Description: "Here is everything you need to promote your library as a center for genealogical study by leveraging your collection to help patrons conduct research on ancestors, document family stories, and archive family heirlooms. Discusses the reference environment and offers tips for strategic planning for local studies. Includes hints of how to assess, organize, discard, or donate family heirlooms. Offers suggestions for caring for family history archives, including physical enclosures, digital copies, and the importance of data backups. Features templates for partnership agreements with other organizations"--
Review Quotes:
"Readers will appreciate the plethora of programming ideas presented throughout the work as well as the tips for creating a guide of other local organizations supporting family history research. . . . Anyone who wishes to develop or expand a family history program will turn to this resource again and again." --Library Journal, Starred Review
"Offers practical advice, with bibliographical notes, on how to establish a family history service within the framework of existing programming and outreach." --American Libraries "When libraries face budget concerns and changes in technology and consumerism, embracing family history offers a significant opportunity. Some hesitate, uncertain of how to help researchers in an unfamiliar field. Fostering Family History Services aims to help these professionals and volunteers. . . . Fostering Family History Services is a welcome addition to a subject that receives little notice in library science education. It shows libraries paying more attention to the value of local history and genealogy collections." --National Genealogical Society Quarterly "Fostering Family History Services lays important groundwork for helping information providers understand how best to serve the needs of their patrons. . . . Chapters are meticulously documented with citations from the professional literature, and include lists of other print and electronic resources for further reference. The book also includes program ideas that librarians and archivists may utilize to enhance the services they provide. While Fostering Family History Services is intended for information service providers, it is suited to anyone seeking to understand how librarians, archivists, and volunteers serve the needs of local history researchers." --History News