Cemeteries - The Outdoor Musum

Before we get into the lab assignment, let me just preface it by saying that 10 minutes is not all that long. It certainly goes by quickly. I suppose that's why writing about the lab here in the blog makes sense.

As I stated in class this past Thursday, genealogy is the #1 hobby in America. Even though so much is on the internet, there is a great deal that isn't. Genealogy researchers are found everywhere - in public libraries, courthouses, land title companies, etc. One frequented place is the state library and because I volunteer there, it was the logical place to perform the lab.

I spoke with Rachael about this project and she was thrilled with my choice - cemeteries. I told her that this would not be an advisory or display about the cemetery transcription books located in the genealogy department. It would be one, hopefully, centered on their history, sculpture, research and such, hopefully with an Indiana focus. And maybe fiction as well. Since the library has had displays in the past that included Crown Hill Cemetery, I decided to leave it out. One of my goals was to include as many of the departments in the library as possible so that patrons would learn to use more of the library. And I wanted some humor. Cemeteries are sometimes considered dark, drab, and a place not to be visited. My hope was to change that view and realize that names and dates aren’t a complete picture – you need the culture, too.

So with these goals in mind, I began searching through the online catalogue. I learned quickly to be creative in my searches so as to not bring up the transcription books. It took a number of different searches – cemetery preservation, cemetery research, epitaphs, cemetery art, etc. So I paid attention to the subject headings listed with results. I even turned to Amazon.com and WorldCat.org to get some other book ideas and see if they were in the library catalogue. Why? It was just another way to attack the issue for fiction books. If I researched from home, I input the ones worth considering in a Word document. If I was at the library, I wrote them on paper. Every item that made my lists was pulled and reviewed. Yes, I looked at a lot of books, but it was worth it. There were five items that couldn't be found, which meant 1 of 2 things - either they were misfiled or stolen. Not only was that disheartening for me, but also for the librarians.

When the review was finished and I made the final cuts, I separated the items by topic and ended up with two – epitaphs and other (research and art). After a few design changes, some recommendations, revisions, reconsiderations, we came up with the final products. There is one large flier (two-sided), one smaller flier (two-sided), and one bookmark. The bookmark is basically a repeat of the large flier. The two fliers contain some images of the books. And if there were no images, I inserted a quote from the book itself. I thought that be seeing a sample of what was inside, the patrons might be tempted to read.
I have attached them in the Forums of Oncourse. I hope you enjoy them. I have enjoyed putting them together. While the end result is for the benefit of the patrons, I have learned some things myself. It’s been an enjoyable, sometimes frustrating, but fun experience. Reader’s Advisory, anyone? Just ask me about cemeteries – I have some recommendations for you.