Appreciation post: the librarian at my local branch who showed me better research prompts

Honestly, I've been stuck on a historical fiction story set in 1920s Detroit for like 3 months. I kept hitting dead ends with generic Google searches about auto factories and speakeasies. Last Tuesday, this librarian named Diane spent 20 minutes showing me how to use the library's newspaper archives and city directories. She found me old labor union newsletters and a map of Prohibition-era police raid locations. Now I have way more concrete details to ground my story. Has anyone else had a librarian totally unlock a tricky research block for their writing?

2 comments

2 Comments

simon_sanchez581mo ago

Wait, you didn't even know city directories were a thing? Those are gold for historical writing, they basically list everyone's name and address from back then. Diane sounds like a secret weapon, I'm honestly a little jealous.

-1

burns.richard1mo ago

Simon is right, those directories are absolute gold mines. I stumbled onto a set from the 1880s for my town and found out my great-great-grandfather ran a grocery store on a street that doesn't even exist anymore. Man, Diane must be a lifesaver, I'd kill for a research buddy who just hands over that stuff without me having to dig through microfilm for hours.