Boerne TX — The Texas State Library and Archives Commission (TSLAC) recently awarded funding to the Patrick Heath Public Library under its Tex-Treasures Grant program. The library will use the $38,717 award to provide access to even more of Boerne’s history with the digitization of The Boerne Star issues dated from 1994 to 2010. The digitized pages will be available globally through the Portal to Texas History, where the issues from 1940 to 1986 can already be read, thanks in part to TSLAC. The 1987 to 1993 issues are currently being scanned and updated daily.
When the library conducted a customer satisfaction survey in 2022, nearly a quarter of respondents said they used the library to explore local and genealogical history, and several made remarks about preserving and making available online the documents in the local history section. That was the primary impetus to pursue this grant.
Adult Services librarian Robin Stauber, who manages the library’s Dietert Historical Archives, is especially anxious to access the expanded offering.
“The Boerne Star chronicles community events and provides vital information relevant to community members’ lives.,” Stauber said. “Obituaries, marriage announcements, sporting events, school events, and birth notices contain information for genealogists and historians, whom we assist on a regular basis.”
Several library staff members and volunteers are working tirelessly to paint a more complete picture of the people who have lived and died in the Boerne area in the past 75 years.
Staff member Libby Quintero has found this digitization project to be of huge help to her as she works to connect family members on the massive Findagrave.com website.
Quintero states, “Everyone who has lived and died in the Boerne area was important to friends and family, and they shouldn’t be forgotten. With this new information at our fingertips, we’ll be able to read old obituaries and discover the interesting lives many of these people led, as well as their origins and loved ones’ names. It means so much to us when we can help library visitors discover more about their ancestors.”
“Communities in every corner of Texas will benefit from the resources that have been made available through this list of forward-thinking grant proposals,” said TSLAC Director and Librarian Gloria Meraz.
Funded by the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services through a grant to the Texas State Library and Archives Commission (Grant # LS- 252486- OLS- 22).* (2023)
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