Reference Microfilm Cabinet - complete!

All genie microfilms have been in the Left- hand side of the Reference Film Cabinet for a while, and now the newspapers are in the cabinet too.
There are signs on the front of the cabinet giving the location of individual resources. One sign for Family History Resources another for Newspapers.

There are also brief notes on the drawers themselves about the 'major' things you will find in that drawer.
I have also made some notes about what is not in the cabinet. You may be aware that we have the second choice size of cabinet, due to the bigger one not being able to fit into the lift or up the stairs.

This meant not all the films could fit into the cabinet. A choice had to be made and I made it, (all complaints will be filed) :)
The Australian already had back issues in the Stack Film Cabinet (just outside the ref w'room door) so I have kept those there. The current 6 years of The Australian are in the public area Reference Film Cabinet, and then the previous 14 years are in the Stack Film Cabinet.

As we have access to SMH Archive Online which covers the years 1955 - 1995, I decided the films for these years could be located out the back in Stack Reference, and we could encourage our customers to use the online resource. The films are now shelved at the beginning of the Reference Stack, (all bays clearly re-labelled) in case you get a customer that can't be convinced of the online product.

Most of the Sydney Morning Herald can be searched online in various databases:

1831 - 1954 in Trove                   available anywhere

1955 - 1995 in SMH Archive       available in Library only

1995 - 2005 the only full text access is through the microfilm.

2006 - current (well 4 days previous) in SMH True To Print Library Editions   available in Library only

It would therefore benefit any of you who work on the Reference Desk (but branch staff can also offer this service to their customers) to familiarise yourself with the best, (quickest) ways to get a result to impress your customer.

Here are my tips...any others warmly welcomed;

SMH Archive

It can be browsed paper by paper, page by page the same as the film, if they know the date.
Advanced Search allows for boolean searching with a 10 year date range only, No further narrowing is possible.

To find a person without a date, use the search : firstname surname this will get you some results quickly.

Do not assume that the newspaper 'clipping' given for each article entry should make any sense in regard to your search...it does not! It is just a heading on the page where your search terms are found.

Once the article is opened you can quickly scan it as your search terms are underlined.

When printing the article select 'No' for Scale to Page as it comes out too small to read. Make sure you then check your print preview to find the best page fit for your article. 
 
SMH True to Print Library Edition
 
The same as above except in the Browse facility once at the correct paper, one can go directly to the relevant 'Section' from the top menu bar. Classifieds or Public notices or Legal Notices would be the most usual places to find a relative.
 
The Print facility is a lot friendlier too, as they have been formatted for A4 pages.

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