What are these for?

The Family History Library has 2.4 million rolls of microfilm, 3 quarters of a million microfiche, a couple hundred thousand books and a bunch of other cool stuff.  Then why is it that the majority of the people here are sitting in front of computers looking at Ancestry.com and other online databases?

I want to *scream* at these people.  What an absolute waste of time and resources.  Every decent public library in the country has Ancestry.com and HeritageQueset Online.  Don’t get me wrong, those are great tools, when you are NOT sitting next to 2 and a half MILLION rolls of 16mm and 35mm microfilms.

On the bright side, there is barely a wait for the microfilm scanners.  Most people are still doing photocopies and printouts.  Pfft.

Actually, if you live in Colorado, Ancestry.com is free.  Most public libraries and Family History Centers all over the country (world?) have a subscription you can use while at their facilities.  However, the Boulder Public Library lets you use it from home!  You need a library card, which is free to anyone with a Colorado address.

Since it’s a library subscription, you miss out on some features (saving documents in your shoebox … linking historical documents to your Ancestry.com hosted family tree … etc).  But if you’re budget minded, it’s a pretty sweet dealio.

http://www.boulder.lib.co.us/

Update April 2010: Looks like they got wise to our ploy, and it no longer works from home.  It is still free when you are inside a library branch.