About the Library

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About the Collection

The Family History ACT (FHACT) Library collection, with about 20,000 publications, is one of the largest genealogical collections in Australia and has a wide range of research materials for Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom and Ireland.  We also hold a major collection of material on Heraldry.

For a detailed description of our collection and how it is organised please see: About the Collection. For holdings please go to our Library Catalogue.

Members can learn more about the FHACT Library and how to make best use of its resources by attending a free training session.  Bookings for these sessions are essential.  Please see the members only calendar for upcoming dates.

Electronic Resources

Family History ACT is an affiliate Family Search Library.  When using the FamilySearch catalogue you’ll often find an image link has a small padlock above it, denoting the record is ‘locked’. The FHACT Library is a designated Affiliate FamilySearch library so you can view locked digital images at our Library in the Canberra suburb of Cook.

We also provide access at our library at Cook to the major commercial sites such as Ancestry, FindMyPast, and the British Newspaper Archives. 

Our library has a collection of electronic publications that include CDs and electronic journals (serials).

CD Collection

Our library's holdings include about 1400 CDs and DVDs.

The publications on most of the CDs and DVDs are in document formats (DOC, RTF, PDF, HTML, TXT) and most of them may be viewed on any of the library computers. Those that have restrictive licences, or need special Windows software to run, may only be viewed on particular computers.

Electronic Journal Collection

FHACT receives many genealogical journals and newsletters in electronic formats. Only issues received in electronic form are in this collection. (Journals not received in electronic form are not in this database. Many journals now received in electronic form were formerly paper publications and earlier issues of these will still be found on the shelves.)

Using the Electronic Resources at Cook

Use the library catalogue to find any resource in the FHACT library, including the electronic resources. The library catalogue is available here so you can search at home before visiting the library.

FCER is the application used to access electronic resources at Cook. It is available on any computer in the library at Cook; the electronic collections are not available online.

FCER does have limited search tools, but you are better off searching the library catalogue to find the specific resource you want. Use the CD number or Call number to go directly to the item. If you are logged on this link will take you to the FCER User Guide.

Visiting

The Family History ACT (FHACT) library is situated in the Cook Community Hub, 41 Templeton Street, Cook ACT.

Members must display a current membership badge while using the FHACT facilities. Non-members may use the research facilities after purchasing a reader's ticket. The available tickets are:

• one day – $10.00
• one week – $20.00
• 28 days – $30.00