FROM THE FARMINGTON ROOM

Farmington Room Photos

Increasing Access: Yearbooks in the online catalog

We’ve been busy in the Farmington Room, doing our best to increase awareness of and access to our collections. One of our most popular collections is our set of Farmington High School Yearbooks, which we have copies of from 1923 all the way to 2024, with only one year missing in that span (1930, if you’re curious!). A while back, we got permission from the High School to digitize a number of the oldest yearbooks in our possession, which we did many years ago. 

Now, if you happen to be at home and wondering whether we have a particular yearbook, you can go onto our website and do a catalog search for “yearbooks” and “Farmington,” and you’ll be able to see all of our holdings.

A screenshot of a catalog record for the Farmington High School Yearbooks. A link to the digitized version of the 1923 yearbook on the Connecticut Digital Archive is circled in red.

Additionally, we have added links from our catalog to any FHS yearbooks that we’ve digitized and uploaded to the CT Digital Archive. This makes it easy to see all in one place what yearbooks we have at the library and which ones you can also access from anywhere. Hope that’s handy and helpful!

A screenshot of the 1923 Farmington High School Yearbook on the Connecticut Digital Archive. The screenshot shows that it is a multi-page document.

We also have some Irving A. Robbins Middle School yearbooks dating back to 1966. Many years are missing, but you can see which ones we do have in our online catalog. 

A screenshot of catalog results from a keyword search “Farmington High School” that lists the Farmington High School Yearbooks. The listing is circled in red.

You may come in and request to see these items even when the Farmington Room isn’t open! Just visit the Adult Information Services desk on the second floor of the Main Library and ask to see them. These items don’t circulate, so they are always available to look at. 

Fun Farmington Room finds

One of my awesome volunteers is scanning scrapbooks made by library staff over the years. In the back of one of these I found a treasure trove of program flyers from 1974. I love the artwork and the purple-ink ditto format that reminds me of my elementary school days in the early 1980s.

Library event calendars and publicity flyers in the Archives Room provide a wealth of hints on businesses, organizations, and clubs that existed at one time or another, and how they partnered with library staff to offer interesting programming to the community. 

I wanted to share a few of my favorites this month. Perhaps you know who did the artwork on some of these flyers, or you remember going to one of these programs, or perhaps you led one of these programs (and if so, please let me know!).

Flyers in this pile include: 

A mimeograph flyer announcing an informational talk on the Permanent Commission on the Status of Women for Tuesday, August 20th, 1974. A hand drawing of a woman’s head and shoulders in profile is at the bottom right corner. Flyer text reads: do you know that…The Permanent Commission on the Status of Women can help ALL CONNECTICUT WOMEN with problems of discrimination, ways to use their special talents, support of legislation designed to provide first-class citizenship, and much more…Mrs. Kay V. Bergin, Exec
  • An informational talk given by the executive director of the Permanent Commission on the Status of Women, which began in 1973.
  • A “Stitch-in” for “Young People to stimulate interest in the growing phenomenon of denim art” led by a local member of the Embroiderers Guild of America. 

  • A coffee hour “From Novice to Know-it-all in Handweaving” led by a member of the National Handweaver’s Guild at the Village Library (now the Barney Branch). 

    A mimeograph of a type-written flyer with hand drawn illustrations of lattice work and a hanging philodendron plant. Flyer text reads: “Interior Decorating with House Plants” is the theme of the fourth Coffee Hour for Mothers program to be held at the Village Library on Tuesday, April 9, 1974, at 10 a.m. Ms. Cheryl Weintraub, of the plant shop, Our Growing Concern in Canton, will demonstrate the many ways plants can be used for decoration. There will be a house plant as a doorprize.]
  • A “Vacation Film Program” at the West End Branch (in Unionville, before the construction of the Main Library at Monteith Drive) with a film about a Berlin, CT family’s backyard bird sanctuary.
  • A “Coffee Hour for Mothers” program included a demonstration by a Canton plant shop owner on “Interior Decorating with House Plants.”
  • Another “Coffee Hour for Mothers” program focused on “Things to do and see in Connecticut” that also announces the library’s recent purchase of the transcripts of the “Watergate Tapes.”
A bright orange-red flyer titled “Public Library Fun Fest at the Farmington Valley Mall.” Activities for children through young adult are listed for November 16th and 17th. Presented by the public libraries of Avon, Canton, Farmington, Granby, Simsbury.]

Digital resource spotlight: South Asian American Digital Archive (SAADA)

Screenshot of the SAADA’s home page. Below the navigation menu, there is an illustration of a woman wearing sunglasses, a head covering, and the crown of the Statue of Liberty. The woman is smiling and holding a fist above her head. Two blue birds fly above her.]

I learned about SAADA, or the South Asian American Digital Archive, in my very first semester of graduate work, and I have seen it grow and change over the years. This is online, non-custodial community archiving on a large scale and is a wonderful place to learn about the experiences of South Asian Americans through oral history, images, and documents submitted by people all over the country.  

This nationwide digital archive has produced a variety of projects, such as digital exhibits, interactive maps, a “First Days” oral history platform where people can share their immigration experience, and an online magazine. Some stories have been shared by people who came first to Connecticut or who now live in Connecticut. My current favorite spot on SAADA is the Road Trips Project, where community members have shared stories, images, and travel routes all over the United States. It is very easy to spend hours on this site!

In February, we expanded our “walk-in” hours to Wednesdays and Thursdays from 10am to 1pm. As always, we are open other days by appointment.

Thanks for reading and happy researching,

Jerusha

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