Finding Alliance History Online at Rodman Library

Karen Perone, Head of Technology and Technical Services at Rodman Public Library, will present Finding Alliance History Online on Tuesday, Feb. 20, at 7 p.m., in Rodman Main Auditorium. She will talk about the digitization projects that the library has been working on this past year to make city documents, a little known Alliance newspaper from the 1920s, and Alliance yearbooks available online. During 2017, a grant from the Ohio Historical Records Advisory Board with assistance from Rodman Public Library and the City of Alliance was used to digitize 70 years of Alliance City Council minutes and ordinances. The 24 volumes were sent to Backstage Library Works in Bethlehem, PA, where they were microfilmed and then digitized. “One of Rodman Public Library’s goals is to preserve and share the many historical documents of Alliance,” said Pat Stone, Director of Rodman Public Library. “We have the expertise and resources to assist the City in this important project.” The resulting images are now available online through the City’s website at http://cityofalliance.com/Archive.aspx. The project was supported in part by an award from the Ohio Historical Records Advisory Board (OHRAB), through funding from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC), National Archives and Records Administration. Recreational News was an Alliance newspaper published in the 1920s covering all sorts of entertainment opportunities in the Alliance area. The paper was found in the Historical Society archives and was badly deteriorating. Backstage Library Works carefully handled the paper and microfilmed and digitized each page. The newspaper is now available through Alliance Memory at www.alliancememory.org or on microfilm in Rodman Library’s Reference Department. Rodman Public Library has also begun a project to digitize the Alliance High School yearbooks. “The yearbooks are one of our most often requested items from the Alliance Room. Digitizing them will keep the originals safe while making the content easily accessible to all,” remarked DJ Digianantonio, Head of Reference Services. Once completed, the yearbooks will be fully searchable and will be made available through Alliance Memory. A rare book owned by the Alliance Historical Society will also be added to the Alliance Memory archive later this year. The book Civil War Sketches gives the service record for each of the Alliance men who served. The volume is beautifully bound in leather with gold leaf and the sketches are handwritten. It was presented to the Fremont Post of the GAR around 1900. The digitizing equipment at the library is not large enough to handle the book so it will be sent out for digitizing by Backstage Library Works. Perone’s program will also include a live demonstration of how to access the documents using your web browser. For more information, call 330-821-2665, ext. 101.