Library of Michigan needs Monroe County's history
The Library of Michigan collects family documents and historical items from all 83 Michigan counties.
It has few items from Monroe County.
“We certainly do our best to collect materials from (all) communities,” Adam Oster, community engagement librarian for the Library of Michigan, said. "As far as I can tell, I don’t believe we’ve received any donated items or publications from anyone from the Monroe County area of the last few years. Nothing has come our way from any residents or institutions from Monroe County.”
A variety of items are accepted, including: Brochures and flyers, Michigan newspapers and periodicals, minutes from Michigan organizations, complied cemetery transcriptions, published vital record information, society newsletters, yearbooks, fiction and non-fiction by Michigan authors, papers (including letters and journals) by Michigan authors, published family histories, maps and more. For a full list of items needed, visit www.Michigan.gov/LibraryGift.
Sometimes, unique and rare items are given to the Lansing institution.
“Dickinson Wright law firm gave us several large volumes of Baist Survey atlases for the Detroit area that are really hard to come by. We’re soon going to be getting several boxes of yearbooks from Marshall District Library that cover schools in the Marshall area,” Oster said. "Hopefully more people in the Monroe area will learn that we’re looking for material, and folks will start reaching out to us."
To learn more about the program, call Library of Michigan at (517) 335-1477 or email Librarian@Michigan.gov.
This article originally appeared on The Monroe News: Library of Michigan needs Monroe County's history
