Director of Research and Access/Chief Librarian

Ellen Keith
1601 N. Clark St. Chicago, IL 60614

TheVeryImportantPatron
.com

Timeline
1856- Chicago Historical Society
founded
1871- much of collection
burned in the Chicago Fire
1874- renewed operations
1932- moved to current location
2006- changed name to Chicago
History Museum

Operating Hours

September 1 - December 20
Tuesday through Friday: 1-4:30
Saturday: 10-4:30
Advance appointments available on Friday mornings
from 9:30 a.m. to noon

May 25August 31, 2014

TuesdayFriday, 1:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Open by advance appointment on Thursday and Friday
mornings from 9:30 am to noon
Paging stops at 3:30 pm.
Closed November 26-28, December 21, 2014-January
1, 2015

Funding

1) Admission- $10 per person (free

for members and students grades
1-12)
2) Endowment
3) Fundraising Office
4) Park District Land- Museums in
the Park

Staf

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Chief Librarian
Reference Librarian (also a notary)
Research Center Assistant
Technical Services
Chief Cataloguer
Page
Aide for Photocopying

Collection
Non-circulating collection.
Donation mostly, purchasing is rare.
Collection is made up of: books, magazines, photos, sound
recordings, newspapers, videos, etc.
To see some materials patrons have to get special permission.
Permission has to come from the archivist, not the librarians. In
some cases the archivist have to contact the people who donated
it. Ex. Carole Mosley-Braun papers, CPD Red Squad papers
In some cases advanced notice is needed to view specific items.
Ex. photo negatives are kept in cold rooms and require 48hrs
notice to view
Closed until processed = they cant be viewed/handled until
they have been processed by the archivist. Archivist determine
when the item is open
Various locations there is an of location annex, three stories of
stacks, and the east basement. However they are slowly running
out of room to store things.

Catalog
ARCHIE is the online public catalog.
It does not completely list all the
available items in the library.
It is named after Archie Motley.
Hope to combine library catalog and
collections catalog someday.
The card catalog is kept around because
it is more complete and it ofers more
details on individual items.

Research Online
Online sources that can be accessed on-site in
research center are: Chicago Tribune and
Chicago Defender, ProQuest History Vault,
Harpweek, Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps,
Chicago City Directories
Encyclopedia of Chicago and a number of
other online resources are available through
the library website. The Encyclopedia of
Chicago was created through the joint efort of
the Chicago History Museum and the
Newberry.

Audience
Researchers have to write their topic
on a registration form
Librarians do not prefer this because it
counters the users rights to privacy.

They also have to lock up their coats

and bags because Barry Landau stole
from the library.

History Fair
Students research and
present on topics of Illinois
(and usually Chicagospecific) history.
Library traffic for these
students starts in late
winter/early spring.
Younger students,
especially those in
middle school, are
required to bring a
parent with them.

Researchers
Reference questions not in person have to
be asked through email because they would
not be able to handle the call volume.
No interlibrary loan ability.

Many architects use

the library, though
half the architecture
collection is in a
warehouse in
Broadview.

Even More Research

Sometimes people
learn about small
collections not in the
catalog by reading
citations in other
papers.
Distance patrons
sometimes hire
freelance researchers
to copy documents for