There seems to be an observance of some sort every week throughout the year. Many of them are, to me, yawners. However, this past week has been one of those sparking observances at which every genealogist should sit up and take notice. This is National Library Week and, without all those great library personnel, we would be hard-pressed to locate many of the resources that help advance our research.

Did you know there are more than 117,000 libraries in the United States? In addition to public libraries in almost every community, there are thousands of libraries in schools, colleges and universities, hospitals, law firms, businesses, the armed forces and more! It takes a lot of people to keep a library functioning, from the library director and administration (and the government entities that fund them) to the personnel who maintain the physical facilities.

My primary business is operating a seminar company whose mission is to provide continuing education to library consortia, professional librarians, and library staff. My work has brought me in contact with many thousands of librarians and, in " Along Those Lines . . ." this week, I want to let you in on what the people you see and the people in the background in our public libraries do for us...

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