Local History & Genealogy

For the purposes of this statement, local history materials are defined as those relating to the history of a country below the national level, such as the history of states, provinces, outlying territories, regions, counties, cities, towns or institutions located in such jurisdictions. Local history is, however, an integral part of history at the national level and serves to augment the collections on a national level by focusing on the specific rather than the general. So too, are local history publications closely related to, and, at times, difficult to separate from genealogical publications.

The Local History Collection strives to make local history material pertaining to the Steele Memorial Library, the City of Elmira, Chemung County, the schools of Elmira, and the community, organizations, institutions, and people of Chemung County and bordering PA counties accessible and useful to customers through systematic collection, acquisition, organization, cataloging, publications, reference and research assistance, and programming.

In addition to class CS, related material of great significance to genealogy is found in the areas of archival resources, biography, church history, folklore, geography, history, and local history. Although frequently associated with genealogy, works in the field of local history are treated in detail in a separate Collections Policy Statement, Local History. Important genealogical resources are also found in special collections of manuscripts, maps and atlases, microforms, newspapers, photographs, rare books, and electronic resources, housed in various custodial divisions of the Library. For a description of the genealogical collection, refer to the Genealogy and Heraldry Collections Overview statement.

The Steele Memorial Library Genealogy collection begins with available local history materials and local records for the community which the library services. As funds allow, collections will branch out to include materials for the county, state, border states, and states along the migration patterns leading into the state.

Genealogy collections will work to include the following: family histories and genealogies of local families; pedigrees and/or compilations of family group sheets of local families (originals or copies thereof); vital records when available; federal and state census for the local community; probate and will records; land records; county, city, and state maps; cemetery records; information on local churches; naturalization records; military records; local newspapers; county histories; and indexes to the preceding items. The items may be available and provided in various formats, including microform, print, and digital. Collections also include manuals and handbooks of how to do genealogy research.

The genealogy collection will be developed and maintained to support the basic research needs of the community serviced by the library. The scope of the collection should represent, at least, the majority of the community but not be limited to it. The collection should include basic materials on genealogy research procedures . These materials will include the widest possible range of nationalities and ethnic groups represented in the community.

Cooperative collection development will be considered when other genealogy collections are available locally to the public without charge.