Today on her AnceStories blog, Miriam gave me a shout-out in reference to sharing directories added to the Internet Archive (IA). Thanks Miriam for the mention. It prompted me to write this post to share the fact that I’ve been subscribing to IA feeds for several months now and I find it an easy way to keep track of new items. The IA is such a vast repository of information (they recently hit the 2 million book mark), that every family history researcher should explore it.
Let me share with you some of the feeds I follow (each header is a link to their feed)
- UNC-Chapel Hill — the University of North Carolina @ Chapel Hill has an active digitization program and have been adding all kinds of materials. I’ve blogged about the yearbooks from several different schools specifically and have been putting together resources for the NCGenWeb project based largely in part of their additions.
- Allen County Public Library — Miriam gave the link to that, but it’s worth repeating again here. By following their feed I learned of the great NARA records they’ve been adding (e.g. Eastern Cherokee Applications, Compiled Service Records, & VA Pension Applications)
- Library of Congress — you’re not as likely to find genealogy-relevant materials here, but the books they add have a high *coolness* factor. It’s just fun to browse.
- IA Genealogy Collection — can follow books w/ genealogy categories assigned
- Lyrasis — a library consortium w/ many participating libraries
- Brigham Young University– this is one of my more newly subscribed feeds
- Boston Library Consortium — additions from libraries in the Boston area
- Consortium of Academic & Research Libraries in Illinois – another consortium
And there are so many more! If you don’t subscribe, you will definitely want to pick at least a couple to follow. Who knows what you’ll stumble across?