planning your first visit to the research library

Planning Your First Visit

to the

Research Library

Research Library

The Buffalo History Museum

1 Museum Court

Buffalo, NY 14216

library@buffalohistory.org

We’re a National Historic Landmark

• Founded in 1862 as the Buffalo Historical Society

• Building designed by George Cary in 1900

• Expanded our name in 1960 to the Buffalo & Erie

County Historical Society

• Shortened our name in 2012 to The Buffalo History

Museum

How to find us

• 1 Museum Court, formerly 25 Nottingham Court

• North of Rt. 198 off Elmwood Ave.

• Free parking & bike rack

• Take the #20 Elmwood bus route, exit at Nottingham

• The Library is on the main floor of the white marble temple

Admission

• Free to Museum members and U.S. veterans

• Students & seniors: $5.00

• All others: $10.00

• Because of the irreplaceability and fragility of

library materials, children under 12 are strongly

encouraged to take advantage of the public library

• We encourage parents & teachers to bring children

to museum exhibits and programs instead.

Hours

• Library hours are Wednesdays through

Saturdays, 1-5 pm

• Plus Wednesday evenings, 6-8 pm

• No appointments necessary

• Professional librarians are always on duty to help

you find what you need

Visiting when we are closed? We suggest trying

the Grosvenor Room at the Buffalo & Erie

County Public Library. It has a superb local

history & genealogy collection.

http://www.buffalolib.org/content/grosvenor

• Collecting since 1862!

• 20,000+ books

• 200,000 photographs

• 3,000 manuscript collections

• 6,000 postcards

• Extensive Vertical/Pamphlet File

• 23-drawer Clippings file

• 6,000+ microfilms of newspapers, censuses,

church records, cemetery records, and more

Our Collections at a Glance

A Few Things We Don’t Have

• Vital records: government-issued birth, marriage & death certificates

• House plans with a couple dozen exceptions

• Passenger lists or immigration & naturalization

records

• School attendance records

• Deeds or property transactions

• Employment records

• Motion picture or TV footage

So where are these things?

Everything Can Be Retrieved

in Minutes Except…

• 10,000 maps, drawings, posters, prints, and other oversized works on paper

• About 3 dozen extremely large, heavy ledgers from a few manuscript collections

• Negatives

• All of the above are stored off-site and may be seen by appointment

A Few Rules

• Purses, backpacks, briefcases, etc., are stored in

our mini-lockers during your visit

• Library materials may not be borrowed or

removed from room

• Cotton gloves are required for handling

photographs. We keep a large supply.

• Staff does all photocopying. Some things are too

large or fragile to photocopy.

• We scan only for publication or exhibition.

Fees apply.

All Library Visitors Must

Sign In

• We ask for your full name, address, email or phone

number, and what you’re researching

• Sign-in is done via touch-screen tablet computer

• We are happy to help anyone who is new to tablets

Please, No Food or Drink in

the Library

• Many good restaurants within a 10-minute walk

• The Museum does not have an on-site café

• Your snacks & beverages can be enjoyed in the State

Court

Please silence phones and take

calls outside of the library

What about cameras?

Please do take pictures of museum buildings, interiors,

exhibits, grounds, programs, and events!

And post them on social media with #BuffaloHistory

What about cameras?

Please do not take pictures of library items until

you check with librarians. We limit picture-taking

of:

• Manuscripts

• Photographs

• Other library users

New! Museum Quality Reproductions

• Order online at BuffaloHistoryStore.org

• Custom archival prints of Buffalo scenes for

home or office decor

• Great gift idea

Pencils only. We have lots!

This prevents accidental ink

marks on irreplaceable items.

Technology on Site

• FRANK, our online catalog

• Yes, we have WiFi; laptops & tablets welcome!

• Two microfilm reader-printers, $.25/page.

• One microfilm reader-printer-scanner. Please bring a USB

travel drive to save your scans.

• Photocopies made only by staff, $.25 each. Our machine

cannot make color copies, just black & white.

Our Most Popular Tool

Screening Process for

Manuscripts & Rare Books

• In order to protect one-of-a-kind collections, those

who wish to use manuscripts & rare books must

apply for a Scholar Pass and present a valid photo

ID upon arrival

• Pictures, microfilm, atlases, card files, and ordinary

books do not require a Scholar Pass

• Application and guidelines are online here:

http://tinyurl.com/scholarpass

Search FRANK before your visit

• http://tinyurl.com/frank-catalog

• Find Resources And New Knowledge: A searchable online

catalog of 28,000 books & manuscripts in our collection

• In your search results, books are indicated by blue icons;

manuscripts by red icons & hyphens in call numbers (like

A68-123).

• You can save items to the Clipboard & print out a list

NewYorkHeritage.org

Explore unique digital collections from us & peer

institutions, including:

• War of 1812 documents

• Crystal Beach photographs

• Buffalo address books

More Library collections online here:

• http://buffalohistory.org/Learn/Research-

Library/Digitized-Materials.aspx

WorldCat.org

• Consider it Google for

the offline world

• Free database listing 1 billion

offline items in thousands of

libraries, including us!

• Lists books, newspapers,

videos, films, sound

recordings, archival

collections, etc.

• We suggest trying the

Advanced Search

A Few Things We Cannot Do

• We do not have enough space to pull things for you

in advance

• We cannot draw genealogical conclusions or

find your ancestors for you

• We cannot appraise or advise you on the

market value of your books & collectibles

• We cannot scan and email books or collections

What We Can Do

• Search for obituaries: http://tinyurl.com/TBHM-obitrequest

• Retrieve books, etc., upon arrival

• Mail photocopies from items that can withstand

photocopying: $10 for the first 1-20 copies,

$.50/page thereafter

• Lend newspaper & other microfilm through

interlibrary loan (ILL)

• Answer “How do I find…?” questions

• Suggest strategies & get out items that may

answer your questions

Contact us

Email: library@buffalohistory.org

Telephone: (716) 873-9644 x 305

For best results, call Wednesdays through Saturdays,

1-5 pm

We look forward

to your visit!