If you want time schedules for trains that haven't run for generations, try the library at the California State Railroad Museum.
Other libraries in the Sacramento region enable readers to research esoteric points of law, rare diseases or fabled gold mines.
There's even a library especially for those who are blind or can't read traditional books.
Most of the Sacramento region's specialized libraries are professionally managed, but one – the Sacramento Turn Verein library – depends on volunteers.
"Our library is not only a library," said Marianne Ek. "In a way, we're like the Smithsonian, because we're saving the history of Turn Verein." That passion – for saving history, German culture and genealogy – drives Ek and the other volunteers who keep the Turn Verein library going.
Sacramento's Turn Verein – pronounced TOORN fer-IN, which literally means "gymnastics club" – has been around since the days of John Sutter. Its core was gymnastics – the library has old photos of members doing exercises – and like the hundreds of other Turn Vereins around the country, it came to function largely as a club for German immigrants.
It didn't always have a library, but over the years, the club accumulated a lot of membership information – rosters, photos, ledgers and more.
When a group of men went down to clean up the basement of the Turn Verein building on J Street in 1995, they found a disorganized trove of historical materials that had been accumulating since the 1850s.
"I don't think anyone had a good accounting of what was there," said Uli Pelz, one of the stalwart volunteers who went down to sort through the material.
The Turn Verein's library section, formally called the German-American Cultural Center Library, has more than 100 members, though not all are as active as Pelz.
Those who are involved feel a commitment.
"This is over 150 years of history," Pelz said. "You don't want to let it go."
The archival materials form the core of a library founded in 1998. In addition to the archival material, it has thousands of volumes on Germany – its history, culture and literature.
The archives, though, are the main attraction.
When Pelz had the library open for one of its two weekly public sessions last week, a woman from Oregon came by looking for information for ancestors from the 1800s.
Pelz found photos of several of them in the 1880s.
"People walk in and say, 'My great-grandfather's name was such-and-such, and he lived in Sacramento in 1873,' " said Shirley Riemer, another volunteer and the editor of two newsletters – one for the library and one on German genealogy.
Riemer is absorbed with the genealogical records and has found that the Turn Verein's well-organized rosters and photos can be a first step for someone searching for information on ancestors.
These researchers are often seeking information that will help them track their genealogy back to Germany, she said.
The Turn Verein also recorded the towns from which immigrants came – a gold mine for genealogical hunters.
When the library opened, it was overwhelmed by people wanting to do genealogical research on parents and grandparents who had come to Sacramento from Germany, said Ilse Laudi.
Her husband, Günther Laudi, was one of the original five basement workers and the Sacramento Turn Verein historian.
Another of those volunteers, Hans Raschack, was known as the father of the library and worked on organizing the books until February 2001, when he was found dead in the room to which he had dedicated his last years.
The library is more than books and archival materials. The volunteers run a movie series and a program in which high school German language students can come to practice with the native speakers.
"I do something for our heritage," said Gisela Parker, a volunteer who has passed the library bug on to her daughter Senta. "It gives me a good feeling."
Senta Parker makes jägerschnitzel and promotes tea dances at the Turn Verein. She volunteers with the choir and other sections.
"I believe in trying to keep the culture going," she said, although, unlike many members, she was not born in Germany.
The Turn Verein, like some other specialized libraries, offers things a researcher just can't get from sitting in front of a computer.
Call The Bee's Carlos Alcalá, (916) 321-1987.
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