Donations to library
to improve access to history

For several years, genealogists, historians, and everyday citizens trying to research more than 150 years of local history have faced a serious challenge.

Marion City Library’s microfilm viewer would display only fuzzy images and had become unable to scan and print them.

When librarian Janet Marler told the Record about the problem and that no city funds were available to pay for repair, it offered a challenge grant.

The Record would donate $3,500 — half the cost of a new, state-of-the-art computerized system — if other donors would match the Record’s contribution.

Earlier this month, Marler was able to obtain pledges from three anonymous donors, including a Santa Fe Trail historian from out of the county, and Meyer presented her a check for $3,500.

The new equipment will allow easy access to all microfilm, including 152 years of history from the pages of the Record and other publications that merged with it.

Only a small portion of these archives, all of them from before 1922, have been made available online by Kansas Historical Society’s ongoing project to provide public access to historical newspaper pages.

Microfilm donated by the Record can be viewed at the city library in Marion, which has its own copies, or at any other library in Kansas, which can borrow microfilm donated to the historical society.