We’re very excited to announce that the New Hampshire Room, after having been closed for several weeks, is back open!
Why was the New Hampshire Room Closed?
We closed the New Hampshire Room to address a couple different building projects. First, we needed to repair the room’s North wall, which had been damaged over the years due to a roof leak. Conveniently, the lead abatement for the north wall has been completed as well!
Second, our ongoing lead abatement project this year moved upstairs to the adjacent hallway, which blocked the front entrance off for the work crews and safety containment, and the rear entrance was used as a staff exit to our Circulation workroom.
While the closure was longer than anyone would have liked, the result is a safer, improved space for storing and sharing Manchester’s history.
There’s more!
We’re also excited to share another improvement: The Manchester City Library Foundation has donated a new ViewScan 5 digital microfilm scanner to the New Hampshire Room.
The New Hampshire Room is home to hundreds of reels of microfilm containing local newspapers and other historical records. Many of these materials have never been digitized, making microfilm an essential resource for anyone researching Manchester’s, or their own family’s, past. These collections are used by students, authors, and researchers from around the country to find obituaries, important moments of family history, local political events, and much more.
The new ViewScan 5 allows users and staff to create high-quality digital copies from microfilm that can be saved as PDFs or image files. It also offers enhanced imaging controls that help improve the readability of older newspaper documents.
Thank you!
We’re grateful to our community for their patience as we work through these extensive repairs to our historic building, and the Manchester City Library Foundation for investing in Manchester’s history.
Whether you’re tracking down a newspaper article, researching your family history, or simply curious about Manchester’s past, we invite you to stop by and visit the New Hampshire Room!