Now that you have your list of sources, how do you find the sources themselves? This may be a problem for any researcher regardless of the sources he or she is trying to use. The Baseball Index contains many cataloged materials that are not easily obtained and the researcher may have difficulty locating them.

The logical first place to go is one's local libraries; the larger, the better. An excellent guide to library holdings in the United States and Canada is OCLC's WorldCat. This electronic resource is available through many libraries, public or academic. Academic libraries, particularly those at large universities, often house excellent collections of books and periodicals. State historical societies are also fine sources for baseball publications. But even if you live far from large population centers, there is still the option of Interlibrary Loan services through your local library system. This can be a time-consuming process taking weeks to fill your request, but many sources can be obtained in this fashion and at low or no cost. Finally, there is traveling to the source itself. Your local library may find the source you want at a library in another city but may be unable to borrow it for you. In such events, there may be nothing for it but to travel to that city to view the source.

Thank you for using the Baseball Index Data Service. Good luck with your research and please remember us for your next baseball research project.

Ted Hathaway & Andy McCue
Project Directors
The Baseball Index

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