Bristol Central Library Visit 8th May 2008, organised by the Bristol and Avon Family History Society

Whenever I visit the Central Library I am struck by what seems to be the small amount of books, newspaper microfiche and documents on display in the reference section.  

Jane, a member of the Local Studies Staff at the library, had put together a selection of books, illustrations and maps for us to look at.  It seems that the library doesn’t just hold local study items for Bristol, amongst the collection are odd books pertaining to Lancashire and Wiltshire, for example.  It also includes books published by the Catholic Society, the Huguenot Society and the Harleian Society, to name but a few. 

A catalogue of the books it holds which have been published after 1985, is available on-line at the library’s website.  Publications between 1700 and 1985 are catalogued on a card system which is to be found in the Local Studies section.  The library also holds documents right back to 1200! BUT you will need to consult one of the members of staff for information on these. 

We were given a real in-sight into its holdings, when we were taken on a quick tour of the rooms below the lending library.  This is where the reference and reserved books are kept.  Down some narrow wooden side stairs and past the outline of a body on the floor! (set up for the tours the library organises for local school children).   

If you have ever watched the film “The Bone Collector” where Angelina Jolie goes into the bowels of a bookstore, you will have an idea what the store rooms in the library look like.  There are rows and rows of bookshelves, left and right which lead off into the gloom.  The smell a mixture of paper, old leather and old building all added to the atmos.  I felt and I am sure the other society members did too, “like a kid in a sweet shop”, wanting to dart off to investigate the multitude of books and magazines. 

I now know from Jane that the reference section holds just a very small “taste” of the library.  In fact Jane compared the library to an iceberg, a little bit showing with the bulk of the berg under the water, where you can’t see it.  I now know if you can’t find an item on the shelves or in the various catalogues that you have to ask, there is no replacement for a living, breathing, walking, catalogue of the Local History section of this historic building.

For more about Genealogy and Family History Research in the Bristol and surrounding areas, please visit my website www.rootsleuth.com.