MARSHALL — Old photographs, important documents, love letters, family recipes, historical maps, oversized books, and more can now be scanned and preserved at Marshall Public Library thanks to the addition of a Knowledge Imaging Center (KIC). The KIC scans can be saved to a flash drive or emailed, providing a way for patrons to preserve almost any item. A grant funded the machine as well as a handicapped accessible workstation.
Area residents are invited to an open house from 5 to 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 22 to view a demonstration of the capabilities of the KIC system. Attendees are encouraged to bring items to the open house that they would like scanned. Refreshments will be served.
MPL received another grant that will help more than 300 researchers who visit the Marshall Public Library’s Local History and Genealogy Room each year from all parts of Missouri, 16 states and Canada. Requests for information also come in to the Library via telephone and email. The vast majority of these requests require use of the microfilm collection. The microfilm scanner will also be demonstrated at the open house.
The Local History Room is staffed by one part-time person and several volunteers who utilize more than 900 rolls of microfilm for all newspapers in Saline County, as well as probate and census records. The newspaper microfilm begins in 1891, and MPL adds rolls on a quarterly basis as they become available. MPL is also responsible for providing a “This Day in History” column for the daily newspaper, and microfilm is used to provide material for these columns.
Wicky Sleight, Marshall Public Library Director, said, “We are so grateful to the Missouri State Library and to the donors who helped provide the required matching funds for these grants which total $27,000. We will be able to enhance our service to area library patrons and possibly save them some money, too. Patrons can now send scans of paperwork by email (which are free) rather than paying to send faxes.” She added, “By scanning material from books, rather than making photocopies, we can prevent damage to the books’ spines and avoid the dark, misshapen lines that result from pressing down on the book on the copier.”
These projects are supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by the Missouri State Library, a division of the Office of the Secretary of State.