1. The Free Library at Your Fingertips
or
How to Access Millions of Resources that
Can Help You Find Data, Conduct Policy
Research, and Draft Legislation
A Briefing for City Council Legislative Staff
September 10, 2012

2. The Free Library at Your Fingertips
Welcome
Darwin R. Beauvais
Free Library Trustee
Shareholder, Zarwin Baum Devito Kaplan Schaer & Toddy, PC
Donna Bullock
Special Assistant to Council President Clarke
Siobhan A. Reardon
President and Director

3. The Free Library at Your Fingertips
Government Publications
Department
Sometimes you just need the book

4. Philadelphia Collection
Manual of the City Council City Code
1874 - 1983 2nd thru current
Ordinances and City
Solicitors opinions
from 1789

5. Archive-It
Crawls local government and other institutions’
websites, such as:
• Phila.gov • State.pa.us
• Police Department • Philadelphia Museum of
• PA Courts Art
• Philadelphia Housing • Franklin Institute
Development Corp. • Kimmel Center
• Office of Emergency • Historical Society of PA
Management
• School District • Public Citizens for
Children and Youth
• SEPTA

6. State Documents – Historic and
Current
Legislative Journal
Laws of PA
Maritime Records – Port of
Philadelphia from 1793

7. U.S. Census
Name Census for Philadelphia
1790 - 1930 U.S. Census Data

8. Congressional Record
• Online: 1994 to the
present, including the
Daily Record
• At the Free Library:
1789 (the 1st Congress)
to present

9. Continental Congress

10. Congressional Serial Set
Reports, documents and journals of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives
Also available online: 1817-1980

11. Supreme Court Decisions
February 1790 To Current

12. Statistical Abstracts

13. The Free Library at Your Fingertips
Map Collection
Looking back to move forward

14. 1921

15. 1931

16. 1888

17. 1917

18. 2006

21. 1894
1910
More sinking homes?

22. 1889

23. 2005

24. 1950

26. The Free Library at Your Fingertips
Electronic Resources
100+ databases at the click of a mouse

27. What if you could…
• Create a demographic report of your district
to show age, gender, race, home ownership
rate, and economic information?

33. What if you could…
• Create a list of all restaurants in the city or a
specific zip code? All the manufacturers? All
the businesses with over 50 employees? All
the businesses started in the past 6 months?

41. What if you could…
• Quickly research newspaper and magazine reporting
on recent trends? Find industry and political news,
health info and statistics, and information on a range
of issues that impact your constituents?

44. legislation

46. The Free Library at Your Fingertips
Historic Images of Philadelphia
A picture is worth 1,000 words

47. Architectural Gems
Gimbel Brothers, 9th and Market St.
Strawbridge & Clothier, 1862

48. Clean City Campaigns
Keep Philadelphia Clean Campaign
It’s the Law: Don’t Litter Campaign, 1960

49. Fire Department
Detail of Private
Fire Department, 1871
Closing the Firehouse, 1952

50. Building the Subways and the Railroad
Construction of
elevated subway line
1918

51. Pennsylvania
Railroad
Laying track for the Broad Street
railroad station
Broad Street railroad station meeting
1923

52. Industry
Baldwin Locomotive Works
Baldwin Locomotive, 1870s

53. On the Waterfront
Clipper Ships along the Delaware
1870s
Pennsylvania Railroad grain wharves, Girard Point

54. Streets
1810-1814 Kater Street, 1950s
9th & Tioga Streets, 1948

55. Urban Landscape
Refineries on the Schuylkill River
Construction of Terminal
Philadelphia International Airport , 1952

56. The Free Library at Your Fingertips
How to Access Library Resources
Our staff is trained to find answers
to your questions and needs,
whether in person or online.

57. Our Staff
• Parkway Central alone has over 60
professionally trained librarians—all with
Masters Degrees in Library Science.
• We have decades of experience delivering
reference services.
• We have specialists in subjects from A to Z.

58. Connect with Us In Person

59. Connect with Us Online
Trained staff will reply to your email inquiries.

60. Connect with Us 24/7
Librarians across the state, throughout the US and
overseas are available to answer questions 24 hours a day.
If your question is not Philadelphia specific, you can
connect with an expert from around the globe.

61. Connect with Us on Your Cell
Texting is great for asking quick, simple questions that
can be answered in short responses.
Add the Free Library to your address book right now!

62. Text Us
• Start a new text message to 66746
• Type askfree
• Now save 66746 to your contacts
as askfree

63. More Treasures Revealed
• Podcasts: Subscribe via iTunes or RSS feed to
hear great author events.
• Digital Collections: We have over 20,000
digitized images.

64. The Free Library at Your Fingertips
Thank you for joining us!
Q&A