rd Edition
• Growing Old in America, 2012 edition
• Sports in America: Recreation, Business, Education and Controversy, 2012 Edition

We also have titles that are completely new to the collection which you might enjoy browsing:

• The Complete Classical Music Guide
• The Rough Guide to Classical Music
• Grzimik’s Animal Life Encyclopedia: Evolution
• Endangered Species: Protecting Biodiversity
• Space Exploration: Triumphs and Tragedies
• Death and Dying: End-of-Life Controversies
• U*X*L Encyclopedia of Native American Tribes
• Minorities: Race and Ethnicity in America
• AIDS/HIV

There are plenty more, and you can access a complete list of titles at the front page of GVRL.

Anne Shaughnessy and Steve Browne, both Reference Librarians, will be reviving their popular presentation, Uncovering Your Family History With Ancestry® Library Edition, on January 16 at 7 PM. The class is full but we will be uploading a print version of our presentation to the Library’s website.

Ancestry Library Edition is the product of a partnership between Ancestry.com and ProQuest.  This product is available only through libraries.  ALE offers extensive coverage of genealogical records from the United States and the United Kingdom.  Among these are census, birth, marriage, death, church, court, military and immigration records.  Some records are also available from Canada, France, Germany and other European countries.  Most of these resources are in English but a few others are in German or French.  Many of the databases are just indexes of large collections of records but several others include images of the actual documents.  In addition to traditional genealogical records, ALE offers photographs and maps.  Ancestry Library Edition has understandably become one of the most popular and useful online genealogical resources available.  Although it does not have all the records available in its private-subscription counterpart Ancestry.com, it is one of the most complete genealogical resources available for free in libraries.