Harris-Elmore historical materials will soon be online
7/2/2008Historical documents from the Harris-Elmore Public Library's local history room soon will be available online.
The library, located at 328 Toledo St. in Elmore, will receive an Ottawa County Community Foundation grant to make some of the library's historical materials available online. There is also a branch of the Harris-Elmore library on 602 West St. in Genoa.
The grant will help cover costs for the library to digitize obituaries, marriage records, probate records, military records, photographs, newspaper clippings, and scrapbook items from Ottawa and Sandusky counties.
The library, one of 19 grant recipients, will receive $1,950 to purchase software to begin the process. The Oak Harbor Public Library willl receive the same grant, but for $1,500.
Pam Hoesman, director of the Oak Harbor Public Library, said the library plans to use the grant for equipment for a meeting room that is being renovated.
Jennifer Fording, a local history assistant at the Harris-Elmore library who is in charge of young adult programming for the library and who works in the Grace Luebke Local History Room as well, will oversee the project. The namesake of the room spearheaded the process of collecting historical documents in the 1960s and still works part-time at the library.
"The process of digitalizing the materials will be ongoing," said Georgiana Huizenga, library director, who said that more and more people are expecting to find information online.
"People from all over the country will be able to look at the materials from Ottawa County online," said Ms. Fording.
Although the grant will not cover the total cost of the project, Ms. Huizenga said the library is looking to apply for other grants to help cover the cost.
Ms. Huizenga said some of the materials will be available online within one year.
The local history room's Web site is http://library.norweld.lib.oh.us/Harris-Elmore/hi.htm.