Editing New Volunteer Training (section)

== Answering questions ==
People will expect you to know ''everything''! Two sides to the coin: we want to be helpful and help them find answers. But there are many times when we simply say “I don’t know” — you can’t know everything, and it’s okay.

Our research library is packed with answers. Acquaint yourself with the organization of the material, and then the specific items.

Two of our best resources are the Sanborn fire maps and the city directories. City directories hold amazing info: lists of people (including where they lived, where they worked, and what their job was) and — perhaps most valuable — street lists of every building on the street and what it was used for. One side note: there’s a 1947 directory (a decade older than any of ours) in the South Carolina Room of the downtown Greenville library.

Artifact questions are often answered by information sheets with the artifact; it’s amazing how many times I’ve answered a question just by reading the card. Sometimes, more information can be found with the accession record online (and you can help us grow that information).