Following the online path to the Margaret Chase Smith Library

The MCS Library is not linked to an online catalog. For example, when searching URSUS, you will not find its link. So where did I first find it? The Maine State Library's web site lists special libraries (http://www.maine.gov/msl/libs/directories/special.shtml) so this is how I first discovered it.

Not having an online database made me wonder how then researchers could find it. The answer is in the links. Remember that this is a special library so it's not one that a patron would browse to find, for example, the latest bestseller or DVD. Instead, an individual who has a particular interest in researching Senator's Smith's life, political career, and/or historical events within that era would be conducting a focused search.

For example, the US congress.gov site has a direct link to the Margaret Chase Smith Library

(http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/guidedisplay.pl?index=s000590). Its "Biographical Directory of the United States Congress" includes a "Guide to Research Collections" so when searching for Senator Smith, the MCS web site (http://www.mcslibrary.org) is included. Its presence is among fourteen other listings and those include Columbia University, Cornell University, Library of Congress, Radcliffe College, and Yale University. For reasons unknown, of the fifteen total listings, only Radcliffe and the Margaret Chase Smith Library have direct links provided. Odds would have it that this open portal would encourage researchers to take a peek at its contents.  A thorough description of its contents is included.

Another direct link to the MCS Library is found at http://www.library.ohiou.edu/coll/diversity/pres/bib.html if someone were to search "Women and Minority Presidential Candidates." There nestled in among Jesse Jackson and Hillary Clinton is Senator Smith - and the MCS Library is a click away.

Mentioned in a previous entry is the fact that UMaine Orono administers the MCS Library. Above you can see the Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center's announcement of this news. The Policy Center has a direct link to the MCS Library on its web site (http://mcspolicycenter.umaine.edu/). Difficult to see but there nonetheless, is a small rose at the top of the web site. (Senator Smith was known to wear one on her lapel.) Clicking on the rose takes you to one of the two MCS Library Facebook pages. (We'll cover social networking next time.)

We've previously seen some images featured on the Maine Memory Network.
"Maine History Online lives within Maine Memory Network, a project of the Maine Historical Society, a private, non-profit organization located in Portland" according to http://www.mainememory.net/mho/about-mho.shtml. 

MCS Library has worked in conjunction with the Maine Memory Network to digitally scan some of the library's images. The images are featured in the Network's online displays. One example is this one (http://www.mainememory.net/sitebuilder/site/294/slideshow/302/display?use_mmn=1&format=list&prev_object_id=557&prev_object=page&slide_num=1) - a Margaret Chase Smith for President exhibit. Included is this cartoon from 1964.

The reference to running shoes is related to Senator Smith's decision to run for President.

http://www.mainememory.net/artifact/12115

Here's some sheet music from the MCS Library collection captured on the Maine Memory Network site. The lyrics are for "We Want a Woman in the White House."

http://www.mainememory.net/artifact/12229

And once again we leave our latest post on a musical note! Next time, we'll take a look at MCS Library social networking connections.