Reference

Our reference policy is simple: ask us and we will try to help.

We take great pride in being a working research library and archives that makes its holdings available in as comfortable and welcoming a manner as possible. We gladly provide any reference help we can, including personal reference consultations, according to the following guidelines:

• In-person requests take priority. We can provide limited reference help by phone or email.
• We respond in order of receipt.
• We try to acknowledge receipt on the same day we receive a reference request.
• Because of the volume of reference requests we receive, we may not be able to provide a full response for a week or more.
• The amount of time we can spend on email or phone requests is limited.
• We can only respond to questions concerning our holdings. For reference requests not involving our holdings, please contact the Howard-Tilton Memorial Library Center for Library User Education.

Please note that there is a difference between reference and research; we cannot do research for patrons. Research, writing, and publishing are all part of the larger research process. Researchers must take responsibility for doing their own research and drawing their own conclusions from their research.

If researchers reached conclusions and published based on research that we did for them, then that, under some circumstances, could be perceived as taking improper advantage of others’ work and could implicate our department in a form of plagiarism. Therefore, while we will do everything we can to direct you to useful resources within our holdings, we cannot choose, select, read, translate, or interpret our holdings for you.

Note also that unlike public libraries, LaRC is not a genealogical research center. We do not acquire non-Louisiana genealogical materials and do not have a genealogist on staff. Genealogists doing local research should first contact the Louisiana Division of the New Orleans Public Library and the Special Collections Room of the West Bank Regional Library. After exhausting those libraries’ resources, genealogists should search our online archival finding aids database. If you find a reference to the family you are researching, you are welcome to make an onsite visit to use the collection. Be sure to bring with you the names and collection numbers of the collections you would like to use during your visit.

Reference Help Referrals

If you cannot come in person to the Louisiana Research Collection, we recommend that you hire an experienced researcher to visit our department on your behalf. For assistance in finding a researcher, please contact us. It may also be helpful to contact a specific academic department at Tulane related to your area of research (e.g. history, business, law). They often will know of graduate students willing to do reseach-for-hire.