Brewster Kahle, digital librarian and founder of the Internet Archive, is not overly interested in his own personal family history. He does have relatives who have researched his past, and he knows that he descends from Mayflower pilgrim, William Brewster. Beyond that, he really doesn't feel the need to know more. Instead, his personal passion is to help make the world's knowledge freely available to all. That's why he took time out to appear as a featured speaker at the recent RootsTech conference in Salt Lake City, and also to sit down and talk with me about the Internet Archive and Open Library and their application for genealogists.

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As Dick Eastman so aptly said, the 2011 RootsTech conference was a rock concert! Over 3,000 family history enthusiasts were in attendance and the excitement was absolutely infectious. New technologies, new ideas, new presenters...just wow!

The three day conference was a whirlwind of activity, so much so that I didn't even have time to make it around half of the wonderful RootsTech Expo Hall. I do, however, want to share a few of the new technologies and products that I learned about while in attendance. Things I found cool...

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I was thrilled to discover this week that my newest book, the Everything Guide to Online Genealogy, 2nd Edition, by Adams Media, is now available for sale on Amazon.com. It's an updated version of the original book that I wrote in 2008, with many new sites and databases, plus the most current information I was able to include on the seemingly ever-changing FamilySearch.org. The site is geared primarily to beginner and intermediate genealogists, with a foundation in both genealogical research and methodology, as well as online research - although I have heard from a few long-time professionals that my book taught them something new. I could never begin to cover the hundreds of thousands of genealogy resources available online, however, and a print publication (especially one limited in length such as this one) obviously can't keep up with the new resources coming online every day. So a big focus for me was to give people the knowledge and tools necessary for searching and using the Internet to find their own genealogy resources, rather than just including lists of links. I hope it helps at least one of you discover something new about your own family history.

The inaugural RootsTech Family History and Technology Conference going on now in Salt Lake City, Utah, is an experiment of sorts. The hope is that bringing together technology creators and genealogists who love technology will create a synergy of sorts - with lots of new ideas resulting from the mix. There are a lot of new presentations and new ideas being tried here - nothing like you would usually see at a genealogy conference. They may not all succeed, but you don't achieve innovation without risk. For more on the RootsTech Conference, especially the cool offerings in the Expo Hall, check out these Photos from RootsTech 2011.