If you’ve been doing genealogical research for a while, you’ve probably used the library one or more times. In the past, you may have visited the library to borrow village books, but today you probably visit it instead to access databases and other digital content.
In the past, many people visited the library to look at church books via microfilm. Today, very few people use the old microfilm machines for this purpose. Instead, people now visit the Digital Archive to take a look at the church books online.
The advantages of the online edition are many; you almost always have access, you can look in church books from all over the country and, not least, the quality is better. As you know, the censuses have also been digitized and few if any people today use the old yellow-, orange-, blue- and white-colored censuses in printed editions.
So why go to the library at all? Well, many libraries have their own local collections where you can find more than the aforementioned.
Mortgage records, probate records, village books and genealogy books, to name but a few. In addition, they probably have the history of a number of businesses from the local community in their collections for those who want to know more about the life of a special relative.
Libraries also offer interlibrary loans. If you live in Vest-Agder and would like to take a closer look at Slektsbok for Sørfold, ask if your local library has it in its collections. You can then request it as an interlibrary loan and a library will borrow it, free of charge for you, from Nordland.
The Digital Library
Chances are that you have used the National Library’s Online Library. With the Online Library, you can sit at home and look up a large part of the National Library collection. However, there are some items that are not digitally accessible from home.
Previously, you had to visit the reading room at the National Library or have the book sent to your local public library. Now, however, you can request access at your local public library. Speak to a library staff member and they should be able to give you extended access to the National Library’s Online Library.
Norgeslån and Library Search
In fact, you can sit at home and borrow books from all over the country through a recently launched service called Norgeslån. For example, if you’ve seen a village book in Slekt1’s overview that you’d like to have, you can borrow it through Library search to find the book and borrow it yourself for pickup at your local library.
Library search is fairly new and has replaced the old Sam Search.
Should you find a family book or similar you want, Library Search will automatically find the nearest library that has this book, or alternatively the library that, according to the library transport routes, will get the book fastest to your local library for collection.
Systematization
Village books and genealogy books are considered to be specialist books. This means that at your library they are organized according to a special numbering system, probably the Dewey system. The system was developed by the American librarian Melvil Dewey.
The numbers are replacements for topics so that fewer characters are needed on each book and the arrangement of the books is much easier to implement. For example. you write 929.2 on the back of a book about a family history.
Some Dewey numbers you might want to know about:
270 = Church history
336 = Land registers, cadastres
914 = Address books
920 = Biographies
929.1 = Genealogy – Norway
929.2 = Family history
929.6 = Heraldry
948.2-4 = Local history
