Accessing the Charles W. Nelson Library

Most of the people reading this know that the Heritage Center has a library. It’s classified as a private, special or reference library. By definition, a special library is often limited to a few topics or subjects. It’s no surprise that the Nelson library specializes in Freemasonry, along with interconnect topics of history and religion/philosophy.

But did you know that you can review the library holdings 24-hours-a-day on your computer? The Nelson library catalog may be found at mmhc.goalexandria.com. We use the Alexandria library software to consolidate our inventory of books, periodicals, papers, audio and video recordings into one searchable source.

In addition to the URL listed above, you may also digitally enter the library through the Heritage Center website. Here is the sequence of steps you will need to take.

Staring at masonicheritagecenter.org, find VISIT in the menu. Click on it, and selection MUSEUM & LIBRARY in the drop-down menu.

Below is the window you will see next.

When you click on “search the library,” it brings you to the library catalog.

Here’s the result of a sample search:

You can see there are 62 results from the search. Were you to scroll down, you would see some titles that have links to e-books you can read at your computer. There are even books not about Washington, but he’s named in that book’s table of contents.

I hope this taste of how to explore the Nelson library will encourage you in your own studies. If I may be of assistance, please let me know, I’m happy to help!

– Mark Anderson, mark.anderson@mnmasonic.org,
(952) 948-6503