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A Look into a Family History Center
Since September 1998, I have been volunteering at the Family History Center. I have enjoyed it immensely, and hope to continue it for many years to come. When a person comes into the Family History Center (FHC) for the first time we get the administrative stuff out of the way. We give them a parking pass as that is required during the day at our center and then we explain about signing in our book at the front desk. I like to chat with them for a minute to see at what level their research may be. We do have quite a few people who come in on a regular basis, and they don't seem to need much assistance, so most of our attention is concentrated on the newcomers to the center. Next we go on a general tour of our center. We have a fiche room, film
room, reception area, book room and computer room. At this time I
explain our procedure for requesting/reserving a computer and the fees
and policies for using the film/fiche copiers and photocopier. The next
thing that I introduce them to, which is very important, are the gray
binders found on the top of the cabinets. These gray binders list all of
the information that we have at our center. After a patron has made use
of what we have in our center, they can then move on to the catalog to
see what is available to request from the Family History Library in Salt
Lake City, Utah. As well as helping patrons, volunteers such as myself do much behind the scenes, including going through the fiche drawers to find fiche that have been placed back in the wrong order and taking turns with the duties at the front desk. It takes many people to make an individual center run smoothly. We have people that organize the staffing of all shifts, someone to order the films etc, and to pull them and return them when they are due, a computer staff to keep our computers in shape and more. There are volunteers that also run staff training meetings, so we can keep up with the new collections and information being added, as well as reviewing things we may use all the time.
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