Preserve family and local history at Stillwater Public Library


Librarian Emily States works on fragile history items in the Stillwater Public Library’s new Special Collections space. Librarians hope to increase the collection through a public family history digitization event Nov. 29-Dec. 1.

Media Release

Stillwater Public Library is hosting a three day family and local history digitizing project in Room 119 of the library Nov. 29-Dec. 1. Included in the project is a Wednesday evening program on African American genealogy searching.

“The library is preparing to digitize many of its historic materials,” said Lynda Reynolds, library director. “We were the recipient of three preservation grants which enabled us to move our local history collection from a hot, humid and cramped closet to a larger room with collapsible shelving and space to preserve the material properly.

“At the same time, we built a “do it yourself” open book scanner with funding from the Oklahoma Department of Libraries that allows us to digitize books without causing so much damage to them.”

As a kick-off to its Special Collection area, the library is partnering with the Oklahoma Department of Libraries who will be bringing three scanners to help Stillwater and Payne County community members digitize their personal and local history.

“Our hope is that when community members get a copy of their material in digital format, they will consider allowing us to retain copies of the material related to local history,” said Reynolds. “We receive hundreds of requests each year and will use donated material to help people perform research and genealogy searches.”

Reynolds stresses that donating a copy of material is not required for participation in the project.

Potential items to digitize include family photographs, scrapbooks, letters, diaries, cards and other ephemera. Participants are encouraged to bring a flash drive to save the digitized material, but methods for saving will be provided for participants who do not have a device.

The digital project will take place Tuesday, Nov. 29, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.; Wednesday, Nov. 30, 9 a.m.-12 p.m.; and Thursday, Dec. 1, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.

“Right after Thanksgiving is a perfect time to hold an event like this,” said Reynolds. “When community members travel across the country for the holiday, it gives them a chance to bring back local history material that has migrated out of Payne County and have it digitized.”

On Wednesday, Nov. 30, at 6:30 p.m., as part of the project, the library will also host a class on African American genealogy. Attendees of that program are invited to bring their material to be digitized during the program.

“We have long had difficulties being able to answer local history questions concerning Stillwater’s African American community,” said Reynolds. “Very little coverage was included in history books. We are hoping that community members will bring in information that will allow us to better answer questions, especially those related to Washington School and the Black Chamber of Commerce.”

The genealogy class and the digitization project are free and open to the public. To sign up for the class or for an hour long session TuesdayThursday, stop by the Help Desk, call 405-372-3633 x8106 or email [email protected].

Participants with larger collections may be provided additional sessions or asked to leave material for a short period so that it can be digitized.

The Stillwater Public Library is located at 1107 S. Duck St. (the corner of Duck and 12th Ave.).  Visit the library online at http://library.stillwater.org.

Family Digitizing