The Historical Journey Never Ends

Indiana Room at Mooresville Public Library

Just Before the Dedication of the New Addition

(January 26, 2006)

(Last updated:  January 9, 2025).

In March, 2010, during a meeting at Mooresville (Indiana) Public Library, one of my colleagues, Suzanne Walker, who was then the library's youth services director, was discussing a social media initiative with the library's executive director, Diane Huerkamp, and me.  The library had already launched its YouTube channel; we could add Facebook, Twitter, and something called "Blogger," whatever that was, which featured "blogs," whatever they were.  Suzanne envisioned expanding the library's "global footprint" through its use of social media.  We could disseminate our messages far and wide to many more people than merely those who entered through the library's doors.

Suzanne already used Blogger to recommend children's and teen books to read and, along with other staff, was about to create new blogs focusing upon the library's youth services programs.  Blogs could also be used for adult services content.  She suggested I write a blog about the history of Mooresville, Indiana.

Would people read a local history blog, I wondered?  With an Internet already overloaded with trivial, over-personalized content, could an audience be attracted discussing the past of a town with fewer than 15,000 residents?  I doubted it, but I was game to try.

So, on April 3, 2010, I "published" my first "post" to this "blog."  Re-reading it now, the tone reminds me of a standup comic whose tired old material is bombing but who doesn't want to surrender the stage in humiliating defeat.  Of course, I was just starting this journey, so I didn't know exactly where I was going or how I planned to get there.  Maybe I should cut my former self some slack.

Thirteen years later, I've reached the end of my library career.  I've written a few hundred blog posts here, as well as over a thousand elsewhere (on four other blogs, two of which are long gone from the web, but two of which are still around here and here).  As of January, 2025, I've reached over 400,000 views with this local history blog; I reached another million views on my other blogs, and over 2.77 million views on the library's YouTube channel.  Suzanne's social media initiative was a success beyond our wildest expectations.

As my retirement date approaches (May 6, 2023), I look back fondly upon the historical tales we've shared here.  Looking back is what historians do; since I've been portraying one at the library for the past 16 years, I wanted to stay in character until my last day, when I will close the library's Indiana Room (and, as manager-in-charge, the library) for what will be my final time.

This blog will remain online until such time as Google (or whoever will control the Blogger site) decides otherwise.  Links to PDFs will remain active until Mooresville Public Library updates to new website servers.  This blog has been a rewarding experience that, with any luck, was somewhat informative and, perhaps, mildly entertaining.  I'm grateful for the support I've received from the library board and the library's executive director (Diane Huerkamp, who retired at the end of December, 2024).  Not many employers would have tolerated my spending endless hours turning out this tripe.  They always had encouraging words for my efforts.  I appreciate that.

There's much local history to be found on these blog posts.  If you've enjoyed it, thank one of my predecessors, Wanda Potts (MPL Indiana Room librarian, 1966-2002, and assistant director from the 1970s to the 1990s) for creating and maintaining the historical collections from which I've drawn everything.  Also thank Bonita Marley (MPL executive director 1961-1984), who preserved all the local history filed before Wanda came aboard (and handed it over to Wanda to preserve thereafter).  Myrtle Keller (MPL staffer & assistant director during the 1960s and 1970s) also contributed to the library's historical collections, as did each of the library directors and staff before Mrs. Marley.  My immediate predecessor, Marylou Smith, also deserves kudos for her fine work preserving Mooresville's past.  None of the material I've presented here (or elsewhere) regarding local history would have been possible without their tremendous efforts to organize and safeguard it.  All I did was type and upload some images.

Finally, thank YOU for reading about Mooresville's past.  Local history collections are diminishing in public libraries these days, so having an interested audience has helped Mooresville Public Library continue its mission to protect the past for the future to explore.  I hope the library's Indiana Room resources will be around for many years to come.  History continues forward, so there will always be something new and fresh to discover.  The historical journey never ends.

Enhancing the Digital Footprints of Library Local History/Genealogy Departments

At one time, public libraries determined their overall effectiveness in serving the public based upon door count, i.e., the number of persons entering the building.  With the advent of online history and genealogical resources, increasing numbers of people are using the Internet (rather than visiting their local libraries) to conduct their genealogical research or to learn about their communities' histories.

How, then, does a library reach patrons who don't physically visit the facility?  Many libraries have found social media as their new pathway to patrons.  Videos, podcasts, blogs, and posts to such social media sites as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and others have become effective mechanisms to reach a new, different audience than those coming through the library doors.

These two slideshows, along with a handout (links below), summarize some of the resources available for history/genealogy librarians to use in creating a digital footprint.

• Short Slideshow
• Long Slideshow
• Handout

Mooresville (Indiana) Public Library has several videos on YouTube to illustrate how local history may be brought alive visually.  Watch this playlist to learn more.

 

Indiana Room at Mooresville (Indiana) Public Library 

(MPL Website's Digital Indiana Room Available Here)

 

Completing Her Five-Year Mission

In the original Star Trek television series (1966-1969), the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise was engaged in a five-year mission "to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before." Here at Mooresville Public Library, we are now completing our own five-year mission, in which "strange new worlds" have been explored.  To modify the Star Trek mission statement, we've gone where no cat has gone before.  Well, sort of.

Cauli Le Chat, MPL Feline Roving Reporter

On December 19, 2010, Cauli Le Chat became the official MPL feline roving reporter.  She started a blog, Cat's Eye View @ MPL, promoting the library, its programs and events, collections, displays, and special services.  She explored Mooresville, Indiana and discussed topics of local or regional interest.  She also addressed lots of other subjects--whatever happened to strike her fancy.  She posted 1,297 articles to her blog in five years, and her readership has reached 317,156 (as of today).  Hers was the library's most popular blog, exceeded in social media impact only by the MPL YouTube Channel (with currently almost three-quarters of a million video viewings).  Her primary blog's popularity produced a spin-off:  another blog designed especially for children, Catch It @ MPL (Cauli 4 Kids) (2011-2014).

Cauli Le Chat wearing her press hat

Patrons sometimes asked if they could see Cauli when visiting the library. However, Cauli did not live inside the library; rather, she lived just down the street and would hang around outside the library, usually in the Kinder Garden or by the staff door, where she could get treats.  For inside or offsite reporting, Cauli often relied upon her trusted minions (who worked or volunteered inside), or upon her alter ego, "Flat" Cauli.  Actually, there were several "Flat" Caulis, and each had a slightly different personality from the living, breathing original feline.

MPL Kinder Garden Outdoor Program Area

Cauli's family moved away in December, 2013, but then returned across town in June, 2014, when she officially resumed her roving reporter duties.  In March, 2015, she retired, no longer able to hang-out at the library.  She continued to post articles to her blog, however. With the fifth anniversary of her blog approaching in December, she has decided to wind things up.  She isn't getting any younger, and neither are her minions, so she thinks it's time to go out on a high note, so to speak.  "I don't want my minions dribbling like slobberdogs while typing my brilliant observations," she reflected.  "Bad for my image."

Many libraries around the world have resident felines who act as "spokescritters" serving patrons and promoting services and collections.  Although MPL had resident animals prior to 2010, none actively used social media (or other media, for that matter) to engage the public.  Cauli was indeed our social media pioneer, and we're pleased with the results.

Perhaps at some future time MPL will obtain a resident "spokescritter" like many other libraries, several of which were linked at the bottom of Cauli's blogs.  But none will write about the world in quite the same way as Cauli.  Hers was a unique feline perspective, and we will miss her musings and witticisms.