Library Enables Online Library Card Registration; In-Library Ancestry Made Accessible at Home
Library Offers Online Signup for a Library Card During COVID-19;
In-Library Ancestry Research Also Now Available for Use at Home
Springfield and Greene County residents who can’t access the online e-books, movies, and more through the public library while branches are closed may now apply for a temporary library card online so they have options for reading, research or entertaining children.
In a related move during the coronavirus pandemic, Springfield-Greene County Library card holders can get access, from anywhere, to Ancestry Library Edition, the popular online genealogy research tool, through May 31.
The Springfield-Greene County Library District is making online registration for a temporary card available through these three online links.
https://thelibrary.org/research/
https://thelibrary.org/blogs/article.cfm?aid=5972 (at the bottom)
When someone fills out the online registration form, they will see their new card number and should make note of it since they will not have received an actual card.
Patrons with expired library cards can use the Update My Account form at https://thelibrary.org/update_account.cfm.
Need troubleshooting? Contact Ask a Librarian or https://thelibrary.org/contact.cfm. Staff is monitoring the help site while the Library is closed.
The Library invites everyone who takes advantage of this temporary card offer to come into the Library when it reopens and make this card permanent.
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Here’s good news for genealogy researchers during the coronavirus pandemic and widespread library closures.
Springfield-Greene County Library card holders have extended access, from anywhere, to Ancestry Library Edition, the popular online genealogy research tool, through May 31.
According to a company statement, "As approved by Ancestry.com, ProQuest will provide public libraries with temporary remote access to Ancestry Library Edition through May 31, 2020. Ancestry will continue to evaluate the need monthly and will adjust the access dates accordingly."
Normally, card holders can access the library edition of the research site only while in the library branches.
Patrons using their library cards may access Ancestry from thelibrary.org/genealogy.
Interest in genealogical research has soared worldwide in recent years, fueled by popular television shows and an expansion of online tools. Personal Ancestry.com subscriptions range from $189 per year for the U.S. record membership to $299 per year for the combined U.S./International membership.
The ancestry research site begins, “Start searching billions of records and discover your family’s story,” and local researchers have. Ancestry Library Edition is one of the Library’s top five most-used databases, said Renee Brumett, electronic resources librarian. “Last fiscal year saw almost 40,000 searches and over 50,000 documents viewed. And considering it’s internal library use only, that’s huge. Newspapers.com, Value Line and Reference USA are the only ones with higher usage.”
Among the billions of records available, Ancestry.com includes census records and indexes, vital, church, military, public member trees; birth, marriage and death records; tax, criminal, land and wills stories, memories and histories, pictures, city directories, immigration and travel schools, maps and more.
For more information, contact Ask a Librarian, or https://thelibrary.org/contact.cfm. Staff continues to monitor the help site during the Library closure.
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