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New online research guides

The Library has launched a series of online research guides to help Library users with popular research tasks. Each research guide is based on a particular subject and includes easy-to-follow steps for conducting research, as well as links to helpful resources in the Library's collection and elsewhere.

The guides also feature a service that allows researchers to get live assistance from a State Library of Victoria librarian.

Compiled by specialist librarians, the guides help with research relating to family history, business, arts, technology, and the history of Melbourne and Victoria. The guides cover popular topics such as how to find out about bushfires in Victoria, how to navigate early Australian census records, and how to find the meaning of an Aboriginal word.

'The research guides cover the questions we get asked most regularly, and the main resources people need our assistance with,' says Patrick Gregory, the Library's Information Services Manager. 'Our librarians are working with Library users all the time, so they get a great sense of which topics are of most interest.'

As well as addressing areas of wide appeal, a number of guides are dedicated to niche subjects.

'Hopefully there's something for everyone, from musicians trying to find the score for an obscure song, to businesspeople doing market research on a particular industry sector,' says Patrick.

Library users have access to immediate support from a reference librarian between 10am and 6pm on weekdays through the live service available on every page of the research guides.

'It's much like instant messaging,' Patrick explains. 'If users want to ask a question, they can chat with our librarians directly from the webpage they’re viewing.'

Check out the new research guides >