Warm Feelings

Behold some of the cards we have received at the library and the remains of treats we have enjoyed in this last week. We are touched by the personal regard of some of our patrons. To their thanks we say, "You're welcome. Really. Our pleasure."

Conserving Maps

The Carolina Room houses maps of Charlotte, Mecklenburg County and the Carolinas. The oldest are reproductions of colonial-era maps. Original maps from the twentieth-century show the growth of Charlotte, the layout of old neighborhoods, the courses of roads and waterways that have since altered, and in a few cases the location of individual structures.

Librarians at the Carolina room have made access to the maps easier while insuring them against harm as well. We have rearranged the shelves in the map room so that all the cases of map file drawers are together and we have placed them in "sleeves" - clear plastic covers. Note that the map held by librarian Thomas Cole in the accompanying photograph does not droop when held within its archival sleeve. It is less likely to be damaged by use and easier to find and extract.

Mecklenburg County has put some historic maps online also.

Digitizing images from microfilm

Advertisements from the North Carolina Whig, Feb. 11, 1852

Good news for all searchers of old newspapers and public records! Earlier this year the Carolina Room obtained a new microfilm reader - a Konica-Monica MS7000. Among other features, it could function as a scanner - converting the photographic image on microfilm to a digital file. It took some doing - see this other blog entry for details - but the Carolina Room staff are now able to transfer images directly from the microfilm reader to a laptop computer.

This service improvement permits us to respond to requests for newspaper articles or other microfilmed content by attaching a file to an email and sending it off. Compared to printing it out and mailing it, this method gives our users the materials they need in less time and in higher quality reproductions.

Visitors to the library with their own laptops may also connect to the scanner and download images, though library staff would have to instruct them first on how to set up their computers to communicate with the scanner.