On the first floor of one of the main buildings that make up National Geographic's Headquarters is an impressive
library whose primary purpose is to provide National Geographic staff with the resources and information they need to do their jobs. For example, the team that creates the
annual Geography Bee questions uses this library frequently.
What many folks may not know, however, is that members of the public are welcome to
make an appointment to visit the library with their own specific research needs. This service could be particularly useful for travel writers looking to access National Geographic's extensive archives. Or a traveler gearing up for a big trip might enjoy an hour or two of digging through the library's special guidebooks room. Take a look at this place, packed wall-to-wall with every guidebook imaginable:
There are complete collections of Lonely Planet, Rough Guides, Thomas Cook, Insight, Eyewitness, Time Out, Bradt, Odyssey, Fodors, Moon and Rick Steves guides. And I'm sure there are more...this is just what I was able to notice in my few moments thumbing through the colorful shelves:
The
NGS Library Collections contain over 50,000 books, 200 journal titles and six million documents, manuscripts and personal papers in the archives. In addition to stacks of books about every corner of the globe, there are sections that cover topics like geology, agricultural economics, sea voyages, costumes, recreation, aeronautics and raising animals.
The staff librarians are very friendly. I spoke to at least five of them in my short visit, and all were very willing to help and answer my questions. Of course, I had to ask them to tell me about some of the most challenging research requests they have ever received -- One librarian shared a story about an obscure request she got from some folks at National Geographic Television who were trying to verify the existence of a transgender religious sect in Kashmir. Just a typical day on the job for a NGS librarian!
If you'd like to take advantage of National Geographic's library resources, there are two things you can do before even making a visit. Be sure to access their online databases to do preliminary research about a topic or location of interest:
Let's say you are planning a trip to India. You can first
search the
Publications Index to see which National Geographic magazines, newsletters, books, etc. have made mention of the country. Next, you can
search the Library Catalog, to see which resources (published by NGS and others) are actually on the shelves at the library.
As another of the staff librarians explained to me, folks should be able to find many of these resources in their own public libraries, but possibly not as comprehensive or conveniently gathered as the all-in-one collection located at the NGS stacks. Definitely check out the online resources and consider making an appointment to visit if you have a specific travel-related topic to research.
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