Special Collections

    Any library that is working to be an active part of a community will have a collection which features items that are part of the community’s culture and heritage.
    The most visible evidence of this at our library is the Local History and Genealogy Collection, housed in the library’s Virginia Room. In addition to books that have been acquired by our excellent Collection Development team we are privileged to have three Special Collections: the L.C. Angle Collection, which contains materials donated in honor of Mr. Angle, a distinguished historian, the Mary Belle Price Appalachian Collection, and the Davenport Collection. The Davenport Collection is comprised of donations from Peter J. Davenport’s personal library and new materials purchased with endowment funds. At present the Collection numbers over two hundred titles.

The Carter Collection is another large Special Collection. Housed at the Mendota Branch library it contains books, sound recordings, and videos about the original Carter Family and their offspring, Johnny Cash, Bill Clifton, Tom T. Hall, Waylon Jennings and a host of recordings by friends and fans of the Original Carter Family. You can view the complete list of holdings by going to the library’s homepage. This month we are featuring a tribute to Janette Carter and you will find a link from there to the Carter Collection bibliography.

Our newest acquisition, courtesy of the Barter Theater and the State Library of Virginia, are the Barter Theater Scrapbooks on microfilm. Scrapbooks of the historic Barter Theater contain newspaper and magazine clippings, reviews, playbills, schedules, advertisements and other ephemera contained on 15 rolls of microfilm. The Collection will be located in the Virginia Room adjacent to the microfilm reader/copier.