Sonoma County Library completes national summer internship program

Posted on October 02, 2019

This summer, the Sonoma County History & Genealogy Library in Santa Rosa joined 48 libraries across the U.S. by serving as a pilot site for a new internship program intended to help attract young people to careers in librarianship. The library hosted Santa Rosa High School graduate Cortunay Minor as part of the Public Library Association’s Inclusive Internship Initiative (III).

“From my coworkers, to my mentors, to other mentors in the program, to all the interns I got to befriend and beyond, I am much more attuned to the expansiveness and complexities of librarianship,” Minor said. “Not only has my support system expanded, but as has my circle of friends and my fond, respect-full adoration for our Sonoma County Libraries.”

Minor began her internship in June and worked closely with her appointed mentors at the History & Genealogy Library: Special Collections Librarians and Archivists Zayda Delgado and Joanna Kolosov. The trio completed a connected learning project that concluded with a wrap-up presentation of Minor’s experiences at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. on September 21.

“It was important for the History & Genealogy Library to host an intern from the Roseland community, who is a Spanish speaker and from a younger demographic than our typical visitors,” Delgado and Kolosov said. “[Minor’s] perspective illuminated points of view that we had previously overlooked. Her passion and vision are very much in line with our goals to better document underrepresented communities, particularly LGBTQ and people of color.”

The Inclusive Internship Initiative is funded by PLA with support from a pre-professional Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program Grant (grant RE-00-17-0129-17) from the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

Sonoma County Archives Crawl

Posted on September 23, 2019

Saturday, October 5th, 2019

October is National Archives Month, which is the inspiration for the first ever Sonoma County Archives Crawl - an event designed to celebrate archives and encourage visitors to explore and engage with institutions that collect archival material.

Groups will be hosting tables at the Central Santa Rosa Library Forum Room (211 E Street, Santa Rosa):

• Sonoma Valley Historical Society
• Sonoma County Genealogical Society
• The Sitting Room Community Library
• Sonoma County Historical Society
• John C. Burton - Northwestern Bottle Collectors Assn.
• Lesbian Archives of Sonoma County
• Sonoma County LGBTQI Timeline
• Historical Society of Santa Rosa
• Sonoma County Historical Records Commission
• Sonoma County Clerk-Recorder-Assessor-Registrar of Voters
• Santa Rosa Rural Cemetery Preservation Committee
• Sonoma County 2020 Women's Suffrage Project

Special presentations at the Central Santa Rosa Forum Room:

12:30 PM - Preserving History and Democracy. Deva Marie Proto, Sonoma County Clerk-Recorder-Assessor-Registrar of Voters

2: 30 PM - Saving, Sharing, and Celebrating Your Family's History & Heritage. Jack Schaeffer, Act3 Partners

On Saturday, October 5th, 2019, Sonoma County Library's three special collections, the History & Genealogy Library, the Wine Library, and the Petaluma History Room, along with partner organizations listed below, will be hosting open houses.

1. California State Parks, Blue Wing Inn
   Address: 131 East Spain Street, Sonoma
   Contact Phone: (707) 938-9560
   Website: https://www.sonomaparks.org/pub/place/3
   Normal opening hours: none
   Hours open on October 5: 10 am to 4 pm
   Offering on October 5: The museum curator and others will greet visitors and share material from their archives. The theme for the event is An Invitation to Pomp and Circumstance, highlighting past invitations to socialize and celebrate.
   

    

2. The Sitting Room Community Library
   Address: 2025 Curtis Drive, Penngrove
   Contact Phone: (707) 795-9028
   Website: http://www.sittingroom.org/
   Normal opening hours: 9 am to 5 pm Monday through Saturday
   Hours open on October 5: 9 am to 6 pm
   Offering on October 5: Over 300 individual files on women writers will be available to browse, including the 13th Century on and spanning different regions, from Africa to Vietnam. Tea and scones will be served.
   

    

3. West County Museum
   Address: 261 South Main Street, Sebastopol
   Contact Phone: (707) 829-6711
   Website: https://wschs.org/museum/
   Normal opening hours: Thursday through Sunday 1 to 4 PM
   Hours open on October 5: 1 to 4 PM
   Offering on October 5: The library geared toward western Sonoma County will be open for research along with collections of artifacts, photos/negatives and newspapers. The exhibit “Seats of History” will be on display.
   

    

4. Healdsburg Museum and Historical Society
   Address: 221 Matheson Street, Healdsburg
   Contact Phone: (707) 431-3325
   Website: https://www.healdsburgmuseum.org/
   Normal opening hours: 11 am to 4 pm Wednesday through Sunday
   Hours open on October 5: 11 am to 4 pm
   Offering on October 5: Handwritten Healdsburg tax records, early Rancho Sotoyome maps and original WWII posters will be highlighted. "Wine Roots of Healdsburg" and "Mervyn Silberstein: A Photographic Legacy" exhibitions will be on display.
   

    

5. Charles M. Schulz Museum
   Address: 2301 Hardies Lane, Santa Rosa
   Phone: (707) 579-4452
   Website: https://schulzmuseum.org/visit
   Normal opening hours: week days 11 am to 5 pm and weekends 10 am to 5 pm
   Hours open on October 5: 10 am to 5 pm (museum) and 10 am to 3 pm (archives)
   Offering on October 5: Original illustrated correspondence from Charles’ Schulz’s time in the Army during WWII, calendars used by Schulz and one of the earliest comic books in which Schulz was published will be displayed.
   

    

6. Museum of Sonoma County
   Address: 425 Seventh Street, Santa Rosa
   Phone: (707) 579-1500
   Website: https://museumsc.org/visit/
   Normal opening hours: 11 am to 5 pm Tuesday through Sunday
   Hours open on October 5: 11 am to 5 pm (museum) and 11 am to 3 pm (archives)
   Offering on October 5: Highlights from the Song Wong Bourbeau Collection (Santa Rosa’s Chinatown), the Fountaingrove Collection and the Sonoma County Historical Society Collection will be on view in the archives. “Santa Rosa History” and “Día de los Muertos” exhibitions will be on display.
   

    

7. Cotati Museum and Historical Society
   Address: 201 West Sierra Avenue, Cotati
   Phone: (707) 794-0305
   Website: http://cotatihistoricalsociety.org/
   Normal opening hours: Saturdays 1 to 4 pm, second Tuesday of each month from 5 to 7 pm
   Hours open on October 5: noon to 4 pm
   Offering on October 5: The exhibit “WA: Harmony, Peace and things Japanese, Japanese in Cotati” will be on display. Other highlights include the Jim Boggio archives and Cotati Accordion Festival Poster archives.
   

    

8. Geyserville Museum at the Bosworth and Son Store
   Address: 21060 Geyserville Avenue, Geyserville
   Phone: (707) 857-3463
   Website: https://bosworthandson.com
   Normal opening hours: 11 am to 7 pm Thursday through Sunday
   Hours open on October 5: 11 am to 7 pm
   Offering on October 5: Geyserville historical photographs and local artifacts including handwritten documents associated with pioneer Dr. Elisha Ely and notebooks will be on display. The store sells Western apparel and hats. Come have your favorite hats cleaned!
   

    

9. Petaluma Historical Library and Museum
   Address: 20 Fourth Street, Petaluma
   Phone: (707) 778-4398
   Website: https://www.petalumamuseum.com
   Normal opening hours: 10 am to 4 pm Thursday through Sunday
   Hours open on October 5: 10 am to 4 pm
   Offering on October 5: The Hoppy Hopkins Research Library will be open. The current exhibit features photos of glass negatives from local photographer Joe Wayne. Visitors are invited to a Historic Downtown Walking Tour at 10:30 a.m., led by costumed docents.
   

    

10. Northwestern Pacific Railroad Historical Society (Hogarty Research Library and Archive)
    Address: 1364 North McDowell Boulevard, Petaluma
    Phone: (707) 838-8882
    Website: http://www.nwprrhs.org
    Normal opening hours: 10 am to 4 pm Thursdays
    Hours open on October 5: 11 am to 4 pm
    Offering on October 5: This collections consist of 10,000+ maps, 12,000+ photos, employee records, corporate records, financial records and more for the San Francisco and North Pacific, North Pacific Coast, Petaluma and Santa Rosa, and Albion Railroads as well as the Northwestern Pacific Railroad.
    

     

11. Northwestern Pacific Railroad Historical Society (Restoration Yard)
    Address: Corner of Copeland Street and East Washington Street, Petaluma
    Phone: (707) 838-8882
    Website: http://www.nwprrhs.org
    Normal opening hours: 10 am to 4 pm alternate Saturdays
    Hours open on October 5: 11 am to 4 pm
    Offering on October 5: Staff will explain the history of two fully restored cars of the Petaluma and Santa Rosa Railroad, one baggage car of the San Francisco and North Pacific Railroad, and one passenger car of the Northwestern Pacific Railroad undergoing restoration.
    

     

12. Windsor Historical Society & Hembree House Museum
    Address: 9225 Foxwood Drive, Windsor
    Phone: (707) 838-4563
    Website: http://WindsorHistory.org
    Normal opening hours: 9:30 - 4:30 Friday, Saturday and Sunday and by appointment
    Hours open on October 5t: 9:30 to 4:30
    Offering on October 5: The 1938 Camp Windsor Migrant Labor Camp collection will be available and the Camp Windsor, German POW Camp collection; including photos, letters, recollections, etc.
    

     

13. Sonoma County History & Genealogy Library and Archives
    Address: 725 Third Street, Santa Rosa
    Phone: (707) 308-3212
    Website: https://sonomalibrary.org/locations/sonoma-county-history-and-genealogy-...
    Normal opening hours: M & W 10 AM to 9 PM; T, Th, Fri, & Sat 10 AM to 6 PM
    Hours open on October 5: 11 AM to 4 PM
    Offering on October 5: There will be pop-up exhibits featuring recent donations, as well as a local history quiz and scavenger hunt. Staff will be on hand to discuss preservation issues, how to teach with primary resources and offer research tips and tricks.
    

     

14. Sonoma County Wine Library – Healdsburg Regional Library
    Address: 139 Piper Street, Healdsburg
    Phone: (707) 433-3772 ext. 0416
    Website: https://sonomalibrary.org/locations/sonoma-county-wine-library
    Normal opening hours: M & W 10 AM to 9 PM; T, Th, Fri, & Sat 10 AM to 6 PM
    Hours open on October 5: 11 AM to 4 PM
    Offering on October 5 : Displays of historic wine bottles, labels and corkscrews. Test your knowledge for a chance to win a prize and make sure to visit the Healdsburg Museum’s exhibit “Wine Roots of Healdsburg” which features items from the Wine Library collection.
    

     

15. Petaluma History Room – Petaluma Regional Library
    Address: 100 Fairgrounds Drive, Petaluma
    Phone: (707) 763-9801
    Website: https://sonomalibrary.org/locations/petaluma-history-room
    Normal opening hours: M & W 10 AM to 9 PM; T, Th, Fri, & Sat 10 AM to 6 PM
    Hours open on October 5 : 11 AM to 4 PM
    Offering on October 5: Displays with fun facts about Petaluma streets as well as the 1912 trip of the Alco truck carrying the first paid delivery by truck in the nation. Then and now pictures of Petaluma. Use of typewriters to write a letter that staff will mail.
    

     

Sonoma County Library awarded grant to protect special collections

Posted on August 21, 2019

Sonoma County Library has been awarded a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Preservation Assistance Grant. The award will aid in the continued care and protection of the library’s historical materials through the purchase of equipment and supplies that support proper environmental monitoring and storage as well as disaster prevention and recovery for its irreplaceably valuable collections. The staff of the History & Genealogy Library, located in downtown Santa Rosa, will lead the project with support from the library’s facilities team.

“This award will fund the purchase of environmental monitoring units, shelving for oversized archival materials and disaster recovery supplies that can easily be mobilized during an emergency,” said Sonoma County History & Genealogy Library Manager Katherine Rinehart. “As caretakers of Sonoma County’s history, we are pleased to be able to further ensure the care and protection of our unique special collections.”

The grant’s period is from September 2019 to February 2021 and is in the amount of $7,663.

The October 2017 fires directly threatened the library’s off-site storage of county government records. As part of a larger community effort to find a new home for the archive, library staff sought funding to improve collection management and enhance rapid response to threats to special collections held at the off-site archive, the Wine Library in Healdsburg, the Petaluma History Room and the History & Genealogy Library.

The library’s special collections and archives span from the early 19th century to the present and are particularly strong in the areas of local government, architecture and urban development, agriculture, Native history and culture, women’s history, transportation, arts, immigration and the history of settlement in Sonoma County.

The NEH grant proposal was designed to implement recommendations from a 2018 preservation needs assessment funded by the California State Library’s Preservation Program, as well as best practices outlined in a series of disaster preparedness and recovery workshops.

The grant compliments other efforts Sonoma County Library has made to expand documentation of the county’s history, including a web archiving project, North Bay Fires 2017, that is part of a national public library web archiving initiative led by Internet Archive.

Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this news post do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Sonoma County Library joins 50 nationwide libraries in hosting interns from diverse backgrounds

Posted on July 03, 2019

The Sonoma County History & Genealogy Library in Santa Rosa is hosting a summer intern, Cortunay Minor, as part of the Public Library Association’s Inclusive Internship Initiative (III). Minor was one of 56 applicants to the program. She graduated in the top 10 percentile with Summa Cum Laude Honor Roll distinction from Santa Rosa High School.

“We anticipate learning as much from [Minor] as she will about the unique opportunities that come with working with special collections in a public library setting,” said Sonoma County History & Genealogy Library Manager Katherine Rinehart.

Minor has been in her role for a few weeks and is finding the experience to be enjoyable and rewarding. “My critical thinking has expanded, my local historical awareness is developing, my social identity vocabulary is maturing and the overall open-mindedness I try to maintain has stretched even wider,” Minor said. “Guided by the structure of the internship, I plan to keep working in this direction of reconsideration and redefinition, if only to help authentically document those who have been historically under-documented.”

Through the initiative, PLA is sponsoring paid, mentored public library internships for 50 high school juniors and seniors from diverse backgrounds. With individual guidance from a mentor, each intern will engage with multiple facets of library life. Over the course of the summer, interns and mentors will develop and complete a connected-learning project. III will have an immediate benefit to the libraries and student participants. Library staff will better understand early career pathways to librarianship and gain appreciation for their role and impact in supporting diversity along those paths. Students will better understand how librarians positively serve their communities, and gain the tools to make decisions about the educational directions that will lead them into library service and leadership. Interns will have opportunities to connect with one another and mentors across the country to share what they are learning and doing.

Minor began her internship in June and has been working closely with her appointed mentors at the History & Genealogy Library; Special Collections Librarians and Archivists Zayda Delgado and Joanna Kolosov. The trio is working on a connected learning project that will conclude with a wrap-up presentation of Minor’s experiences in Washington, D.C. Delgado and Minor recently traveled to Chicago for III’s summer kick-off event from June 13-15.

This fall, Minor will head to Seattle to continue her academic and artistic studies at Cornish College of the Arts, where she is majoring in theater acting. She is particularly interested in promoting cultural tolerance and competency among local populations. She plans to target teens and young adults, but is hopeful that any long-term impact will reach beyond these groups.

III is funded by PLA with support from a pre-professional Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program Grant (grant RE-00-17-0129-17) from the Institute of Museum and Library Services.