Expansion of the Family History Library Catalog

There have been a few comments about the utility and efficacy of the Family History Library Catalog. The online catalog is on the FamilySearch.org website and there is a link to the search engine on the startup page. What you may not have noticed is that the entries in the catalog have expanded to include items held in larger Family History Centers, now referred to as FamilySearch Libraries. For example, a surname book written by my Great-grandmother has always been in the Family History Library, but now, the catalog also shows a copy that is located in the Mesa Regional Family History Center (Mesa FamilySearch Library).

There may be some confusion for a while about the names of the entities holding the materials, but the locations are clear and the Family History Library catalog now tells the world that there is a second copy of the book in Mesa, Arizona. What it does not yet show is that the book was digitized by the Mesa FamilySearch Library about two years ago. But if the book had been cataloged as digitized, a link to the digitized version will show in the catalog.

The confusion about the names of the entities comes from a change in the names of the Family History Centers. The larger centers are now being called FamilySearch Libraries, the smaller centers are now called FamilySearch Centers. The geographical designations remain the same.