Staunton Public Library Genealogical Collection Library

Space & Physical Access

The Staunton Public Library is located on the outskirts of downtown Staunton Virginia. The beautiful brick building is a historical feature of the City, to me it resembles a museum. In the 1920’s it used to a be a school for Staunton residents. It has recently been renovated to bring back the charm from the era. It has original hardwood floors and is full of brick on the inside as well. On the outside there is a public transportation bus stop and bike racks for patrons who live nearby. There is a basement entrance that immediately runs into the elevator. This entrance also opens to a serene area with outside seating for reading in nature under a tree.

The Library has 3 floors. Upon entering you are immediately greeted at the front desk. It is not a fully open space, when renovated they kept many walls from prior classrooms, it is full of historical character. Located to the left is the young adult section in its own room. Beside this there is a small private media room. Further left is the reference center, and even further left is where the special genealogical center is located. Across from the help desk are books, periodicals, dvd’s and audio books. Beside this is an average size closed off classroom for a quiet space to catch up on newspaper readings, comfortable seating and a table. There are a few desktop computers, due to the age of the building there is not an abundance of outlets for many electronics.

Upstairs there is a whole side of the library that is completely set aside for the visually impaired. There are also offices upstairs for librarians to work. There are also meeting rooms, board rooms, and classrooms.

The entire downstairs is dedicated to the children. It is an open space full of children. There are 2 small child size touch screen computers where toddlers were completely engaged. There is a puzzle station. There is also a separate classroom downstairs for all of the fun activities this library provides.

Services & Intellectual Access

The entire collection is organized by the Dewey Decimal System. The workers were explaining to me how so many books can be classified as one in some libraries and in a totally different category according to another library and everyone is still correct in their own classification system. Some of the special services that the Staunton Public Library provides are: curbside pickup, interlibrary loan, free mobile print access from anywhere. There is a digital media lab available to transfer older digital resources to the current date technology. Some of these converters are used for: VCR tapes, audio cassette tapes, digital slides and pictures, and even reels. They have a library of things for checkout for longer periods that include: art prints, musical equipment, telescopes, state park kits, museum passes, and science kits.

This library is full of programs. Some of these for kids are: mother goose time, toddler story time, multi-age storytime, teen anime, summer scares bookclub and art cart. There are 2 major programs for adults that catch my attention. They feature local author visits and also have a bookclub that meets at a local brewery located right down the street.

Patrons & Staff

This library serves patrons of all ages. The basement is full of kids. The upstairs is full of adults of all ages. During my tour they expressed that they showed me teens that just come and hang out on bean bags during the day, as well as a safe space for some of the homeless in our community. People are doing a variety of activities whether it is reading the newspaper, scrolling for books, using computers, or searching through the history of the city. My favorite part ab

One of my favorite parts about the Staunton Public Library is that they list all of their staff with pictures on their website. They even share what they are in charge of and their reading recommendations. The Staunton Public Library staffs 36 librarians. They typically rotate between 3 different shifts everyday. While I was touring they showed me rooms upstairs that there are librarians who do not deal with the public at all. They may do things like finances, or ordering and receiving books. There are many “middle aged white females” but there are also older women, and a male staff working on the day that I visited.

Collection

My focus for this visit was to explore the special genealogical, reference, and historical section. These sections were full of materials that could not be checked out. The reference section was stocked of encyclopedias. The word to describe the genealogical and historical section was awe. I was amazed at what all this file cabinet contained about the history of Staunton Virginia.  In our text Rubin says “the mission of special libraries to provide specific information rather than books or other materials was an important factor in the rise of information science”  (2020, p. 41). On the shelves of the collection that the genealogical section included were some self published books.  The files ranged from newspapers, pictures, to historical notes.There were self published sections of local patrons who had information about the history of the city. There were even books for certain last names and the tracing of the family. There were lots of books on all of the people of Staunton who had served in the military. There is also a file section that is labeled by historical buildings in the area, as well as historical events. For instance we pulled up a mental institution, DeJarnette, that had closed down in our area. Around Halloween everyone visits because it is said to be haunted. It has since been renovated recently into condos. We went through the file and found a doctor at this institution who sterilized mentally “unfit” Virginians. This file was full of historical evidence of the City of Staunton. Some of the reference and historical features include: historical maps, microfilm, census records, and telephone directories.

While my focus was on the special sections I couldn’t go without mentioning the entire facility. There is a catalog available. There is an entire large upstairs room that is devoted solely to the visually impaired and elderly patrons. Along with this the Library offers a Talking Book Club. There is an adult basic education collection which serves adult patrons who are learning how to read. This also includes spelling and math as well as English Language Learners. There is an extensive parent/teacher collection for homebound students. This also includes resources for Bible and Sunday school education. My favorite service was the Talking Book Club that is designed for those who are blind, print disabled,

Digital Access

Here is a direct link to the website: https://www.ci.staunton.va.us/departments/library. They also advertise through Facebook. The only extra digital access available for the special parts of the library was access to ancestry.com and Heritage Quest. This is due to the fact of preserving all materials to keep historical records.

My favorite digital access is the fact that free wifi automatically logged in immediately as I opened my chromebook. Some of the online resources the Staunton Public Library provides are: Ebooks, Libby the reading app, Find it Virginia, Learning Express Library, creativebug, Universal Class, and Hoopla. They even offer help with voter information. They offer online employment and government resources. Due to the space not having many electrical outlets they offer many chromebooks for checkout.

Children have access to Gale Ebooks, Junior Library Guild, Just for Kids, and Novelist K-8 Plus.

Other/Final Thoughts

I have always been on the school librarian track, however this was the first public library that I toured that gave me an extra option within the MLIS field. The librarians in this facility were so welcoming and extremely friendly and helpful. They wanted me to have a good experience and most of our conversations were full of smiles and lots of laughter. They were completely open and honest with me. Some of them were school teachers who also transitioned into the public library.

While we all transition to the new digital era I had to wonder if some of the resources in the history, reference and genealogical section might fall behind. I can only imagine some of the challenges that these sections may face in the future as all libraries do. I hope that the preservation of the materials is kept to the public so that we all may find out more about our history and family ties.

References:  

Rubin, R. E. and Rubin, R. G. (2020). Foundations of library and information science (5th ed.). ALA Neal-Schuman.