Local history collections: lost at sea?
This article from the May 15th Tampa Tribune broke my heart and really bothered me all at once.
It is disheartening to hear that a possibly rare and irreplaceable collection of materials on maritime history is in danger of disappearing simply because of a lack of public interest and staff. At the same time, I worry about the reporter’s angle on the story.
Why? Partially because of the long (and, in my opinion, drawn out) description of the empty reading room with the bored volunteer trying to find ways to keep occupied. This reinforces the “it must be nice to sit around and read” stereotype that librarians face all of the time.
However, the real reason I was troubled was because the reporter did not show this as part of a larger problem. It is not just this collection that is at risk; there are many more throughout the U.S. facing similar problems. Unfortunately, local history collections and other special collections in public libraries (not including the major libraries such as BPL or NYPL) are often understaffed, under-used, and undervalued. Libraries rarely have the financial and human resources to maintain these collections, and the general public (excepting family genealogists) simply are not aware that these resources are available and are either too intimidated or too uninformed to make use of them.
I grew up in a city (Wilmington NC) where local history was a constant part of primary school education. On school field trips, we visited local museums, historical houses, and other places of historical importance. I had to do numerous school projects on pirates, local architecture, and famous local historical figures. But I do not remember, even once, one of my teachers mentioning or taking us to the local history collection of the New Hanover County Public Library.
Where I live and work now I am also surrounded by history. The Cambridge Public Library has a wonderful local history collection consisting of reference materials and vital records in the Local History Room and rare materials about the history of Cambridge in the Cambridge Room. Donald York, who sadly will be retiring from CPL this month, managed this collection as well as the amazing science fiction collection. How many people reading this post have actually used these collections? And perhaps, more importantly, how many people realize that this collection, too, has a shortage of volunteers and trained staff to preserve the collection and make materials more accessible?
I hope that the Tampa Tribune article gets the Maritime Reading Room at the Port Tampa City Library the attention that it needs to recruit enough volunteers to staff the reading room and enough visitors to justify its existence. At the same time, in this time of tight budgets for libraries across the U.S., I wonder who is advocating for all of the other collections equally adrift.
Related links:
- Photos of the newly renovated (yea!) Local History Room at the New Hanover County Public Library
- The history of Wilmington (or what I could have learned as a child if I had been introduced to a local history librarian)
- Note that Wilmington, like Cambridge, was called “New Town” in its early days.
- Interesting series of blog posts about the history of Central Square (drawn from the Oral History Project and the local history collections at the Cambridge Public Library)
- And while you are at Joseph’s site, check out this post on libraries. It is great to have non-librarians positively blog about libraries from time to time.
Add comment May 17th, 2003