Ottawa Branch Library Ready

Thanks to the efforts of a number of volunteers over the past two weeks, the Ottawa Branch library has been converted to the Dewey Decimal system and is again accessible to the public in the Reference Room of the new City of Ottawa Central Archives.

The library, as do those of the other partners (British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa, Sir Guy Carleton Branch of the United Empire Loyalists' Association of Canada and the United Church of Canada Archives, Montreal/Ottawa Conference Ottawa Presbytery) contain resources for much more than the local area. Check out our catalogue at libcat and see for yourself if we have something that will help your research.

For those unfamiliar with the Dewey Decimal system, you can read up on it at Dewey. We use a variation for the Cutter Number, following the examples of BIFHSGO and the SGCUEL libraries. The Cutter Number will usually be the first three letters of the authors name, followed by another code when it's necessary to differentiate between multiple publications, i.e. volume, index, supplementary edition (supp) or date (i.e. 1891 for 1891 census transcription)

Since we are a genealogy library, not everything of a genealogical nature needs to be catalogued under 929. It may be more convenient for the user when an alternative number is used:

·       Inventory of resources are found under 016

·       Atlases, maps and gazetteers: 912

·       Biographies usee B, then first three letters of surname

·       Genealogical Conferences: 929.06 + acronym of society name,

·       Genealogy in general use: 929.1

·       How to research:  929.1072

·       Family history use 929.2  + first three letters of family name

·       How to use genealogical sources i.e County Record Offices: 929.3 + location code

·        Cemetery transcriptions use a unique system to ensure that they are sorted by county and township: 929.5 + Country Code + Province Code,  first three letters of township and then first three letters of cemetery name. i.e.  Springhill Cemetery in Osgoode Township would be 929.571383 OSG SPR

·       History of various locations use 9 + location code (i.e 971.384 for Ottawa, 942 for England)

Our collection starts with a small Biography and Fiction collection (yes we have a few novels of genealogical interest). The next shelf starts with 001 and continues on to the end at 999. Following that we have our collection of newsletters, pedigree charts tapes, and scrapbooks that have not been included in the new numbering system. Our large collection of Belden atlases, our microfilm and City Directories are housed on the oversize shelves of the City collection, near the microfilm room.

The City of Ottawa Archives is open to the public from 9am to 4pm Tuesday to Friday and 10am to 5pm on Saturdays between the Labour Day and Victoria Day weekends. Volunteers from the genealogical groups are available during all opening hours to assist you with your research. Drop by and check us out soon.