Monday, November 29, 2010

Los Angeles Family History Library Opens

LAFHL open house
Photo by Richard Radstone, LDS Church News

When it closed for remodeling, it was the Los Angeles Regional Family History Center. November 6th it reopened as the Los Angeles Family History Library. The facility occupies the basement underneath the visitor center behind the Los Angeles Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The remodel follows the pattern set by the Riverton FamilySearch Library. The library now has 78 computers, access to premium websites, two training classrooms, and a large microfilm collection.

The remodeled LAFHL adds computers, video conference training roomsEach classroom as 24 computers and video conferencing equipment that can either receive or originate real time training lectures, sharing expertise with the Salt Lake City Family History Library, the Riverton FamilySearch Library, and other facilities via video conferencing.

The library’s extensive microfilm and microfiche collections, numbering 56,000 and 40,000 respectively, give it one of the largest permanent collections of any branch of the Salt Lake Family History Library. The library has 18 film readers, three scanners, and a couple of printers.

The library’s website catalogs its current microfilm holdings and gives instructions for ordering additional films by mail. FamilySearch is expanding the Salt Lake FHL Catalog to include holdings of the Los Angeles library. (See example.)

Among the premium websites available free of charge at the library are:

Large numbers of the library’s 30,000 printed volumes have been digitized, cutting the physical collection to 6,000. The library also has maps, reference and rare books, and area-specific collections. The facility includes patron lockers and a snack area. The library is open from 9 am to 5 pm, Monday through Saturday. The library has extended hours Tuesday to Thursday, closing at 9 pm. The library is closed Sundays.

For more information, check these sources:

3 comments:

  1. I don't find the ability to order microfilm by e-mail. I only see the ability to print out the form and mail it in with a check.

    ~Sharon

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oops. My bad. I've corrected the article to reflect that.

    -- The Insider

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  3. Interesting, all the microfilm on-site and readers and scanners.

    I am reading here and there that some Family History Centers are getting rid of their microfilm, readers, and ceasing to support ordering it, telling patrons that it's all on the internet.

    This is appallingly far from the truth. Aside from the vast microfilm and fiche holdings of the Salt Lake City FHL, which will take decades to digitize and index, there are ongoing microfilming efforts taking place because of the uncertainties about actual life of digital media.

    One patron who posted recently on a Rootsweb mailing list said she was told that there is an official directive telling FHCenters to do this.

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