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The Local History Room contains an eclectic, non-circulating reference collection, emphasizing Long Island Regional and Patchogue-Medford Area history, but also includes a collection on selected aspects of New York State History. Materials in other collections of the library supplement it..
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From the Main Street Entrance: Walk straight ahead to the back of the building. Go past the book stacks (Main Floor, ground level). From the Terry Street Parking Lot Entrance: As you enter, go just past the Reference Desk (straight ahead), and turn left. Go to back of building. Once in back of building: Look for door toward the right, marked "Celia M. Hastings Local History Room".
Room Hours
The PML Local History Room is Open Only During the Following Posted Hours:
(It is closed at other times, when it is being used as a staff office.)
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Monday, Tuesday, & Wednesday: |
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6:00 P.M.-9:00 P.M. |
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Thursday & Friday |
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2:00 P.M.-5:00 P.M. |
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Saturday |
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9:30 AM - 12:00 P.M. & 2:00 P.M.-5:00P.M. |
See also our
Centennial links
for more information.
http://www.pmlib.org/That
Was the Centennial That Was.htm
[5 sites]
An Even Briefer History of the CMH Local History Room
#Books: are divided between Long Island Reference & New York Reference Collections (backed by the Library's Reference, Nonfiction, Oversized, Young Adult, Children's & Parents, and various Storage collections). Each collection is arranged by Dewey Decimal Classification number. The L.I. Reference Collection contains, e.g., works on L.I. archaeology, architecture, ethnic & gender history, geography, geology, families, individuals, historical periods and events. There are titles on selected aspects of L.I. agricultural, business, economic, educational, environmental, genealogical, industrial, literary, maritime, military, naval, political, religious, scientific, technological, and social history. There is a mix of politically correct and politically incorrect volumes, classics, standard works, and recent scholarly findings. Public documents include selected town records, cemetery records, environmental studies, historic sites, various planning studies, and more. You'll also find general histories and records of the L.I. Region (2 and 4 county studies), individual Counties (Suffolk, Nassau), L.I.'s Outlier Islands (e.g., Fire, Fisher's, Gardiners, Robins), Towns (e.g., Brookhaven, Huntington, Shelter Island, Southold), incorporated and unincorporated Villages within Towns (e.g., Patchogue, Medford, East Patchogue, Huntington village, New Suffolk, Yaphank), and customary Village Groupings (e.g., Three Village Area, Five Towns, The Hamptons). In each case, these have each been brought together on the shelf, for the first time, by using a special organizational chart, invented for the purpose.* The N.Y. Reference Collection contains, e.g., selected histories, studies, and documents on New York State, its regions, counties, cities, archeology, historical periods, native plant and animal life, cemeteries, industries, Indians, as well as historical travel aids, military records, gazetteers, and more. Works on various aspects of the history of New York City and of its Boroughs are generally found here, or in N.Y. Ref. Storage. Approximately half the L.I. Ref. Collection and three quarters of the N.Y. Ref. Collection is held in storage, due the space constraints of the Local History Room.
#A Guide to Localizing Dewey for Long Island Use: is an original means of grouping works by Region, County, Town, L.I. Island, Village, and Village Group, and within each of these categories, sorting them roughly alphabetically, by place name, using a mnemonic (i.e., sounds like) abbreviation, for each place. This unique arrangement was developed in-house, in direct response to the way people prefer to use the L.I. Reference Collection. It subdivides a large part of the collection, finer than Dewey Decimal Classification allows (which goes no smaller than the county-level), grouping what basically are geographically-focused works, geographically (instead of scattering the works, by author or title). The result is much faster, easier, more precise access to the materials, even when the electronic library catalog is down. Far less time is now spent gathering materials together, meaning more time for patrons' active study and research. A number of public libraries have expressed interest in this organizational scheme, and in its posting to the web. So, it is provided here, as a public service, for L.I. use, or adaptation. (Click on the link above to see a complete listing.)
#Serials: These include local history (a) magazines, (b) reviewing sources, (c) yearbooks, (d) travel & business directories of an earlier time, and (e) books in series (mostly in storage, due to space constraints). Here's a sample of Local History Room's serials:
Related materials can also be found in the Periodicals Plus Room:
#Broken runs of old telephone directories (mostly Suffolk White and Yellow Pages, see the library
catalog), are held in storage (for preservation and spatial reasons). While these are non
-circulating, issues may be viewed in the Periodical Plus Room. Just ask at their desk.
#Local history periodicals & some back issues of works in the LHR [usually microfilm], e.g.:
? Argus [Patchogue, NY], September 23, 1924-February 24, 1942 [microfilm]
? Long Island News, April 1, 1982-December 26, 1985 [microfilm]
? Main Street Press [Patchogue, NY], October 1951-December 1983 [microfilm]
? Mid-Island Mail, June 12, 1935 -August 13, 1941 [microfilm]
? Newsday, January 1979-Present [Earlier issues are held, in microfilm, by Suffolk Cooperative Library
System. Also note: The online version of Newsday may be searched in the Patchogue-Medford
Library's Reference Technology area, which behind the public Reference Desk, on the main floor.]
? New York Times, Jan. 1, 1967- [Earlier issues are obtainable on microfilm from SCLS.]
? Long Island Advance (formerly Patchogue Advance) [Patchogue, NY], ca. 1874-Present [some issue-
gaps in early microfilm]
? Rivington's Gazette, 1773-1783 [New York, NY] (a prime Loyalist newspaper, in American Revolution)
? Patchogue [microfilmed atlases]. (Sanborn Fire Insurance Atlases), 1884-1941 [i.e., 1925]. Published
irregularly, the atlases provide outlines of individual buildings, out-buildings, usually by street number, within
the zones surveyed, limited interior features, sometimes are depicted. Large businesses (e.g., factories) tend
to be shown in greater detail than private houses or small businesses. There are also individual atlases for
other villages in the vicinity of Patchogue. These may be viewed in the Periodical Plus Room.
? Seton Hall High School Yearbooks, 1941-1974, is held in storage, due to space and preservation
constraints, and while non-circulating, may also be examined in the Periodicals Plus Room.
? Suffolk Daily Island News, Oct. 26, 1933-Aug. 26, 1938
? Selected Suffolk County, N.Y. Census [in microfilm, various years] are held in the Periodical Room
? Selected NYS passenger ship arrival records [in microfilm, various years] are held in the Periodical
Room
Related materials can also be found via Computers in the Tech Area
(behind the Adult Reference Desk, near the center of the main floor)
? Accessible via the Library's subscriptions to the searchable:
³ New York Times, Historical Edition, 1851-2001 and Current Edition, 1996-Present
³ Social Security Death Benefit Index, accessible via Library subscription to Ancestry.com, and on
the web among other places, via Steve Morse's website @ http://stevemorse.org/ssdi/ssdi.html
Related newspapers can be searched at Home or via Computers in the Tech Area
³Brooklyn Daily Eagle Online, 1841-1902 @ http://www.broolkynpubliclibrary.org/eagle/,
Leads to digitized facsimiles of the text, as it originally appeared in the pages of the print edition.
Contains information related to Suffolk, Nassau Brooklyn, Queens, & New York City.
E.g., provides news related to most Suffolk County, NY villages, from Montauk and Orient to Amityville
and Huntington, personalities, events, businesses. Note: Some villages then sported different names, e.g.,
Lindenhurst was then Breslau. Brooklyn Public Library is working to expand its online coverage.
³Suffolk Historic Newspapers @ http://shn.suffolk.lib.ny.us/
Recently released contains short runs of 4 Suffolk County, N.Y. 19th century weekly newspapers:
[Huntington, NY]; The Long Islander, 1839-1863; [Sag Harbor, NY] Corrector, 1858-1871; [Bay
Shore, NY] South Side Signal, 1869-1879; [Southold, NY] Long Island Traveler, 1880-1892
[recently added]. Useful for information on L.I. villages, personalities, events, businesses. Suffolk
Cooperative Library System and its member libraries are working to expand the number of newspapers
represented, and range of coverage.
#Vertical Files: What are they?: Articles, pamphlets, & other flat material (e.g., photos, manuscripts, correspondence, maps), arranged by subject (from A-Z) in physical file folders (& in larger expanding folders of file folders), placed in file cabinets. The Celia M. Hastings Local History Room has a L.I. Vertical File (eight 4-drawer legal-size file cabinets filled with information on various aspects of L.I. history), and its considerable sub-section, the L.I.-Patchogue Vertical File (2 cabinets of 8 drawers) as well as a number of fragile scrapbooks. There are also files for L.I. -- Medford, L.I. -- East Patchogue, and L.I. -- North Patchogue, though more needs to be researched and written locally on the history of each of these villages, and on South Medford, to expand these to greater usefulness. The L. I. Vertical Files used to use very broad subject headings, which have now been brought in line with standard Library of Congress Subject Headings, supplemented by much finer subheadings, permitting far more precise, faster access to more specific types of information. The suggestion that the file contents (with their many publishers & authors) be reduced to an easily-communicated electronic format is a noble & laudable one, that crashes quickly on the legal rocks of copyright. (The same is true of books, and other materials, esp. those written after 1923.) Portions of the Library's Adult Reference Vertical Files and Children's & Parents' Services (CAPS) Vertical Files, plus the entire Suffolk Cooperative Library System Long Island Vertical File (held in Basement Storage, due to its size, volume, & insufficient space in the Room to house it) support the Local History Room's Vertical Files.
Click to view the entire Long Island Vertical File Subject Heading List (the equivalent of over 100 printed pages). alphabetic. (Note: The L.I.-- Patchogue section has its own inner alphabet.) It's not that hard to follow,and is searchable. [Use the Control + F(ind) buttons simultaneously, and enter a term.] The refinement of the L.I. Vertical Files owes much to the ongoing labor and dedication of Carrie Locke. What has resulted is a several fold gain: (1) We now have a greater degree of precision and speed of access to material on file than is either usually the case in the "standard" local history collection. (2) The expanded classification has repeatedly proven its time- and-effort-saving value (for patrons and librarians alike) over the previous sift and sort approach, by presorting and presenting each of the separate elements of large volumes of material. (3) It has proven its value in helping answer more reference questions more quickly, and in getting someone more directly to the kind of material they want. (3) Now, just about anyone can learn to use it well, and fairly independently. Its effective use is no longer dependent solely on the memory of any one person.
#Electronic Resources & Services: (Please feel free to ask what we're working on currently)
? Standard resources, searchable by the librarian on duty, include:
? The Patchogue-Medford Library & County catalogs
? RLG's RLINAMC website (where the elusive, New York State Historical Documents Inventory's
Suffolk and Nassau County archives' collection descriptions are to be found)
? Other selected web resources.
? We can offer specialized local history search strategy suggestions, techniques, or guidance on
electronic resources that might help yield useful results on your reference or research topic.
? The staff-produced Local History website @ http://www.pmlib.org/Longislandhistoryrm.htm
is an umbrella site, describing & containing links to the following websites:
³Celia M. Hastings Local History Room Website [with its many subject / topical links / & contact info.]
³PML's Long Island & Patchogue Vertical File Subject Heading List
³New York State History Website [classified by subject]
³Long Island History Website [classified by subject]
³Long Island Forum Index, 1938-2003 [searchable, LI Forum was a leading local history magazine]
³Researching Your House [using library & other local resources, online version of the brochure]
³A Glimpse of Long Island's Poetic Heritage [also with links to recent poetry, lectures, open mikes, etc.]
³Long Island in African-American History [classified by subject]
³Long Island in Women's History [classified by subject]
³Benjamin Franklin Tercentennary Website, 1706-2006 [commemorating Franklin's birth & life]
? On the long-term drawing board are websites on:
? Brookhaven Town History
? Patchogue-Medford Area History
? Patchogue-Medford Area History
? Patchogue-Medford Library History
? Many PML Local History Resources are in various stages of development. Some are online, others offline (e.g.,
PowerPoint Presentations on aspects of Brookhaven Town History, prepared for its 350th anniversary in 2005,
digital historical documents & images, some incorporated into PPT presentations, broadsides, or MS Word
files), on floppy discs, CDs, or DVDs, some are limited to a single computer, or printed versions, often used in
answering questions from the public. Some of the areas being addressed are:
? L.I. aspects of commemorative celebrations, thematic, history months, weeks, days, years, e.g.:
Benjamin Franklin Birth Tri-Centennial, African-American History Month, Women's History Month,
National Poetry Month, Preservation Month, Hispanic-American Heritage Month, Jewish-American
History month, from which occasional exhibits, bibliographies, and other publications have often
emerged, as well as specialized guides, a finding aid to Patchogue JOUAM Chapter archives.
? We are examining and interpreting the collection, creating new publications and reference works to
improve access to them, considering a series of thematic guides and archival finding aids, and
publishing findings, as time and available resources permit.
? E-resources in the Celia M. Hastings Local History Room are supplemented by selected electronic
subscriptions items, accessible in the Reference Technology Area, at the Adult, Young Adult, and
Children's & Parents' Services Reference Desks, subscription websites and databases in the SCLS
Virtual Reference Library, accessible from our website, and by searches of Google and other search
engines.
? Creation of local historical images & documents, and of a variety of interpretive publications, often
incorporating them in a variety of print or electronic publications, has been ongoing, since just before the year
2000, when a scanner was first acquired for the Local History Room.
? Local history reference (as opposed to research) questions may be posed electronically (via E-mail, fax, or
telephone) or in-person (during posted Local History Room hours), or by snail mail (letter). They may be
asked by clicking on Live Librarian from the PML Homepage, or may be posted directly to the site @
http://www.suffolk.lib.ny.us/snl/, even when the library is closed, and Live Librarian service is offered. It is
staffed by librarians, from around the county, Patchogue-Medford Library being strongly represented.
? Genealogy is one of the most popular & most heavily used areas of the collection. Our L.I. Reference
and N.Y. Reference collection (mostly in the Dewey Decimal 929's) and their corresponding Storage
collections, are an extension of the resources of PML's Genealogical Reference Collection. The LI REF &
NY REF section on L.I. & NYS families (collectively or individually), are generally indexed by surname. Even
those works on a single family have relations with different last names, that are indexed, along with the name
of individual people. Fortunately, for the LI/NYS and the general REF collection there are two handy,
classified bibliographies: (a) A Genealogy Bibliography and (b) Long Island / New York\
Genealogical Resources in the Celia M. Hastings Local History Room, both edited by Antonia Raptis,
each providing thematic access to books, with the Dewey Decimal Number location of each book.
? PML has launched a Genealogy Research Group, which the local public is invited to join It meets in the
library, has occasional speakers, has thematic discussions, and visits archives and libraries of interest in family
history research. For further information or to sign up, see http://www.pmlib.org/genresearch.htm.
? Genealogically-related information can be found in most types of resources in the Local History Room, in
its satellite collections, and in related portions of many other PML collections.
? Keep the searchable, cumulative Long Island Forum Index, 1939-2003
@ http://www.pmlib.org/LI_Forum/index.html in mind, as the LI Forum was popularly written, and its
orientation and indexing is strongest in its genealogical aspects: personal and family names, which may be
entered as terms. A full set of the paper copies of the Forum, bound by year, is held in the Local History
Room, as also accessible off hours, via the PML Periodicals Plus Room well as by many public libraries
around Long Island.
? RLG's RLINAMC website @ http://www.loc.gov/z3950/rlinamc.html contains -- the place to search and find
the Suffolk & Nassau County archival & special collection descriptions in the NYS Historical
Documents Inventory. The institutions listed in it often house collections bearing on a family or individual. In
Suffolk alone there are scattered letters, diaries, family Bibles, account books, ships' logs, bills of lading, other
official documents, business and personal correspondence, period maps, atlases, illustrations, scientific records,
military records, institutional and organizational records, and considerably more.
? Beyond the Celia M. Hastings Local History Room, the Adult Reference Desk, the Reference Technology
Area, and Public Internet Stations can also offer useful avenues of advice, other resources, or search
techniques. Many useful genealogical resources are in storage, such as the multi-volume Germans to
America, and Italians to America series, which simply will not fit on the Reference shelves, for lack of space.
These and many other genealogical resources are accessible on inquiry at the Adult Reference Desk.
#Audiovisual Collections: This is a varied section of the collection, and can be said to include period illustrations of all types, in all available media. They include:
?A variety of Atlases & Maps (ca. 1812- ), including 18 mounted local aerial photos, donated by amateur aerial photographer & editor of the Main St. Press, the late Frank Moody. There are 15 drawers of maps and atlases, ranging from Patchogue & Medford to Suffolk and Long Island, as well as selected NYC borough and NYS. In addition, there are coastal selected survey maps, topographic quadrangle maps, and thematic maps. A number of local maps are accessible online, and Sanborn atlases. A few local maps depict individual houses and named owners, other feature local land subdivisions.
?Slide & Photographic Images (ca. 1867-1915, & 1970-Present)
?Postcards, often reprints, some original, mostly Patchogue scenes
?A small, mounted Long Island Railroad Photo Collection (in an archival box)
?Audio & Video Tapes, CDs, & DVDs, non-circulating and temporarily in storage, as the Local History Room is presently physically too constricted an area to accommodate viewing and/or listening equipment. Circulating copies of some of these items are available in other collections, in the Library. A few of the items in the L.I. Ref. Collection are:
?Patchogue-Medford School Music, vols. 1-17 audiotapes
?A small selection of Oral History Audiotapes, containing interviews with Sally Bransford, Milton Colby, Edna Mae Conklin, James DeVito & Carl Sandomenico, Mary Dew, Ida Medeck, and Lyman Terrell, conducted by Connie Borntraeger, between 1983 and 1985)
?Selected Lectures Delivered to the Greater Patchogue Historical Society, the audio quality of these tending to be uneven, at best.
?Several Scrapbook Collections, usually focused on either a span of years (e.g., The Sally Bransford Collection), theme (e.g., the Hurricane of 1938), or a family (The Virginia Roe Marshall Collection).
#Archives: O.K. What are archives? Generally, they are collections created intentionally or unintentionally by individual, a family, an association, an organization, or an agency, determined to be of enduring research value for posterity. They may be on a single theme (what was collected), several themes (related or unrelated) or have no immediately apparent theme, other than the collector. There may consist of many items or as few as one. They may be well or poorly organized. The original order and arrangement in which the collection was donated, is called a provenance. Archivists try to preserve it, because it, too, has something to impart about the collector. Archives are treated a little differently than most material, as most require special housing, and may have preservation or conservation concerns. The Celia M. Hastings Local History Room Archives include, e.g.:
? A number of Photographic print, slide, postcard, & mounted photo collections
? The Sally Bransford Annual Scrapbook Collection
? The Virginia Roe Marshall Scrapbook Collection
? Patchogue-Medford Library History Collections (in several locations)
? The Hurricane of 1938 Collection (in several locations)
? An Oral History Collection
? Map, atlas, & aerial photograph collections (in map cases, vertical files, and elsewhere)
? Several Mounted Paintings
These in turn are supported by additional materials in the Room's other collections, and to some degree in the Library's Adult Reference and various storage collections.
* Black & White
Photocopier
Benjamin Franklin
Brookhaven (N.Y. : Town) -- History
Long Island -- History
Celia M. Hastings Local History Room [bookmark]. Patchogue, NY: Patchogue-Medford Library. Celia M. Hastings Local History Room, March 2005. (Free)
Hours, website URL, address, telephone number, and Local History Room Resources in Brief (General Orientation, Books, Periodicals, Vertical Files, Audiovisual Items, Electronic Resources, and L.I. Genealogy Sources)
Celia M. Hastings Local History Room [website]. Patchogue, NY: Patchogue-Medford Library. Celia M. Hastings Local History Room, May 2002- , undergoing rev. & exp., comp. & ed. by Mark Rothenberg. http://www.pmlib.org/pmllhis.htm
Contains directions to Room within Library, Hours, Resources (by type & medium), Services, Policies, Mission, Brief Histories of the Library and the Room, Sample Publications (print & electronic), Supporting Collections, Links, Related Collections and & Organizarions within the region.
Local History[website],revised 8/2006 http://www.pmlib.org/Longislandhistoryrm.htm
An umbrella site with links to home-grown New York State, Long Island, & more Local historical websites.
Long Island / New York Genealogical Resources in the Celia M. Hastings Local History Room, ed. by Antonia (Toni) Raptis. Patchogue, NY: Patchogue-Medford Library. Celia M. Hastings Local History Room, revised Nov. 2004. 12 p. (Free, on request, while copies last.)
A classified bibliography, citing each work and providing its Dewey Decimal Number. Main subject headings: Cemeteries - Long Island. -- Census - Long Island. -- Census - New York State. -- Long Island Families. -- Military - Long Island. -- Military - New York State. -- Research Guides. -- Telephone Books. -- Vital Records - Long Island. -- Vital Records - New York State. Complements A Genealogy Bibliography, ed. by Toni Raptis. Patchogue, NY: Patchogue-Medford Library. March 2004 (classified, 57 p.), which is a guide to resources in the Adult Reference Collection.
New York State History
Patchogue-Medford Area, N.Y. -- History
Farragut Council # 54 of the Junior Order United American Mechanics (JOUAM): An Archival Finding Aid [website], comp. & ed. by Elyssa Daub. Patchogue, NY: Patchogue-Medford Library. Celia M. Hastings Local History Room, April 2005.
An item-level directory of documents in the collection@ http://www.pmlib.org/farragutcouncil.htm
Pamphlet sections: The Long Island Railroad - 1844. -- O.L. Schwenke Land Investment Co. -- Post Office. -- Heads of Households - 1904. -- Hotels. -- Business. -- Hal & Edith Fullerton. -- Education & Scouting. -- Churches. -- World War I. -- Fire Department. -- World War II.
Patchogue, L.I., N.Y., in the Spanish-American War (& Its Immediate Aftermath): Events and Concerns of the Day, as Reported in Microfilmed Pages of the Patchogue Advance, as Originally Published in 1898: A Selective Centennial Bibliography (of National, State, & Regional News, in Local Context) [website], comp., partly annotated, and ed. by Mark Rothenberg, with Gloria Clark & Janet Gillen. Patchogue, NY: Patchogue-Medford Library. Celia M. Hastings Local History Room, 1998. http://www.pmlib.org/spampadv.htm
Completed in time for the Spanish-American War's Centennial, this is a mainly a selected, bibliography. But it also includes many full-text and partial-text entries, transcribed & reprinted, by permission & courtesy of the Long Island Advance. Organized by month, selected articles, editorials, special columns on local events, & advertisements are presented chronologically. Covers January-December, 1898, and includes everything from the war and international news to regional and local news, gossip, and advertisements, and humorous material. Searchable, using Control + F(ind).
Then there are also a fair number of Patchogue Library's State Chartering Centennial Publications (produced in 2000): e.g., a Documentary History of PML (1883-1900, 1900-2000), a children's book, 3 brochures each on an early period of the Library's history, and several web links, created in 1999-2000).
Suffolk County, N.Y. -- History
Researching Your House, comp. & ed. by Caroline Locke & Mark Rothenberg. Patchogue, NY: Patchogue-Medford Library. Celia M. Hastings Local History Room, Sept. 2003. 4 p.
This is the online counterpart to a printed brochure available in the Library. Pamphlet Sections: Who Lived in My House? How Old is My House? -- Resources at Patchogue-Medford Library (Patchogue-Medford Reference Desk. -- Periodicals Plus Room. -- Local History Room.). -- Beyond the Library.
Mark H. Rothenberg, Reference Specialist, Suffolk Cooperative Library System. Central Reference.
Historian. The Patchogue-Medford Library. Celia M. Hastings Local History Room.
- Revised, 8/24/06