There are always bits and pieces of information that defy the most perfect filing system. Every library has the same problem -- what to do with that one page article sent by a patron or the pamphlet from a church or high school reunion.

The format of many useful “bits” simply does not allow filing on a shelf. Loose papers tend to get lost behind books, crumple or walk away. Small booklets are caught inside larger books.  File folders and soft cover binders deteriorate too quickly or are not stiff enough to stand on shelves.

Most libraries have a vertical file to solve this problem. The vertical file will contain all those small “things” that don’t fit anywhere else. This is the place for the handwritten family charts mailed in by a descendant of one of the early settlers of the area or the newspaper article on an early church. Other bits that might be found in vertical file of your (or your ancestors) local library include:

a cemetery survey by the local genealogy society
a list of alumnae attending the high school reunion
 a photocopy of the journal of an early settler
 newspaper clippings on a neglected cemetery
 copies of pension files of early soldiers of the area
 small softcover booklets on families or events
 letters from descendants of settlers in the area asking for or offering information
 brochures and pamphlets from local historical sites
 genealogical charts and papers
 almost anything else....
 
There will sometimes be whole genealogical collections with the vertical files. If a local genealogist or historian donates or wills his years of research to the library — this is the most likely place to find it.

Material will generally be in file folders and filed alphabetically in cabinets. It may be broken down in sections -- family files, towns, etc.  Occasionally there will be an index to materials found there (sometimes typed and filed in the front of the files), but more often not. For the most part, you’ll simply “let your fingers do the walking” through the files to see what treasures might be hidden there. Items in vertical files are among the most elusive of library materials — often only the local librarian knows what is there (and sometimes they’ve forgotten.)

Vertical files are usually found in files cabinets along a wall of the library, but not always in an obvious place. Depending on the size of the library, it may be a single small file cabinet or a whole bank of floor to ceiling files.  If a library has a number of departments, there may be more than one vertical file — perhaps one in the local history section and another in the genealogy department.

The librarian is the best resource in the library, so be sure to ask.
[written by Betty Jo Stockton, July 2000. Used with permission]