Recruit a Librarian to Help You Research

Recruit a Librarian to Help You Research 

Some novels require a great deal of research (looking at you, historical fiction!), but the truth is, every novel needs a little fact-checking. In some cases, you’ll be hiring a researcher, but in most cases, you are your own professional researcher. And to a researcher, the most valuable partner is an expert in Library and Information Science, a.k.a., your local librarian. 

While your librarian won’t do all your research for you as you lounge by a pool, she’ll connect you with services and people and books that you didn’t know you needed to know. Librarians are, after all, the original search engine. 

The answers to your questions may be found on the traditional path – a book to read. You already know to head to the library for that. Maybe you even know what book you need. And maybe you’ve already searched your library’s card catalog online, at home in your jammies, and cursed your unlucky stars because the book you know you need is neither at your local library nor any of the branches in your library’s system. Uncurse your stars and head straight to your library without passing go. It’s time for ILL, otherwise known as Inter-Library Loan. Most public and college libraries participate in this magical program (at no cost to you!) Your library will search for other libraries with your desired book in their collection and persuade one of them to mail the book to your library for you to borrow.  

What if no library agrees to send the item you need? In some cases, a library may offer to photocopy the relevant pages of information for you. In other cases, you might choose to plan your travels around viewing materials personally. I really can’t think of a better vacation plan, can you? If you are viewing a very rare and valuable item, you may be asked to wash your hands or even wear provided gloves before reading. You probably won’t be allowed to use an ink pen anywhere near it and may be awarded supervised visitation only. This will be one of your favorite vacations of all time.  

Not everyone has a relevant need to view a crumbling, antique manuscript at a destination library. Are you jealous because you want to plan a library vacation, too? Don’t despair, just travel to the town of your book’s setting. What sort of goodies will you uncover in the local library? First, find the closest coffee shop so you can refuel – you are going to be there all day. Bring your notebook, pen, phone camera, and a little cash. Many libraries still don’t take credit cards, so be prepared to pay a small cash fee for photocopies and printing. Get ready to discover non-circulating treasures such as high school yearbooks, old maps, records of historical businesses, land use records, local newspaper archives, and digitized oral histories.  

If travelling was not part of your plan, no worries: the answers to your questions may be found online. While libraries are treasure troves of physical books, they are also access points for online research resources. Many libraries provide these resources through Gale. If you’ve heard that Wikipedia is not an appropriate research source and were mystified as to where to locate appropriate sources, look no further; the answer is Gale!  Your research playground is unlocked with your library card, and now you can read newspapers from the period of your story setting,  inspect the finer points of criminal justice as applies to your murder mystery with academic journal articles, or explore magazine articles with zucchini recipes for your protagonist with the generous neighbor. You don’t even need to travel to the physical library to start using this resource: any New York State resident can apply for a library card online.  https://buffalolib.org/ 

Now that you are friends with your librarian and armed with research tools, you can use those resources for much more than book research: go learn about your medical conditions, your legal questions, and research your family tree!  

And once you’ve gathered all your information, the library is the perfect, peaceful place to set up your laptop and bang out your daily word count. Please vote for representatives who support libraries! These magical resources and services are supported through government funding.