A friend has offered to take me along on her trips to the local FHC, which has prompted me to think about the question of how to make a general checklist to use while I am pulling and viewing microfilm.
Reference works called registers e.g. Register of New York City death records describe the holdings at the FHL and the process needed to use them. If a user can find a work like this in advance of a library visit, it would be possible to walk through the process in advance and create a checklist (e.g. with a spreadsheet). But supposing you don't have the register in advance, or you discover a resource while you are there? A general checklist would be useful.
How can we make a general checklist, when the individual steps for each set of film or database might be different?
Here's my preliminary list of the items that would be useful to put on a general checklist:
- The location of the repository and the date (or period) of the visit.
- The type of material or onsite database which is being used.
- The collection which is being searched.
- A list of the steps needed, in order, to pull the microfilm or to work through the entire onsite online database -- e.g. the options described above:
all of the "individual", "marriage" or "parent" search options available (was accessing the Scottish DOS system)
List all of these in the order you need to do them, if an order matters -- but even if it doesn't, make a list and number that list.
Below this header, a spreadsheet. The names of the people you want to search for and any identifiers go in rows. Across the top in columns put "step 1" "step 2" "step 3" and so on, according to the numbered list you just made.
As you go through the search process:
- If you need to make notes about each search result, put a number in each box. Then write down your observations, using that number as a cross-reference to which person it belongs to.
- If you want the checklist to be more simple, and you don't need to use it as a cross-reference, then just cross out the box as you finish that step to show where you have already been.
Would this be clear enough to give you a visual summary of where you left off?