For Immediate Release
March 3, 2010

San Mateo County Genealogical Society Moves Into Cañada College Library

 

New partnership will benefit students and make Redwood City a “one-stop” genealogical center in San Mateo County.

 

 

The San Mateo County Genealogical Society has moved into the Cañada College Library and a special open house ceremony will be held on Monday, March 29 from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. to celebrate the new partnership. The event will be held in Room 312 of the library.

 “We are very excited about our partnership with the Cañada Library,” said Diane Smelker, president of the SMCGS. “Moving to the Cañada College Library provides a public space for our collection.” The SMCGS Library was formerly located in a cubicle in the middle of the San Mateo County Library Administration Building off Tower Road in San Mateo. “Our former location was not open to the public, so a patron could not ‘accidentally discover’ our great resource.”

 The partnership will provide more space for the SMCGS and its 228 members and create a “one stop” genealogical research center in Redwood City. “Not only can researchers use our collection but they can quickly drive to downtown Redwood City to access records at the Courthouse, the Redwood City Library History Room, and the Historical Association Archives,” Smelker said.

 Cañada College Librarian, Dave Patterson, said having the SMCGS and its members on campus would also benefit students. “We’ve already developed some project ideas that will benefit our student body,” he said. The SMCGS will fund a student library aide and additional databases for the library’s computers. In addition, SMCGS members will aid in class projects that include studying migration patterns between Redwood City and the Mexican state of Michoacan; helping students learn research skills through family history research; and exploring the history of the California Land Grant on which the Cañada campus sits. SMCGS members will also teach a beginning genealogy class.

 “Personally, I think the possibilities for our partnership are endless from basic family history projects to finding ways to support the library budget,” Smelker said. “It is our hope to provide Cañada’s students, many who are first or second generation residents of this area, with the tools to discover and appreciate their past and how it informs the people they are today. In return, we hope they will enable us to learn how their culture enriches the future of this country and continues our tradition of being a true ‘melting pot’ of peoples.”

 The SMCGS Library collection includes more than 6,000 books, periodicals, pamphlets, microfilm, and microfiche representing all 50 states, Europe and Middle America. It also contains more than 900 CD’s with genealogical titles covering the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Europe, Middle America and the 1880-81 United States, Canadian and British census records. The SMCGS Library is the only genealogical library between San Francisco and Santa Clara.

 

 

For more information, contact Robert Hood, Director of Marketing and Public Relations, at hoodr@smccd.edu or 306-3340