Library of Michigan has its own Digital Website: Library of Michigan Digital

As the Library of Michigan and the Archives of Michigan begin their openings with scheduled appointments, we remind everyone it is a good idea to do your prep-work ahead of your visit and make a research plan for your visit to make better use of your appointment time.

Both the facilities utilize the Answer Catalog and it is possible to narrow your search to just one facility or the other that way you do not find yourself wanting something from the facility you did not schedule your appointment with that day. So we strongly suggest starting with the Answer Catalog.

But remember both facilities do have some online digitized materials you can research from home. See our latest post on the Michiganology.org website about how to find more than death certificates there.

Yes, you read that right -- both facilities have online digitized materials.

Did you know that the Library of Michigan has its own website for digitized resources too? It is called Library of Michigan Digital. The link icon is right there on the Answer Catalog homepage along with the Michigan Electronic Library MeL.org link icon (where you go to access the MyHeritage Library Edition database link) and the icon for the combined MSU-Library of Michigan Catalog.

One way to start is to just browse around the Library of Michigan Digital website. The Library of Michigan has created several highlight collections. Some of these collections have more items, some have less like the Michigan Maps which has just one digital image -- an 1840 Wayne County map.

This digital collection website includes older records and newer records. If in trying to view a document/record image you get a message to login do not worry you that are in a wrong place. This site uses the same login account as the WorldCat.org (OCLC Online Computer Library Center) website. There are free WorldCat accounts. If you have a WorldCat account just login, if not just go to WorldCat and create one. You will find the login in the stacked menu (three bars) in the top right-corner of the Library of Michigan Digital website.

Another way to find records on the Library of Michigan Digital website is to use the Answer Catalog. Notice any entries that say "Electronic Resource" and just click the link "Connect to Archived Issues" to be taken to the online records. (The Connect to Resource takes you to the record originator's part of the michigan.gov website.) Now the Connect to Archived Issues link may take you to the OCLC website and if you select a record to view you may get a login and refresh the page (on the Library of Michigan Digital website.)

If so, try logging in and refreshing the page. If that does not work, then using the information that you used to find the subject/record in the Answer Catalog go to the Advanced Search of the Library of Michigan Digital website and search using the term(s) you used. (You should still be logged into the website.)

Here is an example. While researching Eschenburg Bars it was learned through the digitized WWII years of the Mount Clemens Daily Monitor and Daily Monitor-Leader that the owner of the second Eschenburg Bar lost his liquor license from a raid by the Michigan Liquor Control Commission in December 1941. He did get the liquor license back but the article made the researcher think: "I wonder if the MLCC has minutes of its meetings or hearings and if those minutes have been preserved?"

Searching the Answer Catalog for Michigan Liquor Control Commission brought up many hits. Add minutes and it narrowed the result list down. (See the image example above.) Selecting the Connect to Archived Issues takes one to the OCLC results list. Selecting a year of minutes to view resulted in the above login issue mentioned. 

Going to the Library of Michigan Digital home page or finding the advanced search link, the researcher typed in Michigan Liquor Control Commission Minutes and when the results brought up more than the expected results, the filter "minutes of the state liquor control commission" was selected and the results list expanded to show 200 results on one page making just one easy to read page of results.

The years 1941 and 1942 (the year the newspaper article appeared) were searched without success. It appears the list of the hearings (names and reasons) were kept separate from the minutes for an reason unknown to the researcher.

An alternate search was to go back to Advanced Search and add another search parameter with the surname you are seeking. This narrows the results to the MLCC minutes where that surname appears. It did not find the hearing mentioned in the newspaper because the hearings appear to be redacted for that time period. But the search did find one prior and one later for two other Eschenburgs who also owned or ran a bar. Now those have been added to a To-Do list for searches in the Mount Clemens newspapers still not digitized. The researcher only wishes the MLCC minutes started before 1933 so more research could be done on the first Eschenburg Bar.

So that is how you find the Electronic Resources that are mentioned in the Answer Catalog.

Have fun finding your digital treasures!

See you soon someday at our favorite library!
LE