Looking for Treasures

 A few weeks ago, I wrote about the history of the Hallsted family with the Blanchester High School.  Today I need to share a little more of that story.

In my attempt to find out if my grandmother had ever taught at that school, I had called the school to find out if they had a collection of old year books where I might be able to look back to the years 1911-1913 to see if Marie showed up as a teacher in the yearbooks.

I was given a staff member’s email address to reach out to and ask the questions I had.  Eventually I reached Michael England who is an art teacher and the yearbook advisor.  The school’s collection of year books only goes back to 1990 (really!!!!!), but after we went back and forth a couple of times, he let me know that as a result of our conversation, he was moving his collection into the school’s library.  Since I have Dad’s 1938 yearbook I asked if he would like to add it to the school’s collection.  He said ‘Yes’!

Through the course of the conversation, I learned that while there is a room, where the library used to be, the school officially no longer has a library or a librarian!!  What???!!!  The room is evidentially now used as a testing site and for meetings, etc. 

No library???  How could a high school no longer have a library???  Times have really changed.  Sure, I get it, that students now have access to technology that technically, I guess, can replace a library, but … really???  I just can’t imagine a school with no library and I’m wondering, are there any libraries in schools anymore??  I found out this information totally by accident, so I have no idea if this is a current thing. (Turns out in Ohio, it is a thing, (actually, a law) schools are no longer required to maintain libraries!!!)

Later, I shared this information with a friend and we discussed if libraries are fading away generally.  She was adamant that there will always be libraries, that society could never exist without libraries, but I wonder???

I for one can’t imagine not having a library.  As I’ve shared in prior blogs, I’ve spent a lot of time in libraries throughout my life. They served a much wider use for me than just borrowing books, although borrowing books is the best!  Seriously, I have to ask, are libraries slowly fading into the sunset??

The history of libraries is complex and lengthy.  The oldest still existing library in the world is in Fez, Morocco which was established in 859 AD.  The first libraries housed clay tablets dating back as far as 2600 BC.  The largest library from ancient times was the Library of Alexandria in Egypt which opened in 30 BC.  The first public library opened in the US in Boston in 1711.  So, they’ve been around for a long time.

There is even a fascinating book titled, “A Catalogue of Shipwrecked Books’ about the library that Christopher Columbus’ son, Hernando, built.  The book starts off with a riveting tale of a catalogue found in a library of the Netherlands that was the catalogue of his library.  It was the first known evidence that such a library ever existed.  No one knows how the catalogue made it to the library in the Netherlands, and the catalogue evidentially was shelved there for hundreds of years before it was finally noticed.  Once discovered it led to research that supported the fact that Hernando Columbus did establish a library of renown.  What was so interesting was the catalogue lists items in his library that apparently no longer exist anywhere.  To learn of books that are long gone….wow.  Very fascinating tale in its entirety.

Since one of my passions is genealogy, I keep thinking of how useful a school library could be to genealogist, even though in the next breath I know that would never be on the agenda for a high school.  But, nonetheless, I sure wish Blanchester High School had a school historical section in a thriving school library.  What a treasure that would be!!!

PS – Since I wrote this, I have learned that the Blanchester Area Historical Society & Genealogy Library has a very extensive collection of Blanchester High School memorabilia.  Unfortunately for my purposes, yearbooks didn’t come into existence until 1923, so no follow-up to the Marie Tullis question!!