The St. Louis County Library headquarters
I was so pleased to see when I checked yesterday that the history and genealogy room of the St. Louis County Library is now open to the public without an appointment. The library had been closed during the pandemic and then open by appointment only, but somehow committing to a time slot was too big a hurdle for me.
Now I can walk in as usual and use the library. I am so excited. I have been keeping a list in Evernote of documents that I found on Family Search that can only be found at the Family History Library or one of its affiliates. And I have a couple of other Missouri-related facts I’m hoping to uncover that the library might be able to help me with.
Online research is wonderful and I’m so grateful that I’ve been able to do so much from home during and since the pandemic. But I’m itching to get out from behind my desk to do some research. Two years ago at this time, I was about to leave for my Kentucky research trip and I remember well the planning and anticipation as well as the great time I had on the trip.
Going to the library isn’t as exciting as a research trip to my ancestors’ towns, but I am eager to go to the St. Louis County library this afternoon. If you live elsewhere, you might check to see if your local library is now open for you to come and research!
If you’re curious about how I’ll process the documents I find at the library today, check out How I Do It: A Professional Organizer’s Genealogy Workflow, a 37-page downloadable pdf published last month and available for $19.99.
Glad your library is open again! I’m sure everyone in your area feels the same way.
The library where I work has been fully open to the public, with Covid protocols, since mid-September 2020…it’s been tough at times, but we are lucky to live in an area with relatively few cases.
That’s so nice, Teresa. Here in St. Louis we have a city library system and a county system. (I have cards for both.) The city tried opening at least a couple of times and had to close again as COVID numbers rose. The county stayed closed. So glad they’re open again! I can imagine that it was scary to be working with the public pre-vaccine.Thank you!