Featured image: "School Curriculum - Anatomy Class", courtesy of the Hicksville Public Library. This image can be found in the Hicksville Historic Photographs digital collection on the New York Heritage Digital Collections website. Accessed 8-28-25: https://nyheritage.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16373coll80/id/2883/rec/107
Left to right: Brightwaters Community Maps and Early Advertisements - Brightwaters Historical Society; Ocean Beach Oversized Poster Collection - Ocean Beach Historical Society; Coe Family Travels - Planting Fields Foundation. Click on image to jump to the collection.
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Long island Archives
Transcending Barriers: Opening Archives, Opening Minds
2025 LILRC Digitization Grants: New Collections Now Available for Viewing Each year LILRC offers our members an opportunity to receive funding, totaling twenty-five thousand dollars, to complete a digitization project either through a third party vendor, allowing for extra hours of a current employee, or through equipment that can be used by the organization to complete a series of projects. Some of the 2025 recipients have completed their projects and have already uploaded those images, as a stipulation of the grant, to the New York Heritage Digital Collections website. Take a look at the latest additions from the Brightwaters Historical Society, the Ocean Beach Historical Society, and Planting Fields Foundation! LILRC is now accepting member applications for 2026. Go to https://lilrc.org/page/digitization_grants for details.
September/October 2025 Volume 32 Issue 5
LILRC Special Collections Discussion Group: What I Learned at the Morgan Library and Museum Thursday, October 9, 2025; 11:00 AM Eastern Time Event details and register: https://lilrc.org/events/EventDetails.aspx?id=1985443&group= This informal group discussion will focus on the creative (and practical) exhibit installations that were recently on display at the Morgan Library and Museum in New York City. We will begin with a brief slide presentation by Nicole Menchise, and then open up to a discussion of the challenges found when displaying archival materials in an short-term or permanent exhibition. CE Units will not be made available. This program will be recorded and sent per request.
Conservation and Preservation Grant Writing Workshop Wednesday, September 10, 2025; 1:00 PM Eastern Time Event details and register: https://zoom.us/meeting/register/k-yA9HDgQlas86VsxWJi4A This session will be led by the New York State Library's Division of Library Development, about the Conservation/ Preservation Discretionary Grant Program. It will inform prospective applicants of available grants and aid them in preparing for 2026/2027 applications. No cost to attend, but registration is required. The event will be recorded and posted online. Session organized by Empire State Library Network to extend the services offered within every region of New York. A Guide to Court Help on NYcourts.gov with Jean-Paul Vivian Wednesday, September 17, 2025; 11:00 AM Eastern Time Event details and register: https://lilrc.org/events/EventDetails.aspx?id=1982634&group= An introduction to the Court Help page on the New York State Court’s webpage NYcourts.gov. You will be introduced to helpful topics that are some of the most commonly asked about when seeking help on the website. You will receive an introduction to Court System Basics including the court structure, and Mr. Vivian will show which resources are available to you on the site that can help you and the patrons within your library. He will also include some real-life examples highlighting some of the most popular topics seen with the Law Library and Court Help Center. The American Revolution: A Screening with Sam Helmick, ALA President Friday, September 26, 2025; 10:00 AM Eastern Time In Person at the Suffolk Cooperative Library System Auditorium Event details and register: https://lilrc.org/events/EventDetails.aspx?id=1984458&group= Please join LILRC and ALA President Sam Helmick for an in-person advanced screening of select portions of the new PBS documentary series, The American Revolution, directed by Ken Burns, Sarah Botstein, and David Schmidt. The series explores America’s founding struggle and its eight-year War for Independence. The American Revolution is an expansive look at the virtues and contradictions of the war and the birth of the United States of America; the film follows dozens of figures, giving viewers a chance to experience the war through the memories of the men and women who lived through it. Ancient Worlds, New Tech: Bringing History to Life with AR and MR in the Library Wednesday, October 8, 2025; 11:00 AM Eastern Time Event details and register: https://lilrc.org/events/EventDetails.aspx?id=1956571&group= Bring the past into the present with immersive technology! This webinar explores how libraries can use Augmented and Mixed Reality (AR/MR) to activate cultural stories, build layered exhibits, and engage patrons of all ages. Learn how to design interactive experiences using tools like Adobe Aero, BlippAR, and ZapWorks—no coding required. We'll spotlight successful library case studies and walk through accessible workflows to create your own programs. Handling for Digitization - Free webinar from the Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts Tuesday, October 28, 2025; 12:00 PM Eastern Time Event details and register: https://ccaha.org/events/handling-digitization Digitization is an important step in improving access to your collection, while simultaneously minimizing the frequency of handling that can potentially cause damage to collection items. But when is it safe to prepare fragile documents on your own, and when is it time to call a conservator? Digital Archives Specialist, Kaitlyn Pettengill will be in conversation with Paper Conservator, Chloe Houseman to give you practical tips on safeguarding your collection during the digitization process. This webinar addresses Focus Area #3: “expanding collections-based knowledge creation” of the FAIC’s Held In Trust Report on digital technology: research and practice. See all of the events LILRC has lined up for this fall and winter seasons. Go to LILRC.org/Events for details. Check back regularly as new programs are added frequently.
Don't Miss These Upcoming Programs from LILRC, ESLN & CCAHA!
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Hello again everyone, I’ve spent the last six weeks working on a film collection at Planting Fields Foundation for the Accessing Archives Program (AAP) that has been living in my brain rent free for almost a decade. As a graduate student of NYU’s Moving Image Archiving and Preservation Program back in 2016, I was writing a paper on historic homes on Long Island. One of my professors or colleagues (I can’t remember who) mentioned to me that someone was working on a film collection at Planting Fields. I never forgot about that. Fast forward to 2024 when Marie Penny, the Michael D. Coe Archivist at Planting Fields Foundation, Marie Penny, reached out to me about visiting the archive to assess a film collection. That visit ended with me suggesting to her that this become a project for 2025 and here we are. This film collection was the first major film collection I have worked on in five years; and I wanted to take this opportunity to explain to all of you what is possible and what one can learn through the process with an archivist who specializes in film archiving and preservation. Here is a look at the process from beginning to end. The basic goals of the project were simple: through an inventory process figure out how many reels of film were in the collection, determine what condition they were in, determine what film formats we were looking at, and determine the general age of every film. As we learned more about the films, we were also able to determine which films belonged to the different members of the Coe family as well as some interesting facts about how the films were made. Now, for the record, I did not inventory 195 films over the course of six weeks. Twenty-two of the films were eligible for digitization requests here in the Scan Center. Seventy-three of the films in the collection were inventoried with time I volunteered. I had two reasons to use my personal time: one, my intense desire to work on a film collection and two, I wanted to see the work completed as it would not have happened in the time allotted per the LILRC AAP project guidelines. The remaining 100 films were inventoried during the official time line of the project. This project also never would have been finished without the proper planning. During an additional visit to the archive, I figured out all the necessary supplies needed for the project, and as they arrived I began inventorying the collection. These supplies included archival film cans, film leader, archival film cores, acid detection strips, paper tape, and labels. Once I arrived at Planting Fields with my film rewinds on July 28, the intensive work of finishing the inventory began. With 100 films still remaining, I had to stay focused. To inventory a film, I put the film onto my rewinds, wind through each one while I check for damage, and splice six feet of new film leader to the head and tail of each film. The leader protects the film and also allows me to write information on it. After an inspection is complete, I wind each film onto an archival core so it can live in its new forever home. I should note here that as I inventory the films, I do not repair damage to the film but assess it. Marie and I made a decision that these films are never to be projected again. Film damage is not an issue for modern film scanners as modern film digitization is performed on a film scanner. However, historic projectors are not kind to older films like these and could lead to irreparable damage if projected. Do not trust a film digitization vendor if they are using what is called the telecine process which requires the film be projected. Be sure the film is being scanned, and do not let someone who does this in their garage or basement digitize your films. During this time, I was taken on an adventure through the home movies of Henry Huttleston Rogers Coe (1907 - 1966) and Robert Douglas Coe (1902-1985), sons of W.R. Coe. Henry Coe spent most of his life in Cody, Wyoming. He owned and managed the Pahaska Tepee Report and captured his time there from 1932 - 1964 on 16mm film. Robert Coe was a career diplomat and served as the Ambassador to Denmark under President Eisenhower from 1953 - 1957. From the late-1920s to the mid-1970s he traveled the world a number of times and captured much of it on film. The dates of these films were determined by both the labels on the original film cans and characteristics from the films themselves. Having worked on film collections for about a decade now, I can look at a film and learn a lot about the history of the object without even factoring in the images on the film. Let’s take a look at some of those characteristics. Here is a great example: On the left in between the sprocket holes above the letter 'M', you can see a cross sign followed by a square sign. This is known as edge code and was applied to the film during the manufacturing process by the Eastman Kodak Company for their own purposes. The cross and square represent a year, 1935. This means that the film can be dated no earlier than 1935 and no later than 1936. Film has a shelf life and the active chemicals in the emulsion of the film change and/or fade as time passes, so when someone purchased film at their local Kodak dealer, they had to use it sooner than later or it would expire. The next characteristic can be seen here: The triangle on the right side in between the sprocket holes is known as a camera identifying mark. This mark determines what camera Robert Coe was using when he shot this particular film. These marks were “cut into the film aperture gate of most standard 16mm and 8mm cameras,” and were unique to certain cameras. Now back to the collection. I inventoried 195 films, and when everything was all said and done, it amounted to 85,850 feet or 16.2 miles of film. Marie and I are creating a finding aid for Empire ADC and the films that were digitized are currently being uploaded to the digital collection "Coe Family Films" on New York Heritage. This is the first time this incredible film collection has been completely inventoried, rehoused, preserved, and made accessible thanks to the Accessing Archives Program. Here’s an image (at left) of most of the films after I completed my work.
LATEST FROM THE ACCESSING ARCHIVES PROGRAM By Robert Anen
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Edge code example on a Coe film frame. Subject unknown.
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https://forms.gle/tSHL18U6JR4hoq2g6
America at 250! The celebration of our nation's 250th birthday is being covered by national, state and local resources. Here are some websites that will keep you in the latest news of exhibits, lectures, reenactments and house tours all celebrating this milestone. As new sources come, this newsletter will keep you posted! The Office of Cultural Education is working on New York at 250: An Engagement Guide and Resource Kit for Public Libraries and Other Cultural Education Institutions. To help inform this work, they are asking organizations to please complete this brief survey by September 12th. If your organization is at a loss for how to get involved, download the New York State 250th Commemoration Field Guide to get inspired. You don't have to have to focus on the Colonial Period or the Revolutionary War to celebrate the U.S.A. Creating a program might be easier than you think!
Welcome to the LILRC's GOVERNMENT RESOURCES AND RECORDS MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE page. Sharing online portals and forums for government agency and publication information; whether the resource is local, state-wide or national. These government resources are worth checking out!
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NEW YORK STATE ARCHIVES AWARDS $4.9 MILLION IN LOCAL GOVERNMENT RECORDS MANAGEMENT GRANTS PRESS RELEASE ISSUED: Thursday, August 21, 2025, New York State Archives The New York State Archives today announced that $4.9 million has been awarded to 80 local governments, school districts, and educational institutions across the state to improve records management systems, better preserve documents, and serve the public. The Local Government Records Management Improvement Fund (LGRMIF) grants are awarded through a competitive selection process to ensure funding goes to the most impactful local records management projects. New York State Archivist Brian Keough said, “So much of what we know about our state’s past comes from archival materials, from deeds and maps to meeting minutes and cemetery records. Preserving these documents—and modern records as well—ensures researchers, historians, educators, genealogists, students, and the public have an accurate record of our collective history and the opportunity to explore their local heritage. The LGRMIF grants provide critical support to help organizations implement strategies that safeguard these irreplaceable resources, so they remain accessible for generations to come.” Since its inception in 1988, the program has provided over $255 million in competitive grant funds to local governments statewide. These funds support a wide variety of projects that help local governments manage paper, and increasingly, electronic records. Project categories include: Disaster Management: Developing, testing, and implementing recovery plans to protect local government records, both hardcopy and electronic, in the event of a disaster. Inactive Records: Improving or creating processes to manage records that are used infrequently but must be retained. Historical Records: Preserving historical records or using local government records as teaching tools in the community and in the classroom. Files Management: Improving or updating the systematic control of active files. Document Conversion and Access: Digitization of records through the use of digital imaging. Awards for the LGRMIF grants range from $5,457 to $161,233. A list of Awards by County is available on the New York State Archives website. Also, on Wednesday, September 17th, Jean-Paul Vivian will show us how to use the NY Courts Help website when you are looking to do some of your own legal work, to better understand how the court processes work, or to print out forms, access some fascinating statistical data, or check family court caseload activity. Many of your questions can be answered through this website. Go to LILRC's Event Page to register.
Want to join? Go to LILRC.org/government-information-committee
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Long Island History Hunt Join the Long Island History Hunt and make it your family summer of fun! Register online and then time-travel across the region to where presidents, pioneers, and revolutionary spies shaped Long Island’s history. Complete a challenge at any one of 12 historic sites and you’re eligible to win a prize. Visit all 12 and earn the title of Revolutionary Trailblazer and be entered into a Grand Prize drawing that includes $500 cash, a colonial era luncheon featuring traditional foods at the Ketcham Inn, and family memberships to participating organizations, and a curated basket of museum merchandise.
Join the History Hunt
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“If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there.” – Lewis Carroll
Change is here, and the annual Long Island Archives Conference has permanently moved to the month of March! As this conference turns thirty, we look forward to the journey ahead. It's said that travel is an education; exploring the archives to rectify old legends, following the truth to forge a new perspective, or taking a turn and revisiting goals and missions. Whether it is changing a long held narrative, using new technology to forge into a new tomorrow, or creating unlikely partnerships, change is here for the taking. Save the date: Monday, March 16, 2026 at Farmingdale State College, SUNY More details to come!
Long Island Archives - September/October 2025 Editor: Nicole Menchise, Digitization and Archives Coordinator LILRC - 627 N. Sunrise Service Rd., Bellport, NY 11713, www.lilrc.org.