'It’s our history': Crumbling records of Lakeland's founding and 1st years are preserved
LAKELAND – The handwritten minutes, resolutions and ordinances from 1885 to 1890 that were the basis of Lakeland’s charter were becoming faded 19th-century memories.
However, through the efforts of the Lakeland Public Library, the City of Lakeland and a professional preservation company, the roots of a municipality have been preserved indefinitely.
In October, the bound pages of the 1885 to 1890 City Commission minutes were returned to the library in Mylar sleeves in a metal-bound book after being treated with chemicals to remove acidity. Some repair work was also done using rice paper for torn areas.
During a workday in the Lakeland History and Culture Center at the Lakeland Public Library main branch on Lake Morton, LuAnn Mims, special collections librarian supervisor, met with Lakeland City Clerk Kelly Koos and Deputy City Clerk Heather Bradman to discuss the results of the two-year effort to save in perpetuity five years’ of minutes from the city’s 19th century founding history. Also joining was librarian Rebecca Whalon.
“We were getting a positive response from people that wanted their pictures with the library’s book of the minutes; we decided to do this so more people can see it and don’t have to worry about it getting damaged,” said Mims, who’s worked for the Lakeland library for 6 ½ years. “Going through this process would give this document a longer preservation.”
The old note pages have been in the Lakeland library since at least 1985, when the special collections unit was founded. They were then held in the city clerk’s office prior to being transferred to the library. There are a bit under 500 pages in all.
To get the pages properly preserved and bound, the library contracted with a professional document-preservation company, Kofile Technologies Inc., and the minutes were sent out in May. Based in Dallas, the company does Critical Records Management for local, county and state governments, preserving, safeguarding and modernizing public records. In early 2023, the same company contracted with Polk County to preserve for the county, said Mims.
The total cost was about $2,000 for the project, which came out of the Lakeland Public Library’s annual budget. Assistance between the special collections project and Kofile was also provided by Trae Scism, a Kofile representative and Lakeland resident.
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Kofile returned what became two restored books to Mims because of the Mylar sleeves in which the notes were encased, suitable for long-term storage and presentation of photographs, documents, negatives, postcards, notes and other items. The notes were replaced in their original order and were disaster-proofed with rubber seal, encased in metal covers and were foam protected. The city seal was added to the outside.
“We’re about preserving the records. That’s what we do in the city clerk’s office, so we want everything kept original and recorded as it occurred,” said Koos, who’s been with the city for 24 years.
The major occurrence recorded in the newly preserved notes from the special collection is the Lakeland city council vote to incorporate. When the first census in Lakeland was taken in 1890, there were only 552 residents. The vote to incorporate was 22 to 12, and on Jan. 1, 1885, Lakeland was incorporated.
Koos said it’s the details that can be found in Lakeland’s original handwritten meeting notes that make them worth preserving for the future.
“It’s our history. These pages won’t last forever, and at over 100 years old, some were really starting to crumble, so we didn’t want to lose them. We need to be aware of where we came from, and these (notes) are part of that,” she said.
Mims added by preserving the city’s minutes, notes, maps, letters and memoirs, it was the Lakeland Public Library’s way to leave a legacy for the community. The library has other handwritten and typed minute books that those in special collections hope to restore in the future.
This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Lakeland library preserves crumbling records of its founding documents
