Yesterday and today, we’ve added “Find in a library” links to every single resource currently in the database. This is useful for tracking down the specific title that mentions your vessel. Say, for instance, you’ve done a search for the ship Smart. You find two mentions of the vessel, in two books about Maine ships. When you click on either title — A Maritime History of Bath, Maine, or Fairburn’s Merchant Sail — you’ll see the linked words “Find in a library”. When you click that link, it’ll take you to WorldCat, a global directory of libraries’ holdings.

WorldCat will show its record for that book, and will even do its best to find the copy nearest  you. You can put in a location to be even more exact, if you like. (The location can be a ZIP code, a postal code, a city, or a country.)

In nearly every case for items in this database, you’re only looking for a small part of the book or resource in question. You can almost certainly use the library nearest you, even if you don’t have a borrower’s card from that library. All you really need is the book and a photocopier, or the book and a pen and paper, and you’ll get the data that’s available there.

This is a big step forward in being able to track down the resources, once you’ve identified that they mention the vessel you’re seeking.

We’ll be adding more ways to locate specific resources over the next few weeks, so keep an eye on the resources pages. If you have thoughts about features you’d like us to add, or more ways to find the specific resources, please let us know.

Enjoy!