Look into Your Ancestry

Posted on by Meghan McCorkell

You’ve seen the commercials for Ancestry.com.  Now you can access those same databases inside your Pratt Library.

Ancestry® Library Edition delivers billions of records in census data, vital records, directories, photos, and more.  It’s an unprecedented online collection of individuals from North America, the United Kingdom, Europe, Australia, and more.  Here, you can unlock the story of you with sources like censuses, vital records, immigration records, family histories, military records, court and legal documents, directories, photos, maps, and more. And, with ongoing updates and new content always being added, you’ll keep coming back to discover more.

Popular and recently added collections include:

U.S. collections deliver hundreds of millions of names from sources such as federal and U.S. censuses; birth, death, and marriage records including the Social Security Death Index; and U.S. border crossing and trans-ocean ship records.

Canadian collections provide nearly 60 million records from the Census of Canada, and key vital records, such as the Drouin Collection (1621-1967), which includes nearly 30 million baptism, marriage, and burial records from Quebec.

U.K. collections offer censuses for England, Wales, Isle of Man, Channel Islands, and Scotland, with nearly 200 million records: Births and Baptisms (1834-1906), Marriage Licenses (1521-1869), Deaths and Burials (1834-1934), and Poor Law Records (1840-1938) in London, and more.

Other international collections continue to grow with more than 46 million records from German censuses, vital records, emigration indexes, ship lists, phone directories, and more; Chinese surnames in the large and growing Jiapu Collection of Chinese lineage books; Jewish family history records from Eastern Europe and Russia; and more.

Military collections deliver over 150 million records containing information often not found elsewhere and includes records from the colonial to the Vietnam era.

Multimedia collections deliver millions of files ranging from family and gravestone photos to postcards and newsreels.

Ancestry® Library Edition is only available inside one of your 22 Pratt Library locations.  

Hot New Titles as the Weather Heats Up

Posted on by Meghan McCorkell

As the temperature finally rises, it’s time to check out some hot new titles from the Pratt.

New Fiction Titles

For a complete list of new FICTION titles, click here

For a complete list of new MYSTERY titles, click here

For a complete list of new SCIFI & FANTASY titles, click here

New Nonfiction Titles

For a complete list of new NONFICTION titles, click here

New Children’s Titles

For a complete list of new CHILDREN’S titles, click here

Check back tomorrow for new Young Adult Titles and Overdrive titles available for download.

May Day Library Guide

Posted on by Tracy Dimond

Happy May Day! Celebrate by learning more about the US Labor movement through music, photography, theatre, poetry, literature, and film from the Fine Arts and Humanities departments.

Click on the cover to reserve your copy now.

Labor Music

Prints and Photographs

Humanities: Theatre

Humanities: Poetry

Humanities: Film

Humanities: Literature

Checking out one of the resources? Share it on social media with #atthepratt.

Check out the Pratt Pamphlet Play Index

Posted on by Meghan McCorkell

Looking for audition material or a play for class? Check out the Pratt Pamphlet Play Collection.

Recently, an actor came into the Central Library and told staff she never missed a chance to check out the Pamphlet Play Collection. The acting editions of plays are located in the Humanities Department.  Most plays in the collection are arranged alphabetically by author.

The Collection contains:

  • Audition material
  • Plays to perform
  • Copies of a play to read for class

Using the Pamphlet Play Index, it’s possible to find a short play in a collection, a comedy about a certain topic or a drama for a certain number or actors or actresses. You can also find plays by genre, such as mysteries or farces. There are also separate sections for collections such as Auditions and Monologues, Christmas Plays. Also, an advanced search can be created for the specific kind of play sought. For example, by combining search features it is possible to find a monologue by Edward Albee, a dramatic adaptation of Animal Farm, a comedy for 3 men and 6 women, or a melodrama for a high school group.

So, head to Humanities at the Central Library to check out Pamphlet Plays.