Carolyn Schwalm Library

Originally this room was the stock room for the store. It housed flour barrels, molases barrels, sugar bags, and other dry goods. It is now the reading room for our library. The most popular use of our library is for patrons doing genealogy research, although we have an extensive collection of other local history materials available for any project.

The Schwalm Library at the Gratz Historical Society opened for the season on Wednesday, April 3, 2013, at noon with regular Wednesday hours (noon to 5 p.m) on each succeeding Wednesday through mid-November 2013.  Volunteers will be available to assist patrons with research  It is always best to contact the Society in advance and make an appointment if you are coming a distance to do research so that you can be sure that someone will be available to assist you with your project.  Also, if you are unable to visit the Library on a Wednesday, one other opening date has been scheduled for Saturday, May 4, 2013, from noon to 4 p.m.,  the day of the Gratz Annual Reunion.  In addition, other research days and times can be privately scheduled by contacting the Library Director.

Library Use Fees. Regular fees apply for on-site research:  Members, $2.00 per visit; Non-Members, $5.00 per visit.  Photo-copy fees:  25 cents per page.  Digital files or scans:  75 cents per file, plus $1 per standard disk.  Copies and digital files of materials at the Schwalm Library are for research purposes only, within the “Fair Use” guidelines of the copyright laws (see below for exceptions).  Only researchers working on pre-approved projects will be permitted to use their own scanners and/or cameras at the Schwalm Library, and in such cases, the “per visit” fee can be waived (see below).

Library Catalog.  The complete library catalog of the Schwalm Library should be on-line by mid-summer at LibraryThing, a social media site.  At present, researchers can “follow” the development of the on-line catalog, which now consists of more than 750 research books and periodicals, an additional collection of more than 325 books related to Lincoln and the Civil War, and smaller collections of historic education texts and religious books – all fully searchable.  Eventually, the on-line catalog will contain all the archival collections of the Society - scrapbooks, business ledgers, legal documents, diaries, letters, photographs, etc., – most of which have never been published or used by researchers.  For all of the archival materials, Finding Aids will eventually be developed – volunteers needed!  When these projects are completed, it is expected that more than 5000 separate items will be in the on-line catalog.

Remote Research Requests.Also new this year are the “set fees” for research requests made via e-mail or regular mail.  Simple requests, which take less than one hour to fulfill, can be made at the rate of $2.00 per request for members or $5.00 per request for non-members – plus the standard cost of photo-copies and/or digital files and mailing costs associated with the request.  For more extensive requests made by e-mail or letter, fees can be negotiated, and in cases where the person making the request is contributing an article, a blog post, a book, artifacts, etc., some or all of the fees may be waived by negotiating with the Library Director.

Volunteer Researchers. Researchers working on approved projects such as transcribing original source materials, creating Finding Aids, scanning and cataloging materials, assisting patrons with research (on-site or on-line), etc., are considered to be “volunteers” working at or for the Society.  Personal use of these materials (such as for publication) can be negotiated with the Library Director.

Use and Publication.At present, there are no set fees for publication of materials (such as photographs) for which the Society has originals.  If the publication is for-profit, a fee must be negotiated and paid to the Society.  If the publication is for a non-profit purpose, all that may be required is a source credit to the Society.  Consult with the Library Director prior to publication on all questions related to copyright and publication.

Highlights of the Library Collections:

• Area church and cemetery records
• Census Records
• Family Histories
• 35mm slides
• Video tapes of historic data
• Books, maps and other materials about local history
• Collection of German Books, one on the Civil War
• Information about Simon Gratz and his family