Local History Collection background

This internship parallels my other class so very nicely. I am studying Manuscripts and Archives with Mimi Bowling and working with Elsalyn Palmisano in the LB Local History Room. This room houses not only recent publications covering the topics of Long Branch, Monmouth County and New Jersey but also unique books, directories, collections and documents that span the history of the local area and provide researchers a wealth of primary sources. The collection also includes items housed in the reference department of the library and includes newspapers recently transferred to microfilm, clipping files for the city of Long Branch, and library archives including Board of Trustee Minutes, Friends of the Library papers and Elberon Branch historical papers.

This room is a local gem that is not widely publicized or used at the moment because staffing is an issue. My internship does not include staffing the room but will hopefully be the resourcing needed to review, categorize, describe, and file some of the many boxes of papers and records so the room and materials are more accessible. I have already written an article for the local genealogy newsletter - Monmouth Connection - on the contents of the room and the wonderful resources available for genealogists but the lack of regular hours may be off putting.

In addition to working with the collections, I will review the mission statement, policies and procedures, the library web site and other materials that already exist. This process will hopefully parallel the topics in my other class and perhaps I will be able to make suggestions or updates but will, at a minimum, see the actual implementation of a special collection

>> A further note about the Local History Room - it was created as a separate entity in 2004 during the renovation of the library. There have been a few volunteers over the years working with the existing collection but the concept took shape and the collection solidified with the help of EPalmisano. A database for collecting data was created by Dr. H. Drucker - I will find out more about this data base and what it is used for. <<