Announcements

President's Day Closing

The Farmington Libraries will be closed Monday, February 17. The Farmington Main Library will also be closed Sunday, February 16.

FROM THE FARMINGTON ROOM

New Volunteers

In the early weeks of this year, I have been fortunate to connect with some new volunteers. This means that an increase in access to Farmington Room materials is gaining momentum—and that is what my work here is largely about: not just preservation and collection of historic documents and papers but making them accessible for all. I’m very excited to announce a few areas of important and popular resources that are being worked on by capable and dedicated community members: 

  1. Map digitization project: A volunteer is numbering all our maps and updating data points so that they can be digitized—we have over 200 in inventory. Once digitized, they will be added to our digital collections on the CT Digital Archive (CTDA). Maps are a hugely important resource to lots of folks trying to date their homes, to identify older businesses, and find local landmarks.
  2.  Cataloging Farmington High School and IAR yearbooks: We have just begun a volunteer on making acid-free inserts with barcodes and call numbers for each of the yearbooks that we have in our Reading Room. These will then be added to our online catalog. In addition, we’ll be able to provide links to the CTDA from the catalog, for those yearbooks that have been digitized. Lastly, we will ensure that all our yearbooks have been housed for protection and preservation. 
  3. Vertical File project: This major effort involves updating the inventory of everything that is currently in our Vertical File Collection (also known as the Pamphlet File). Our volunteer is identifying which articles in the collection have been digitized, adding anything that is not represented in our spreadsheet, noting anything that is missing, and adding a few more data points that will help researchers cite sources found in the collection. This will be a huge step in the direction of making this resource available online as a spreadsheet file that a researcher can download and filter/organize as needed. 

We have other volunteers working to digitize important collections, either for preservation or for sharing through our CTDA collection. This is an ongoing and incredibly helpful effort. There is always much to do in the Farmington Room! If you are interested in becoming a volunteer working with local history materials, I invite you to complete and submit this form: 

Farmington Room Volunteer Form

Recent finds

I made a surprise discovery last week in our Vertical File Collection: a small set of original materials from the Farmington League of Women Voters. Pamphlets, programs, and newsletters are typical for a vertical file, but I also found handwritten correspondence and a record book from the FLWV’s predecessor organization, donated by someone who had been involved in the organization. I chose to pull this donation of more unique and fragile materials out and transfer them to our Archives. They will be processed, described and added to our Record Group of local civic and non-profit organizations. I am excited to research the history of the Farmington League of Women Voters and give more visibility to the materials. 

A record book with a marbled cover and two file folders fanned out on a tabletop. On the front cover of the record book is written by hand, “Equal Franchise League, October 1913.
My exciting find for the week! Looking forward to researching the background of this organization.

If you are wondering what a Vertical File is in the first place, others have done a great job answering this question already (link to a blog post by Temple University Library staff), so I will say that a vertical file is like an analog Google search: it is a collection of newspaper and magazine articles, brochures, pamphlets, images, flyers, lists, genealogical research, and more, that are meant to provide a quick reference for a range of topics. These don’t have to be original materials (in fact it’s sometimes safer if they are photocopies), and the contents can provide background information or a springboard for a range of topics. It’s called a vertical file because the materials are stored “vertically” in hanging file folders. 

We have two main vertical file collections here in the Farmington Room: One is in the main section of our Reading Room, and the second—the Christoper Bickford File—is in the Alcove section of the Reading Room. The Bickford File contains all the research files related to Farmington in Connecticut, published by the Farmington Historical Society in 1982.

As mentioned above, my aim is to have a complete inventory that researchers can access remotely, and we are working on creating a quick-reference list of names and subjects to post while we log the full collection. Stay tuned!

Resource spotlight: Umbra Search African American History

Umbra Search (https://www.umbrasearch.org/) provides a way to bring digitized documentation of African American history and culture together from several institutions across the web. It is a digital library that aggregates material rather than collecting and hosting its own digital objects, similar to the Digital Public Library of America. I learned about this resource while doing my coursework. 

This boosts accessibility of African American history, which has often been marginalized or buried within historical collections. Search for “Farmington (Conn.)” on the site and you will find letters and images found at the Boston Public Library, the Connecticut Historical Society, and the Hartford History Center at the Hartford Public Library. 

You can also browse collections on specific topics, “African American Firsts,” “Video from the Civil Rights Movement,” “Underground Railroad,” and see story projects that people have made with the content. It is a great online space to explore, learn, and discover new local history materials outside of what we offer here at the Farmington Libraries.

Happy researching!

Jerusha

 


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