Back then, Kennewick was a smallish farming town and its library then couldn't have contained more than 3,000 books. When I finally ordered my books, the staff had to send to another building and have them brought in through a tunnel. As I sat at a magnificent wooden desk doing my research, I daydreamed of moving to Washington, D.C., and spending my retirement in the Library of Congress. How could I have imagined that today, as I approach retirement, I can do research in the Library of Congress without leaving my dinky office in my Pullman home. Of course, I don't have the same full access I'd have in the District of Columbia, and my cluttered office has none of the ambiance of the Main Reading Room, but it is amazing how much of the collection of the Library of Congress is available from home.
Online resources are remarkable.
Genealogists and local historians are among the well served. Click there and you will be able to access a genealogical collection that began in 1815 when Thomas Jefferson's library was purchased. The collection of compiled family histories has grown to contain more than 40,000 titles. It also holds more than 100,000 U.S. local histories and many local histories from around the world. Researchers doing foreign research will find lots of resources for western Europe, the British Isles, Ireland and Germany.