From Rowan Public Library:

Rowan Public Library’s Edith M. Clark History Room collections are directly benefiting from a dedicated teleworking Library Staff. They are updating and transcribing collections. This provides valuable information for all researchers. The History Room concentrates primarily on Western North Carolina genealogy and history. This includes all areas of Rowan County. Holdings include over 23,000 books, 5,700 microforms, 436 manuscript collections, and dozens of genealogical journals. Plus there is a solid collection of civil war and civil war prison materials. Genealogy materials include abstracts, indices, and guides to primary source material used by genealogists.

In order to maintain the status as a vital repository, a vast number of materials must be processed and made available to researchers. This is difficult under normal operating circumstances.  Quite often, History Room staff spend the day assisting patrons. While the staff enjoys this interaction it leaves little time for indexing the Salisbury Post archives. Or transcribing deteriorating materials into longer-lasting formats.

Rowan Public Library collections are varied. History Room Supervisor Gretchen Witt is reviewing and organizing the Wilkerson World War II Letters Collection. The letters cover four years of almost daily correspondence between Capt. Frank Wilkerson, Jr. and his wife Rose, while he was in the Pacific.  Collections vary.  They include Rowan Court records of both Superior Court and the Court of Pleas & Quarter Sessions. There are also cemetery books and Depression era New Deal projects. Civil War records are all being transcribed, updated, re-cataloged or indexed. There is so much more these amazing people are doing to save history. Thank you so much for all of your hard work. We salute you! For the complete article on the Rowan Public Library’s History Room efforts Click.