In these times of COVID-19 we have not been able to run our popular Falling from the Tree face to face tutorials. These tutorials explore major topic areas in family history and how to best use our onsite resources at the State Library.
For those of you suffering withdrawal from the tactile in-house experience let me remind you that we are still open to the public, and you can still access and use a majority of:
- resources online
- a number of physical resources
- microforms and archival materials.
Some resources such as current South Australian newspapers and the high use print tools are restricted to staff supervision and handling, and alerting and guiding you to alternative online versions.
Our Birth Death and Marriage records are better accessed on our networked PC’s which are still bookable up to 2 hours per day. There are a number of online alternatives to the print versions of our popular passenger lists, however, you still can access the physical copies by asking staff at the Information Desk.
Speaking of staff, all services supporting family history are currently handled through the Information Desk. We hope to reinstate the Family History Desk at some stage. And in time, run our family history program again along with other public programs such as Genealogy Gems.
If you haven’t already explored your options a great starting point is looking at our family history section on our website which highlights the most popular resources. Our information rich Library Guides provide an overview and scope of the individual foundation topics of family history, and follow a consistent structure alerting you to the various formats that you will find in our collection. We can help you navigate and make the most of our system and suggest other options on your genealogical journey.
Article written by Kris Svendsen, Onsite Services Librarian.