Traveling through Time

Skylar C -

Did you know that the original Prescott Public Library wasn’t in the same building it was now, but instead the old Carnegie building located on Gurley Street? Or that a bird sound effects artist from Disney once came to Prescott and attended a benefit for the library? (I especially found that last one interesting, as I have always loved Disney.) I found so many facts and stories like this in the old binders documenting the library’s history this week, and there are so many more obscure little details that I still am waiting to find. But, this week, I only got through the binder documenting 1972 through 1974, then started the one on 1974 through 1975. These are the years that the new Prescott Library was being planned and built, so I scanned a lot of articles discussing funds, locations, and construction for the “new” library. For the binders, I am not filling out a document with its details like I do with the vertical files, but instead I upload it to the computer and put details such as the date, origin, or title in the file title. It is a lot faster, but it still takes a long time to go through all of the documents.

When I was at home, I started reading the book Creating A Local History Archive At Your Public Library. I only got through a couple of chapters, but it contains a lot of guidance for libraries if they need it. A lot of it hasn’t been exactly relevant to my question so far, but it has mentioned important considerations for libraries to think about when putting together their own archive. Besides this, I started playing around with Canva and pamphlet templates for my final project. I can’t wait to see what else I will be able to learn next week!

Sources:

Phillips, Faye. Creating a Local History Archive at Your Public Library. ALA Editions, an Imprint of the American Library Association, 2017.

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Comments:

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    benjamin_h
    That's a fun fact about Disney! I never knew the history of our library was so rich.
    March 3, 2025 at 1:14 pm - Reply
    jussynda_b
    Oh yeah, I sometimes forget that Prescott used to be the capital of Arizona. I bet there's a lot of information on that. Really interesting about Disney. What is your project going to be?
    March 5, 2025 at 11:58 am - Reply
    skylar_c
    I am hoping to create a pamphlet summarizing all of my research. I haven't found a lot talking about Prescott being the old capital, but I'm sure that is a lot of info on that somewhere, and the library's history is really rich, I agree. I bet there is even more interesting history about the old Prescott library, but I am focused on the current one right now. Thanks for your comments!
    March 6, 2025 at 3:30 pm - Reply
    iva_mae_b
    I find it super impressive that you're able to find outside resources on the study of libraries and archives! How do you find what books you will read during your time outside the library?
    March 7, 2025 at 9:53 pm - Reply
    moorea_c
    Those are such interesting facts to learn about the history of our town library! It's crazy how we really don't know much about history until we really start to dig deeper on information from the past.
    March 9, 2025 at 4:48 pm - Reply
    skylar_c
    I researched online about books on archives or preserving history in libraries. I found a nice list, but definitely won't get to all of them.
    March 10, 2025 at 9:37 am - Reply

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