Ask A Librarian Reminder

It is time again for me to remind my loyal blog readers about the reference services available at the Arkansas State Library.  While our primary mission is to serve state agencies and state employees, we are ready and willing to answer questions from the general public, public librarians, school teachers, college students, high school students, and everyone in between. If we can't find the answer in our databases and collections, we will do our best to find someone who does have the answer.  You can contact us by phone during office hours at (501) 682-2053, or any time by using our handy Ask a Librarian form, or by writing us at:

Arkansas State Library, Attn. Reference
900 West Capitol, Suite 100
Little Rock, AR 72201

If you are feeling really ambitious, or just want to visit and see our lovely facilities, you can also come to the library and speak to us in person.  Our hours are Monday through Friday, 8 AM to 4:30 PM. 

We generally answer questions within 24 hours, except during weekends and holidays.

Banned Books Week

Banned Books Week 2012 starts this Saturday. In celebration, the Arkansas State Library will have a display of some frequently banned books, and some members of the staff have written reviews of some of the banned books they have read. The Central Arkansas Library System has a banned book related event scheduled for Saturday evening at the Main Branch in the River Market. For more information on that event, check their website. Here is the official description of Banned Books Week from the American Library Association:

Banned Books Week (BBW) is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read and the importance of the First Amendment.  Held during the last week of September, Banned Books Week highlights the benefits of free and open access to information while drawing attention to the harms of censorship by spotlighting actual or attempted bannings of books across the United States.
Intellectual freedom—the freedom to access information and express ideas, even if the information and ideas might be considered unorthodox or unpopular—provides the foundation for Banned Books Week.  BBW stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints for all who wish to read and access them.

For more information about banned books and Banned Books Week, visit the Banned Books Week homepage.

Reference Services: Obituary Searches

One popular service we provide here at the Arkansas State Library is obituary searches.

While we do not have the staff or the resources to do in-depth genealogical research for our patrons, we can search the Arkansas Gazette and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for obituary notices. If you are interested in having us do an obituary search for you, please provide us with a name and an exact date of death. The search covers approximately one week following the provided date. Unfortunately, we cannot do a search without the date of death, although you are welcome to come in person and search the microfilm yourself.

The Arkanas Gazette archives go back to 1819 on microfilm, and the Democrat-Gazette records are available through an online subscription from 1984 to the present.

A couple of caveats about obituary searches: There will be no obituary if the family did not provide one to the newspaper. If the deceased did not live in Little Rock or the surrounding towns, the chances of there being an obituary go down sharply. You may need to search the local paper instead; we do not have any local papers here at the library, but the Arkansas History Commission has a wide range of historical Arkansas newspapers on microfilm. And finally, African-American deaths were often not noted in the newspaper during the 19th and early 20th century.

Requests can be made in person, over the phone, and through the Ask A Librarian form on our website.

Library Science Collection at the Arkansas State Library

Among the various circulating collections here at the Arkansas State Library is the Library Science collection. With a continually updated collection of almost 4000 books and subject-specific journals, we have books on just about any library-related topic you can think of, be it reader's advisory, disaster preparedness and recovery, reference training and advice, or metadata for librarians. Since Arkansas does not currently have an accredited library science program, it is probably the best collection of library-related materials in the state. And they are all available to be checked out, as long as you have a Arkansas State Library card.  If you are not in the Little Rock area, you may also be able to request items through Interlibrary Loan.

For a list of the resources that are available, visit our catalog and do a power search, selecting Library Science from the drop-down menu next to the category "Type."

For information about our library card policies, visit the Circulation Loan Policies page of our website.

If you are interested in Interlibrary Loan, please check out their page on our website to see if you are eligible to request items, and to use the online request form.

If you have any further questions, send us an email using our Ask a Librarian form or give us a call at (501) 682-2053.