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Tuesday, April 15, 2014

National Library Week

National Library Week has been observed annually since 1958. It is usually the second week in April. This year it is April 13-19, 2014. It sponsored by the American Library Association and libraries across the United States.

ProQuest is offering free access to some of its resources this week. The most useful of these for genealogists is ProQuest Obituaries. It includes obituaries from the following newspapers: Atlanta Constitution (1868-1922), Boston Globe (1872-1922), Chicago Defender (1921-1975), Chicago Tribune (1852-1984), Los Angeles Times (1881-1984), New York Times (1851-1994), and Washington Post (1877-1950). Many of my ancestors lived in Chicago, so I have made good use of this database to find family members' obituaries in the Chicago Tribune.

Another of the offerings is CultureGrams, which provides cultural information about countries of the world. It is a good source of background information on the countries our ancestors lived in.

More information and links can be found at http://go.proquest.com/national-library-week-2014/.

National Library Week is also a good time to mention the librarians in my family. I am one of them; I am a reference librarian at a college. My uncle Herb was also an academic librarian, but is now retired. My mother's first cousin's wife also has a degree in library science.

Here is a link to an interview with my uncle Herb about book banning and censorship: Celebrating Banned Books Week: Herbert N. Foerstel on Book Banning and Curriculum Censorship

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