Whew, we do keep busy around here! Sometimes there is so much to say that it gets a bit overwhelming, but you know I don’t think that is a bad thing. We certainly don’t stagnate, that is for sure. Here is what has been happening…

1. Another PRESERVATION GRANT from the National Endowment for the Humanities! $6000.00 for purchasing storage supplies for our amazing collections, as well as the ONLY public library in the entire state AND designation as a “We The People” project which means our project shall  “encourage and strengthen the teaching, study, and understanding of American history and culture.” We are really proud of this accomplishment, and I hope that the local press will report the story sometime soon, so that the community can see how hard we are working for them.

2.  Establishing a PUBLIC LIBRARY ROUNDTABLE within the Society of American Archivists. I have been heavily involved in working towards a space for historical records caretakers working in public libraries. SAA is a great place for this, because our roundtables are open to non-members and we have awesome infrastructure for listservs and websites. It was a lot of work to get the starting documentation written, and then get signatures for our petition, but we did it and now we wait for the Council meeting next month to see if we did it! One of the coolest parts of the experience so far was getting supportive plugs from the Best of PubLib & ArchivesNext blogs.  

3. Local history is HOT, and is are our amazing image collection! You will find *27* of our images in Dyer Library/Saco Museum’s newly published “Saco Revisited”, published by Arcadia Publishing. There is a postcard history of the Saco River, also to be published by Arcadia, which will be out later this year which will feature a few from our collection. Finally, we have been featured in Down East’s “What’s In a Picture?” and have many images up on the Maine Memory Network.

4. On that note, the last update is about our Maine Community Heritage Project team. We had a mid-year training at Maine Historical Society last week, and had the opportunity to see the work being done by the other 7 teams — it is really great stuff! The quality and depth of the work being done for this project is impressive, and I hope that everyone enjoys the product this June!