1. WILMETTE LOCAL
HISTORY COLLECTION
For Librarians

2. Local History
Room
The Local History
Collection contains a
“legacy” group of
Wilmette photographs,
newspapers and
documents.
Little has been added to
the collection since
1990.

3. Most
Commonly
Requested
The most common
inquiries are about
Wilmette people or the
history of old houses in
the Village.
The Local History
Collection is organized
with those two topics in
mind.

4. Wilmette
Historical
Museum
Librarians also use the
collection to assist
patrons with local history
questions when the
Wilmette Historical
Museum is closed.

5. What is in the Local History Room ?

6. File
Cabinets
The collection consists
primarily of three large
file cabinets containing
clippings from local
newspapers organized
by subject.

7. Steel
Cabinet
A large steel cabinet
next to the file cabinets
contains binders of
heavily used materials.

8. Biography
Notebooks
Clippings about people
are filed in BIOGRAPHY
notebooks by last name.

9. House
Notebooks
Clippings about old
houses are filed in
HOUSE binders
organized by street
address

10. Index
Street index of House
binders is taped to the
cabinet door.

11. Photographs
Photographs are filed in
binders by broad
subject.
There is a separate
index to all of the
photographs on the shelf
next to the binders.

12. OTHER RESOURCES
In the Local History Collection

13. Telephone
Books
Telephone books and
city directories.
The earliest telephone
books have been
digitized, and can only
be viewed and searched
online.
More recent telephone
books are kept in the
Local History Room.

14. Histories
Histories of Wilmette

15. Oral
Histories
A series of oral histories
was prepared in the
1970s on cassette
tapes.
The tapes have been
digitized and are
available with their
transcriptions on the
Local History Website.
Funding was provided
by a Wilmette Public
Library Creativity Grant.

16. Oral
Histories
The originals are
shelved beside the
Reference Desk, and
can still be checked out
by patrons.

17. Maps

18. Historic
Maps
Historic maps are used
to document locations
and changes in street
names.

19. Bound
Atlases
Maps bound in volumes
are on the atlas stand.
The stand was a gift of
the Friends of WPL

20. Sanborn
Maps
The Sanborn Fire
Insurance Atlas is on top
of the atlas stand
It is the most commonly
requested atlas

21. Individual
Maps
Single maps are in the
Map Box on top of the
filing cabinets
A list of the single maps
and bound atlases is
kept in a notebook on
the counter in the Local
History Room.

22. The
Annex
On the second floor,
opposite Fred’s office, is
a storage area where
additional local history
materials are kept.

23. Bound Issues
Wilmette Life
A few bound issues of
the Wilmette Life
recently donated to the
Library by Sun-Times
Media are kept here.

24. Microfilms
Microfilms of newspaper
issues that have already
been digitized are here
as well.

25. The
Key
The keys to the Local
History Room and The
Annex are kept behind
the recent arrivals desk.

26. LOCAL HISTORY PAGE

27. Local
History
Page
The Local History page
of the Library website is
located under the tab
“Local Community.”

28. Local History
Web Page
The Local History page
has a link to the list of
maps.
Genealogy and house-
history sources links are
available there as well.
The “Search Widget”
takes patrons directly to
the Local History
website.

29. THE LOCAL HISTORY WEBSITE
http://history.wilmettelibrary.info

30. Wilmette
Local History
Website
The goal of the website
is to make the contents
of this small, unique
collection accessible to
as wide an audience as
possible.
The site is searchable
through Google.

31. Photographs
A link on the website
leads to the photographs
that have been digitized.

32. Photographs
Photographs in the
Local History Room that
have been digitized are
marked with a big red D
sticker.

33. Telephone
Books
The earliest Wilmette
telephone books are on
the website.
The books are very
useful to genealogists
and house-history
hunters who can search
the digital books by
address.

34. Books and
Pamphlets
This pamphlet dates
from the World War I
era.

35. Obituaries
Obituaries from local
papers are indexed from
1971-2012

36. Maps
A few individual maps
have been added to the
website

37. Most
Popular
Pages
The website allows the
administrator to see
what things are most
popular

38. Historic
documents and
letters
Researchers enjoy the
thank-you letters written
by soldiers during WWI
to Wilmette ladies for
sending warm, knitted
socks, scarves and
sweaters.

39. • “You cannot imagine how grateful
Oral Histories
The oral histories are
I am, that thanks to you, I am
among the most popular
items on the site
able to hear his voice once more.
generating delighted
comments and hundreds
As a genealogist I believe this is
of hits. also such a valuable historical
resource. Thanks for making my
heart glad again.”

40. Oral
Histories
Patrons can listen to
streaming audio and
read the transcript on
the site.
A link allows downloads
of the audio with iTunes

41. Oral Histories
Patrons can download
the sound tracks directly
from the iTunes store,
too.
The patron must have
iTunes software on a
computer in order to do
this.

42. Wilmette
Newspapers
Some newspapers are
available on the site
too…

43. …BUT FIRST A LITTLE
BACKGROUND

44. 1991
Index
In 1991 we stopped
clipping and filing
articles.
A printed index to the
Wilmette Life was
begun.

45. 2003
Online
Database
In 2003 the index was
converted to a database
format and went online.

46. 2010
Digital
Display
By 2010 the software
had evolved to permit
the display of digital
newspapers in addition
to the index.

47. Oldest
Newspapers
Digitized
The oldest Wilmette
newspapers, The Local
News and The Lake
Shore News, have been
digitized and added to
the website
A Wilmette Public
Library Creativity Grant
provided funding for the
project.

48. Goodbye
Microfilm!

49. ©OPYRIGHT AND THE
WILMETTE LIFE

50. Public
Domain • Newspapers published before
Newspapers can be
1923 are in public domain
displayed online if they
are in the public domain
or if the Library has • Newspaper published between
permission from the
copyright owner
1923 -1977 without a copyright
symbol are in the public domain.
©

51. 1912 – 1923
Public Domain
The Lake Shore News
and The Local News
issues are in the public
domain.
Digital issues are
available on the website

52. 1923 - 1977
Public
Domain
A few public domain
Wilmette Life issues
from this period have
been digitized, and are
available on the website.

53. Wilmette Life
A calendar on the site
provides links to these
digital issues.

54. After-1977
Copyright
Protected
You will see links to
2008-2012 Wilmette Life
issues on the calendar.
These issues have been
digitized, but only the
covers can be displayed
online.
Articles from these
papers are indexed on
the website.
In order to read the
articles, the patron must
use microfilm OR….

55. 2008-2012
Digitized
Patrons can view the
2008-2012 digital
issues, in color, on a
stand-alone PC in the
Recent Arrivals room.
Patrons can search,
download, and print to
the Library’s networked
printer
Wilmette Public Library
Creativity Grant
provided the funding for
the project.

56. Microfilm
Still
Needed
1924-2007
Microfilm is still needed
to read older Wilmette
Life articles found in the
online index as they
have not yet been
digitized.

57. What’s
Where
The Website has a link
on the home page to a
list of Wilmette’s
newspapers and how
they can be accessed.

58. Staff
Login
A link on the staff page
will give you access to
materials that are not
visible to patrons.
You can enter the
database to correct
spelling errors, add
information, or make
disputed entries
“invisible”

59. Non-Public
Records
Often you will find full-
text of obituaries here
that cannot be displayed
online because of
copyright restrictions.

60. THE END
Please attend the Local History “refresher” Dec. 10th