Even if you do not have access to a computer or the internet, the local library in your area is a perfect place to conduct research when searching that missing buddy of yours from your high school days.
It is likely that the public library already has computers in its cubicles that are hooked up to the Internet. Not only does the public library have computers as resource tools for the private investigator, it also has reference books that are highly valuable resources.
For the purposes of skip tracing, the two main resources that a private investigator uses at the local library are the criss-cross directory (a.k.a. reverse directory or a city directory) and, believe it or not, old telephone directories.
The main branch of your local library has telephone books not only for the city in which you live, but for major cities around the country. It also contains phone books for many other towns within your state.
If you have a phone number or street address in a city outside your own, contact the library in that city and ask for the reference desk. If possible, the reference desk attendant will look up the address, name, or phone number you give them in the local criss-cross directory and give you the information.
Some libraries will maintain a collection of telephone directories spanning the last 10 years for your respective city or town. When skip tracing an individual whose address you have is no longer valid, you can thumb through the library’s old phone books and determine when, give or take a year or so, your subject moved. Your next step is to check out the criss-cross directory and identify the neighbors who lived there during the same time your subject did. Then, use the current criss-cross to see if any of those neighbors are still living there, and go out and talk with them to see what they know. It is possible that they may very well know your subject and might be able to tell you where he or she moved to. They might even know the name of your subject’s employer.
With the age of the Internet, many libraries now have access to pay databases that you can access from your own home by typing in your library card number. Bet you did not know that. Did you? Databases such as criss-cross directories, Thompson-Gale and many more are available to the public with a library card. If you can not access these databases from your own home computer using your library card number, you might have to access these databases from the library’s computers.
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