Learn More About Heights History In New Library Room

CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, OH — A local history room opened this week at the Heights Libraries Lee Road branch.

The room includes Cleveland and suburban city directories, Heights High Caldron yearbooks and alumni directories, local history reference books, Sun Press and Cleveland Press microfilm, local history lectures and Cleveland Heights City Council meetings on DVD, archival photographs, blueprints, documents chronicling the history of the Heights Libraries, and a microfilm reader and book scanner.

“Once we had the Library’s history documented, we decided to start looking at ways we could help community members learn more about the history of the area and do their own research,” said Local History Librarian Jessica Robinson. “First, we added local history resources to our website; then we began figuring out where we could put a local history room.”

Live in Cleveland Heights? Click here to subscribe to our free breaking news alerts delivered to your inbox and mobile devices. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter, and download our free mobile app on Android or iPhone.

The local history room is on the Lee Road library's second floor. It occupies the former quiet study room, a glassed-in area that previously housed chairs and tables. When use of the room dipped, the library pivoted to the local history room concept.

Planning for the room began in 2016 when officials orchestrated the library's centennial celebration. Customers can visit the local history room most weekdays, between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. The room can also be visited by special appointment by emailing localhistory@heightslibrary.org.

“This work is very meaningful for me, because building a local history collection is truly sacred and serious work,” Robinson said. “Archival repositories and the archivists who maintain them play a large role in determining cultural memory, because they choose whose histories are preserved through digitization and other methods, and in doing so, they also wind up determining who will have access to those stories in the future. In essence, those of us who work with historical material are writing tomorrow’s history today.”