Marshall, IL-(Effingham Radio)- Recently Marshall Public Library was a feature in the Illinois Library Association Journal for their collections of local authors, local history and local genealogy.
Funded through the Illinois State Library the Cataloging Maintenance Center (CMC) staff, who work under the umbrella of the Illinois Heartland Library System, awarded the library a grant to digitize the library’s more than 300 oral history collections onto the Illinois Digital Archives website. Last year, the CMC group extended this grant to include the nearly 2,000 historic photos and short stories onto the Illinois Digital Archives. This effort caught the attention of University of Illinois – Urbana’s journal “Illinois Highlights”, a department of the university who specialize in historic archives, to feature Marshall, IL in their November 2022 issue. The article features “Small Town with a Big Story: Marshall Public Library” which was a result of the library’s strides in historic preservation of photo collections. As library director Alyson Thompson said: “we believe the library has a responsibility to preserve local history and, when possible, restore local history and local genealogy collections for future generations”. For nearly two decades Marshall Public Library has been working with Friends of the Library to digitize all local newspapers on microfilm dating as far back as the Civil War. In 2016, with the help of a Daughters of the American Revolution Walter Burdick Chapter grant, the library was able to digitize all of their collections and make it available on the library’s website.
As a result of the library’s efforts, Marshall Library was recently selected as one of the nation’s top “Star Libraries” from the National Library Journal. The Library was noted to be one of the top 258 libraries in the nation for their library services and collections.
Ratings are based on annual per capita statistics submitted to state libraries and collected by the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
Upcoming Fall 2023 the library will host the United States Holocaust Museum traveling exhibit “Americans and the Holocaust” and Spring 2023 the library will host Smithsonian Museum on Main Street traveling exhibit “Spark! Places of Innovation”. The library is located at 612 Archer Avenue, in Marshall, Illinois, and is handicap accessible.
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