Access Some Articles Directly from PERSI for Free

I just noticed a neat addition to the Allen County Public Library's Periodical Source Index—aka PERSI. PERSI is a subject index for genealogy and local history periodicals, produced by the ACPL staff. The valuable resource provides more than 3.2 million citations to readily-available periodical sources.

ACPL has begun adding external links to their PERSI search results for some of over 10,000 periodicals in the index. The little blue icon next to the article will allow users to link directly to their article of interest for free.

 

This does not apply to every article in the PERSI index, however. According to Genealogy Center staff, they are gradually adding the external links to entries if they find a periodical issue that is online or copyright clear, so users can access those issues for free rather than order the article from ACPL. Researchers will still need to order articles which are under copyright from ACPL as in the past.

 

Trying it Out 

I tried the new feature by searching for historical articles in one of my research localities, Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, where Scranton is located. 

Location Search: USA > PA > Lackawanna County > History

There I found an article "Gravity railroad of the Delaware & Hudson Canal Co, 1829+," published in Railroad & Locomotive Historical Society Bulletin, Issue 82 (April 1951). This gravity railroad and the D&H Canal figure in my family history: my 3x great-granduncle Owen Gilbride was a D&H canal boat operator, and his brother Michael was possibly employed on the gravity railroad in the 1850s.

 

Note the external link icon under the ACPL Call #.

 

Clicking the external link took me to the publication on the Internet Archive website, and a few pages later I located the article. Quick, easy, and convenient!

 

 

ACPL is doing a real service for PERSI users by providing direct access to some great articles when possible—and have given us one more reason to love PERSI! 

If you've never used PERSI before, here is a video produced by ACPL to get you started:

PERSI explorer: Tracing Your Roots Using the Periodical Source Index 

Note that this video will not mention the external link feature as it was only implemented within the past few months.

Until next time... 

© Nancy Gilbride Casey, 2026. All rights reserved.