Sunny Morton (3:12)

Yeah, absolutely. That's one of my favorite things about WorldCat is the find it close to you. And I do have an example that comes to mind. A few years ago, I was doing research for my book on US Church records, and I came across a bibliographic reference to something that sounded really good. But I'm like, oh, nobody's gonna have this, right? And if they do, it's probably in some library in Rome or at Harvard or something like that. So I went to WorldCat and I typed in the title. And once you find an entry, which I did, immediately I opened it. I scrolled down to the. Where you can look for it at a library near you. Because you can just put in, like I put in my city where I am, so it knows where I am. And then I said, you know, look, sort this the holdings by the library nearest me. Lisa. There was a theological seminary three miles from my house that listed a copy of this. I'm like, what? What? I've. Okay, I've driven past that place and I've wondered about it, but I had no idea they had a library. And so I. I actually showed up. I just. I figured out their hours, and I showed up at their desk. It's a private library for a private seminary. But they were kind enough to listen to my requests and let me go down and pull that book off the shelf and sit there and read it. So really, when you talk about a library near you. Yeah. That's the kind of result that you might come across.

Lisa Louise Cooke (4:39)

Yeah, just those. A few minutes at WorldCat could save you so much time, so much headache. And I love how it gives you that list. You'll say, well, this one's 2 miles, this one's 10 miles, this one's 3,000 miles. But at least, you know, so it's really about doing your homework before you go on site, Right?

Sunny Morton (4:59)

Yeah, it really is. And it's, you know, if you're a genealogist, but you haven't worked a whole lot with WorldCat on its own. But maybe it rings a bell. It's probably because you've gone to look up something in the FamilySearch catalog, and there is now a setting in every FamilySearch catalog entry that says, okay, these are the holdings at the family history library in Salt Lake City, or here's a link to look at it digitally. But now there is another link that says, look at the WorldCat search results and it will take you right over and dump you right on the landing page for that exact resource in WorldCat. So that if you can't get to the family history library or if they just don't have copies there, you can go right to this. Find one at a library near me so you can look for the nearest facility that's got one for you from FamilySearch. So that's fun, too.

Lisa Louise Cooke (5:51)

Yes. And FamilySearch is really endorsing that. You know, don't just stop here. Spread out if we don't have what you need. And I know that partnership came together many years ago. It's great to see WorldCat partnering with so many libraries. They don't have every single one, though. Right. So even then, if we don't find something at WorldCat, it doesn't mean it doesn't exist. It just means. Within their network of partner libraries.

Sunny Morton (6:20)

That's correct. So it's. They'll. They'll look around and kind of dig through their catalog. But most of the time, I have had good luck finding things that I'm looking for, unless it's a rare original. But that would get to more the. Like a manuscript catalog. And this is specifically. While they do have some manuscript items, this is really a library catalog. So these are things that there should be more than one copy of someplace. These are materials that were meant to be. They were. They were published or produced in a way that were meant to have multiple copies.

Lisa Louise Cooke (6:49)

Yes. And not just the. The public library down the street, but I think they have corporate libraries and they have libraries like FamilySearch, so.

Sunny Morton (6:57)

Well, and then that library, like the Theological seminary, like us, who knew?

Lisa Louise Cooke (7:03)

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Sunny Morton (8:02)

Okay, I've got another example that comes to mind. Okay. This one was actually just three weeks ago or so. So I was looking for. I'd come across this reference for an index to obituaries published in a Methodist newspaper in the 1800s. And I'm like, okay, this was a 1988 index. Good luck finding this one. Right? So I knew I wasn't going to necessarily find that really easily around me. My library system had a copy, but it was, you know, in a reference area that wasn' like a local history section where I could just call somebody. So I'm like, I wasn't really confident. So I went to WorldCat and I looked it up, and I saw that one of the nearest ones available to me was at a genealogy section, the local genealogy and local history section of a public library system. I'm like, lookups. So I reached out to the library system and said, hey, I understand you have a copy of this book. Could you do some lookups for me? And I had answers within a couple of days. So that's another thing. Even if you don't need the book physically to come to you, sometimes you just need access to a person who's willing to look it up in their library. So watching your search results for reference departments for local history and genealogy libraries, any of those libraries that kind of ring a bell, and you're like, oh, oh, oh, that's one of them. That's a. That's a genealogy library. Because they're going to have a person there who wants to answer your question.

Lisa Louise Cooke (9:34)

Yes, that's a terrific idea. And you kind of touched on there that you can do interlibrary loan as well through the system. So so many helps that you can tap into in one location. I'm thinking about when you find something terrific that really meets your needs in WorldCat. That doesn't mean it's the only thing that might be out there. How do you use WorldCat to just be able to take that and expand on it?

Sunny Morton (10:00)

All right, that's a great question. And it speaks to, you know, anybody who loves libraries knows that when you go and you find something on the shelf, physically, it's going to be cataloged with other books that might be interesting to you. And so when you pull out the book, pull that book off the shelf, you're looking what's to the left of it, what's to the right of it. Will it also be interesting to me? Is it by the same author? Is it on the same topic? Right. Well, you know, we're not in a physical environment where we can do that. But one of the things that WorldCat has is a subject or a category assignment that goes with each of its holdings. So, for example, a few weeks ago, I was looking up some things to help me finalize some last touches on a RootsTech lecture I'm giving on obituaries here in a few weeks. And I was like, I wanted to read a good history of newspapers. Somebody recommended one. I looked it up in WorldCat, and I'm like, okay, that's great, but what else? And so I scrolled down in that entry. You can. There's a Show more section, and I opened the show more section, scroll down, and there's a whole subject list of different. So I found American newspapers history 19th century, American newspapers history 20th century. And I was like, oh, this is perfect. And so I clicked on that 19th century link, and it brought me to all kinds of additional topic or additional resources on that same topic. So you're right, Lisa. If you're looking for other things in the same topic or category or even by the same author, WorldCat is a really great place to go.

Lisa Louise Cooke (11:31)

Yes. And that reminds me of a way in which I love using WorldCat. I mentioned at the top of the episode that you can sign up and get a free account. So that's great. And once you do, you can start creating lists so as you're doing your research, you can track what you're searching for, some of the books that you're finding, get those collected in different subject matters.

Lisa Louise Cooke (11:56)

And.

Lisa Louise Cooke (11:56)

And then it dawned on me one day. Oh, other people are doing this, too. And WorldCat allows you to take advantage of that. Right. You can look and see what somebody else researching the same topic is putting in their list.

Sunny Morton (12:13)

That is so neat. I haven't used that aspect of it myself, but I'm so not surprised that you have as the person who knows how to use all technologies for family history uses. Like, that's a. That's. Now I'm going to have to spend the rest of my morning. So much like I didn't need something else to do. So that's. That's a. You're right. That's a great use of your personal. The account that you can have on WorldCat.

Lisa Louise Cooke (12:37)

Well, and in. In the situation that I was working in, I was working on my Burkett family, and there was a specific book. It was a compiled family history And I would say, you know, most people interested in that one obscure book might be somebody I'd be interested to see if they're looking at other things that I sure enough, they were researching many of the same surnames and locations. So if they make their list public, then you can in a way follow it almost like on social media. So you follow their list. So not only did I get to see and start checking out some of the other items they had found that I had not, but in the future, as they added items to their list, I would be able to also take advantage of that as well. And then as you know, that in the spirit of collaboration, we can also decide whether we want to make our lists public or private and maybe help somebody else, too. Any other features out there that you really feel like genealogists need to have their eyes on@worldcat.org well, I think that.

Sunny Morton (13:38)

Just being aware that it's a resource so that it comes to you top of mind and well, I wish I could find something that did this. And you know, that search bar is not just for exact titles. So there's a I researching right now a Catholic religious community near me and I just entered cloistered poor Claire's and brought up within the first couple of search responses, I have a history of this specific little tiny religious community here in Cleveland, Ohio, where I live. So you can also use it to search for stuff that you don't know exists yet.

Lisa Louise Cooke (14:18)

Yeah, and that's. That's the key, isn't it? And there are new materials coming online every day, just like there are items that are linking on the Internet. So we just want to keep abreast of it. So I agree with you. I think this is one of those websites you just bookmark it to your browser bar, right?

Sunny Morton (14:34)

Yes, absolutely. I think I probably use it every research day of my life.

Lisa Louise Cooke (14:38)

I bet. Well, again, we've been talking about WorldCat.org and as Sunny mentioned, you know, they are linked up with FamilySearch. So when you're searching there, you are really searching some of the top genealogy libraries as well as all the other ones that are out there. And there's just a lot of wonderful resources and they are all free. Sunny, tell everybody listening what you've been up to and how they can stay in touch with you.

Sunny Morton (15:06)

Well, as you know, Lisa, I've been doing a lot of research the last several years on looking at US denominational records, so religious records in the United States for the purposes of genealogy. And the past year or so, I've done a deep dive into the archives of Catholic, what they call women religious. So nuns and sisters. And their archives are phenomenal. So I've been working, I've been traveling to a lot of different religious orders, mother houses, meeting with their archivists, looking at their collections. They've been so generous with me, speaking with their archivists and writing a guide to these. So that's what I've that's the rabbit hole I've been down lately, Lisa. So thanks for asking about it. And you can find me if you're interested in that topic or any other. You can find me on Facebook or you can find me@sunnymorton.com wonderful.

Lisa Louise Cooke (15:56)

Well, it's always good to find you here at the podcast. I hope you'll come back again soon.

Sunny Morton (16:00)

I will.

Lisa Louise Cooke (16:03)

Thanks so much for joining me for the Family Tree Magazine Best Websites podcast. You can find a link over to this month's best website@familytrainmagazine.com podcast also, while you're at the website, I would encourage you to sign up for our free email newsletter. It's the perfect way to stay in touch with everything we've got going on at Family Tree Magazine, including our other podcast, the Family Tree Magazine Podcast. I'm Lisa Louise Cook, and you can find me at my website, genealogygems.com where you'll find links to my Genealogy Gems podcast and our YouTube channel. Until next time, have fun climbing your family tree.

Sunny Morton (16:47)

Sam.