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The Game’s Afoot! Finding Clues in Archives and Libraries

Have you ever felt like Harry Potter’s friend Hermione, who, when in doubt, goes to the library and loses herself among the books? Or have you needed to know about places and people to add true-to-life-then details to your story? Wondered how people really lived, wanted to read their letters and diaries for yourself? Wanted to read a famous author’s hand-written manuscripts, study them yourself?

Our own Janet Crum and her colleague Roger Myers will share their love of knowledge and experiences with us. You are invited to send any questions you have about finding, accessing and using libraries and archives to reply2tsinc@gmail.com before the meeting.

Janet Crum got her first library job at the ripe old age of 12 and is now, [redacted] years later, Director of the Health Science Library at the University of Arizona. She has spent most of her career in medical libraries, primarily in cataloging, library technology and administration, but she also spent several years processing archival and manuscript collections as a student worker. In those days, her superpower was her uncanny ability to read John Muir’s handwriting. When she’s not working in the library, Janet, whose pen name is Janet Alcorn, writes crime, romance and horror fiction. She is a member of Arizona Mystery Writers, the Arizona Authors Association and the Tucson Chapter of Sisters in Crime.

Roger Myers is employed by the University of Arizona Special Collections as an archivist and librarian; he is the curator of the Women Mystery Writers collection there. He collects, describes, and assists users in their archival research with primary records. He has worked with private, state and federal agencies to secure and provide access to materials ranging from the Faraway Ranch archive to Edward Abbey’s papers and Morris K. Udall’s congressional records.