Last year, PA SHPO staff had the opportunity to visit the State Library here in Harrisburg and learn more about their work and research collections. The Forum Building – built in 1931 and now home to the State Library – had just reopened after a long renovation project.

I asked Kathy Hale, Supervisor for Public Services & Government Documents Librarian if she’d be willing to share the treasures that are the Pennsylvania State Library collections with our readers.

The State Library has been around for quite a long time. Ben Franklin, as the clerk for the General Assembly was given the Commission to gather reference materials for the legislature of Pennsylvania in 1745. Most of that collection is still at the state library in our rare collections vault. It is known as “Assembly Collection.”

The State Library of Pennsylvania is one of few state libraries that are open to the public. Many of the state libraries are only available to the employees of that state and much smaller than the State Library of Pennsylvania. You may find out about the State Library at the State Library website.

Large four-story room with an open center and floors with stacks of library books on the outer walls.

State Library’s main reading room in the Forum Building in Harrisburg.

There is a wealth of material available in the collections of the State Library. Depending on what you are looking for there is something for almost everyone.

Newspaper Collection

One of the gems of the library is our Pennsylvania newspaper collection. Representations of newspapers from all 67 counties are available. The library over the years has tried to collect what is called the newspaper of record. That is the major newspaper for the county seat.

How do you discover what the library has? There are two ways. A person can look at the State Library’s electronic guide for newspapers or search the library’s online catalog.  All the newspapers are organized according to the county that they’re from. Be careful, many newspapers change names over the years. Also remember when looking historically that many of the counties have also changed as Pennsylvania grew from a colony and added different counties.

Hand holds folded newspaper from 2024.

One of the many newspapers in the State Library collection.

Many of the newspapers are only available on microfilm. People may e-mail the library with specific requests for a digital copy of a page or article through our reference e-mail (ra-reflib@pa.gov ). It is amazing what can be found in the newspapers of the 18th, 19th, and 20th century. Some of the newspapers are available electronically through the Library of Congress project called Chronicling America. The State Library and Penn State University work together to collect and digitize newspapers from throughout Pennsylvania. Many of these newspapers are included on the Penn State newspaper archive.

There is so much at the library that we keep discovering every day.

Government Documents

One of the other important collections are the Government documents. This includes both federal and state documents. The library has been collecting U.S. government documents since 1858 and in the 1960s was named the regional federal depository for Pennsylvania. This means that anything that has been deposited with the State Library cannot be discarded unless allowed by the federal government. Other libraries within Pennsylvania have also been named federal repositories but only keep the last five years.

The library is also a repository of Pennsylvania documents. This includes many reports that have been issued by agencies under the governor’s jurisdiction. These documents are separate from the ones found at the Pennsylvania State Archives. They were published to be shared with the public rather than an internal document such as the memo or record. These documents are organized by the agency that created them rather than by subject. If a document, either U.S. or Pennsylvania, has been deposited electronically with the state library then there will be a link in our online catalog.

Rare Collections

Another treasure in the State Library is our Rare Collections area. The oldest book the library has is from 1493. We tell the schoolchildren that come to visit the library that Columbus isn’t in it because he isn’t back from his first voyage. The books and maps that are stored in the Rare Collections are discoverable through our online catalog. One of my favorite pieces is the published diary of Patrick Gass. He was the Sergeant who accompanied Lewis and Clark on their transcontinental trip and was from Carlisle Pennsylvania.

Room with wood wall paneling and stained glass windows featuring a c-shaped table surrounded by chairs.

Rare collections reading room in the State Library.

Some of the other things available from our rare books area are maps and other printed material specifically about Pennsylvania. Visitors must make an appointment with our Rare Collections Librarian to see this material (mlear@pa.gov).

Genealogy Collection

One of the most widely used areas within the State Library is the genealogy collection. There are three distinct areas within this collection to assist people in finding their ancestors who came through Pennsylvania.

One of the areas is the county histories. As Pennsylvania grew as a state many citizens wrote the history of their county as it grew. The state library has collected many of these histories throughout the ages. All 67 counties have some representation in our collection with many going as far back into the 19th century. These are all discoverable in our online catalog.

The second area is our family histories. Many families travel through Pennsylvania on their way to somewhere else or came to Pennsylvania and stayed permanently. Genealogists or family members have published histories of these families and deposited them with the library. Families can be found by searching in the state libraries online catalog. Even if the family is not mentioned in the title, catalogers have included other family names in the record so that people can discover other names included in the book.

Room with large wood table, book shelves lining the walls and large window.

Genealogy Room at the State Library.

The third area includes other materials such as lists of cemeteries, passenger lists, and census material. There are also books that have been collected that have been published by various historical societies and other organizations such as the Colonial Dames or Daughters of the American Revolution that are also part of the collection. Our genealogy librarian has put together several guides to help the amateur genealogist or professional to discover what is available electronically.

A collection of microfilmed city directories is also part of our genealogy collection. City directories are addressed by address listings for various cities in Pennsylvania. This collection covers not only larger cities like Scranton or Wilkes Barre, but smaller cities like Oil City. Many of these directories go back into the 1800s. More modern directories are kept in print form.

Work Continues

More and more of the State Library collections are being digitized. The staff is bringing together various collections in a system that can be searched on our website. Once you are at the website, go to Library Collections. Then go to “Digital Collections”. Some newspapers and other Pennsylvania documents are found in one place. A new collection of primary documents has been added for use in the celebration of the America250 celebrating our nation’s 250th anniversary.

Questions can be directed to the State Library By calling 717 – 783-5950 or emailing ra-reflib@pa.gov.

_________________

Today’s Guest Contributor is Kathy Hale. Kathy has worked for the State Library of Pennsylvania for 25 years. She attained her MLS from Clarion University in 1991. Her career as a librarian has included working in two different engineering firms and as a reference librarian in a public library in the Central Pennsylvania area before becoming a Librarian at the State Library of Pennsylvania. She became Supervisor for Public Services in 2009. One of her other jobs is as the Federal Depository Library Advisor for Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for the Federal Depository Program of the Government Publications Office (GPO).

Kathy has taught many Genealogy classes at the Dauphin County Historical Society. Her other speeches have been at Science University for middle school grades at Penn State University for the “Finding Your Roots: The Saplings” started by Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. as well as being a panelist when the program was awarded a Mid-Atlantic Emmy. She has also spoken at the Palantines To America Society Meeting when they were in Harrisburg in 2015.

Comment Policy

PHMC welcomes and encourages topic-related comments on this blog.  PHMC reserves the right to remove comments that in PHMC’s discretion do not follow participation guidelines.

Commenters and Comments shall be related to the blog post topic and respectful of others who use this site.

Commenters and Comments shall not: use language that is offensive, inflammatory or provocative (this includes, but is not limited to, using profanity, obscene, or vulgar comments); disparage other commenters or people; condone illegal activity; identify the location of known or suspected archeological sites; post personal information in comments such as addresses, phone numbers, e-mail addresses or other contact details, which may relate to you or other individuals;  impersonate or falsely claim to represent a person or an organization; make any commercial endorsement or promotion of any product, service or publication.

If you would like to comment on other topics not related to this blog post but related to PHMC, please fill out the PHMC Contact Us Form.