Sonoma County History & Genealogy Library

The US National Weather Service San Francisco Bay Area/Monterey California has issued a Red Flag Warning for the North Bay Mountains at 10 PM Wednesday (10/21) to 8 AM on Friday (10/23). Stay safe! Recent Wine County fires on one map, here:

We can't all have coffee together inside the library right now, but virtually you can come to Community Coffee from anywhere! There's still time to sign up and come chat with us tomorrow morning, Tuesday, at 11 a.m.! Click here to sign up: https://events.sonomalibrary.org/event/4625962

https://www.instagram.com/scl_history/

From 1830 until well after the Civil War, African Americans gathered across the United States and Canada to participate in political meetings held at the state and national levels. A cornerstone of Black organizing in the nineteenth century, these Colored Conventions brought Black men and women together in a decades-long campaign for civil and human rights. https://coloredconventions.org/ The Colored Conventions Project (CCP) is a scholarly and community research project d...edicated to bringing the seven decades-long history of nineteenth-century Black organizing to digital life. Mirroring the collective nature of the nineteenth-century Colored Conventions, CCP uses innovative, inclusive models and partnerships to locate, transcribe, and archive the documentary record related to this nearly forgotten history and to curate digital exhibits that highlight its stories, events and themes. See more

Ready to contribute? Read about our latest project Sonoma Responds. A Community Memory Archive, and how you can participate, in the Press Democrat! pressdemocrat.com//sonoma-responds-project-aims-to-captur/ Still have questions? Listen to an interview with H&G Special Collections Librarian and Archivist Joanna Kolosov on KSRO: https://www.ksro.com//interview-joanna-kolosov-on-the-son/

Today is "Ask an Archivist Day" and we are participating! If you have any questions about our collections and our work, let us know and we will answer! Questions so far - "What’s the most intriguing request you’ve ever received?" - "Do you have a favorite item or category?" - "Best cat picture?" Check it out at twitter.com/sonomalibrary/ or ask us in the comments! #AskAnArchivist #askanarchivistday

Sonoma County Archives - update as of Monday afternoon, 10/5/2020 Good news! Ash/debris is very limited in the building, just to the areas nearest the air vents. Power is back on and the County is adding air scrubbers. SCL staff will head out later this week to take a closer look. Thank you for your support!

Catch our October 2020 newsletter! Check out early submissions to our recently launched community memory archive Sonoma Responds, read an interview with local author and archivist Lynn Downey, find out when H&G is hosting its first virtual Community Coffee, and how to contact SCL's Special Collections. Still bored? Follow our selection of links to numerous virtual local history/'genealogy related webinars and presentations! http://bit.ly/newsloctober

Kicking off October, national archives month, with a recent submission to Sonoma Responds: A Community Memory Archive. Title: Joe Rodota Trail_no bikes Photographer: Geoffrey Skinner Date: 4/29/2020 Location: Joe Rodota Trail at Hurlbut Ave, Sebastopol, CA Rights: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0... #sonomaresponds #COVID_19 #shelterinplace #JoeRodotaTrail #sebastopol #sonomacountyregionalparks #2020 Share your Story! www.tinyurl.com/sonomaresponds

Sonoma County Archives update as of Wednesday evening, 9/30/2020: The building is still standing with no visible external damage. As soon as it is safe to enter, an assessment will be conducted. Library management is also in touch with county officials looking at the situation as an opportunity to move forward with relocation. Thank you for thinking of us and wishing us well. Take care and stay safe!

Sonoma County Archives update as of Monday evening, 9/28/2020: More than a century of Sonoma County document archives are currently stored in a county-owned building in the Los Guilicos area. The county archives were deeded to the Sonoma County Library, along with other materials that have been donated over the years. Library management has been in regular communication with county emergency managers since the Glass Fire began, but the dangerous conditions have prevented an i...n-person assessment of damage, if any, to the archives. That assessment will take place soon, we believe. If the archives have been spared by flame, they could be damaged by smoke, and next steps will include an assessment of what can be preserved. A permanent, safe and accessible location for the archives, and funding for preservation and management, are long term goals of the county and the library, but the resources have not been identified. We hope, after the threat to health and safety has passed, a long term strategy will emerge. We continue to wait for news and hope to have an update later today.

!! EVENT CANCELLED Free, online, this week! Hosted by the Sonoma County Wine Library.