I know that Frederick County Public Libraries (FCPL) has something similar that they do.  Though I’m not entirely sure how much was donated by the city, there are lots of materials that have been donated by others living in the area.  Two of the branches here have these rooms.  They’ve assigned them their own prefix similar to how the reference materials are and keep track of the materials using the regular cataloguing system.  The rooms are kept under lock and key and in order to enter you have to relinquish everything you have on you besides paper, pencil (no pens allowed), camera, or laptop.

 

I believe they handle ownership issues by assigning ownership to the library just like any other donated material would be.  Though I’m not entirely sure on this as I do not work for the library, just make use of their history rooms.

 

If you’d like I can try to put you in touch with someone from my local library system?

Thank you,

Derric Atzrott

 

From: libraries-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org [mailto:libraries-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Bettina Cousineau
Sent: 24 October 2013 12:43
To: libraries@lists.wikimedia.org
Subject: [libraries] Local History Rooms in Public Libraries

 

Hello!

Background: In the Kent District Library District (MI) 9 of the 18 branches have Local History Rooms. The physical building (including the LHRoom) is owned by the city/town, as are the Local History contents/collections, while the public library materials are owned by the library district.

The Local History collections are grown by local donations, and overseen by volunteers, who may or may not be library staff.

The ownership of the collections is exceedingly murky, as there may be no paperwork generated by the city/town when items are donated. Also, cataloging of the collections may/may not exist, or exists on volunteers' personal laptops.

Question: Are there other examples of this relationship across the country that you might be aware of?

I'm curious as to how others may be handling this, if it all.

Thanks, Bettina

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