Essential Resources and Other Sources: Social Science and History

The Social Science and History Department at the State Library Resource Center covers subject areas including: law, history, travel and maps, genealogy, sociology, politics, archaeology, politics, and education.

Essential Resources

For customers asking for definitions of legal terms, Black’s Law Dictionary is your standard source. It also contains a useful table of legal abbreviations.

The Complete Dictionary of Symbols gives you a one-volume source that explores the meanings behind many of our most familiar symbols.

Current Biography Yearbook is great for biographical articles on living leaders across the globe.

A customer planning a birthday celebration for her grandmother needs a source that will tell her events and popular books, plays, and songs for the year 1945. The Encyclopedia of American Facts and Dates will assist you in finding the answers.

If you’re trying to find information about any U.S. President, Facts about the Presidents: From George Washington to George W. Bush is, by far, the most comprehensive source.

Guide Book of United States Coins (or U.S. coin red book, as most of us think of it) is perfect for any questions your customers may have about U.S. coins.

Guinness World Records is fun to read as well as a useful reference tool. It provides thousands of records covering such fields as entertainment, geography, science, and sports.

The Official Congressional Directory is the place to go for any questions about a U.S. Representative, Senator, or Congress, in general.

Peterson’s Guide to Four-Year Colleges will give you recent information on financial aid, majors, student life, tuition, and athletics.

If you have ever wondered where to look for census, church, court, land, or military records, The Source: a Guidebook to American Genealogy is the perfect starting point.

Other Sources

Almanac of American Politics provides analysis of U.S. senators, representatives, and governors along with a look at their voting records and the districts they represent.

Europa World Year Book is great for customers looking for more detail on recent developments in economics, education, defense, and politics for specific countries.

Ever have someone ask you about the meaning of their last name? The Dictionary of American Family Names will tell you both the derivation of an American family name and the meaning.

The newly-revised Dictionary of American History provides users with an excellent resource on any question dealing with American history.

For students looking for details on daily life during a specific time, The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Daily Life: A Tour through History from Ancient Times to the Present is the perfect starting point for research.

The Handbook of Private Schools is the standard educational resource for information on private schools in the United States and Canada.

The Statesman’s Year-book is an excellent source for information on government, defense, economy, trade, communications, social institutions, and natural resources for every country in the world.

The United States Government Manual furnishes information on the various agencies of the executive, judicial, and legislative branches of government.

U.S. Laws, Acts, and Treaties is a great help for library customers seeking background information on a specific law or act such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 or the Family and Medical Leave Act.

West’s Encyclopedia of American Law explains legal issues and topics in a manner comprehensible to readers who are not attorneys. This is particularly useful for people looking for information on subjects such as civil liberties or habeas corpus.

Essential Resources and Other Sources

For the next eight weeks, Tuesdays will feature resource lists covering different subject areas.  Each resource list will start with the Essential Resources, ten books that can serve as go-to references for each subject area.  These essential resources should be found in most libraries or available in the region.

The second part of the list will include a second tier of books, called Other Sources.  These Other Sources will be some of the not-as-obvious sources that can help answer some of the more difficult and unusual questions in each subject area.

If your library doesn't have the sources we've listed, please feel free to give the State Library Resource Center a call (410-396-5430) with your reference questions.

Top 10 Tips for Putting Together Excellent Children's Programs

1. Keep in mind that the main goal of library program is to build positive connections with the library, with books, and with you – the librarian. You are not a teacher and your job is not to prepare lessons. Your job is to give your audience such a wonderful literacy-based experience that they will want to come back to the library over and over, that they will want to read books, and that they will feel comfortable speaking with their librarian.
   
   
2. Plan for your program to last 30 minutes as that is a typical length of a children's program. Know what age group you will be working with and plan accordingly.
   
   
3. Always welcome people warmly as they enter into the programming room.
   
   
4. Always introduce yourself.
   
   
5. Start every program with a song, rhyme, or fingerplay.
   
   
6. It is good practice to always start with the same song, rhyme, or fingerplay and end with the same song, rhyme or fingerplay. This helps define the space of the program and gives the children a sense of recognition and consistency.
   
   
7. Read the longest book first.
   
   
8. Plan some standing up activities in the middle of the program so the children have time to get some exercise. They will then be able to sit for the rest of the program.
   
   
9. Only use books that you like. If you plan your programs based on themes but the books on that theme are not ones you particularly like, use books that you know are great instead and don't worry about the theme for that program.
   
   
10. Don't rush away when the program is over! Take time to speak informally with parents and children.

How do you help someone with a law question without giving legal advice?

How does a librarian working at a typical branch library develop confidence and expertise in handling law questions? Here are a few helpful hints:

Use the Model Reference Behaviors. Take some time and use your reference interview skills to make sure you understand what your customer is trying to find.

Be familiar with your legal resources, print, electronic, and web. Most libraries will have Black’s Law Dictionary, the standard dictionary of legal terminology. If your library doesn’t have Black’s, check your catalog. You might have another law dictionary that you can use for basic legal definitions. Another useful source for general legal information is a law encyclopedia such as West’s Encyclopedia of American Law. Some libraries have access to an online legal encyclopedia such as Gale’s Encyclopedia of Everyday Law.

Since it provides subject access to the laws of the State of Maryland, Michie’s Annotated Code of Maryland is in constant use in many public libraries. U.S. Government Depository libraries may have the U.S. Code, which provides subject access to the laws of the United States.

There are many legal resources available on the Web. The State Library Resource Center’s Getting Started in Legal Research guide serves as a useful introduction to some of the most useful websites. If you’re interested in learning how to use the Web version of the U.S. Code, look at our Using the U.S. Code Online tutorial.

Keep a current list of appropriate agencies for legal referrals. For example, you’ll want contact information for legal aid and local and state bar associations. It’s also useful to know which law libraries are available to the public in your area. These might be law schools or court law libraries.

Know what types of legal questions you can answer as opposed to those that require the services of an attorney. Here are examples of some legal questions that we can potentially answer:

• Definitions of legal terms and expressions
• How to use our legal resources
• Find copies of specific U.S., state, or local laws
• Locate a case decided by the U.S. Supreme Court
• Basic information on attorneys
• Legal forms (including where to find Maryland Circuit and District Court official forms)

Now that we know what we can do, what kinds of legal questions should we refer to other agencies or an attorney? Here are some examples:

• A customer wants help writing his last will and testament.
• A patron is having difficulty understanding a particular law and wants you to help her interpret it.
• An individual is having difficulties with her next-door neighbor and wants to know what legal remedies are available.

In general, as public librarians, we can help people use legal resources and assist in finding specific laws and cases but we should always avoid providing legal advice or interpretation. When in doubt, consult with your supervisor or refer to your system’s reference service policy on legal questions.

Welcome!

Welcome to the Maryland Library Association Training Institute (LATI) Blog!

The librarians at the Maryland State Library Resource Center (SLRC) will be answering a wide variety of questions, covering suggestions on how to answer reference questions, reader's advisory, and tips for programming. We'll have a new question and answer each week for the duration of LATI.

If you have a question you'd like the SLRC experts to tackle, please send an email to the blog editor, Rebecca Immich Sullivan at rimmich@prattlibrary.org.