The History of Collection Development in ACPL's Genealogy Center

The History of Collection Development in ACPL's Genealogy Center

by John Beatty

This talk will examine the history of the renowned Genealogy Center of the Allen County Public Library. It will discuss how the collection has developed since 1961, the unusual and unorthodox approaches to the development of its collection over time, and finally, the current collection development practices that guide the collection. We will look at some of the major sources for new genealogical books as well as tools for finding out of print books.

John D. Beatty, CG, has been a reference librarian in The Genealogy Center since 1984 and also serves as its principal bibliographer. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree with high honors in History from the University of Michigan in 1982, and a Master of Arts degree in History and Library Science with honors from that university in 1984. He became a Board-certified genealogist in 2014. He is the author of sixteen books on local and family history, including works on German and early American families, abstracts of town vital records from Biddeford, Maine, and annotated narratives from the Irish Rebellion of 1798, as well as numerous articles on a variety of genealogical and local historical topics. In 2006, he served as principal editor for volume one of a two-volume History of Fort Wayne and Allen County, Indiana, 1700-2005, the first history of Allen County produced since 1917. Because of a diversified family background, he has genealogical expertise in a variety of areas. He has conducted original research on families from colonial New England, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, the Carolinas, and Kentucky, as well as on seventeenth and eighteenth century families from Ireland, Germany and Switzerland. He serves as archivist for the Episcopal Diocese of Northern Indiana, and his interests also include local Fort Wayne and Allen County history.