The Education on Your Shelf

The conference and institute season for genealogy is fast approaching, or perhaps it has already started with RootsTech. At any rate, it is an exciting time filled with learning, networking, and brain storming. You may walk away feeling energized, perhaps a little exhausted (okay, a lot), and then you go home to apply your new knowledge. Once home, you attend to your life that has been put on hold for the past week, and then deal with the demands of the weeks to come. You think back to the conference or institute experience and wish you could attend more, and gain additional knowledge from the fabulous speakers/instructors. Well you can...without even leaving your home.

Each conference and institute gives you a comprehensive syllabus. The instructors spend a lot of time compiling all of this material for your benefit. It is filled with sources that they feel will help you on the given topic presented. In short, it is a gold mine of information. The instructors are (hopefully) experts on their subject or field. They know what sources of information are out there, and which ones are good to go to for more in depth information. So instead of you trying to figure out what text is worth your time and/or money, they have done it for you. 

I am constantly going back to my syllabus materials for ideas. Sometimes it may be for a NGSQ article to read, or a book on a topic I need to learn more about. Remember, the instructors started out as newbies too and along the way they became experts. Don't you wonder what they read to become the experts they are? Well, check out that syllabus sitting on your shelf and you will find out.