INTERNET LIBRARY WINS AWARD

The Clark County Historical Internet Library is the winner of this year’s Award for Archival Innovation from the Wisconsin Historical Record Advisory Board.

This award is given for new ways of working with historical records and bringing those records to new audiences.  The Internet library digitized an impressive array of Clark County historical records and placed them on the Web.

The Internet library is run by a group of volunteers under the umbrella of the Wisconsin Valley Library Service and the Dr. William A. Olson Foundation.

These volunteers gathered historical information pertinent to Clark County and made it available in a new electronic library, located online at Web site http://wvls.lib.wi.us/ClarkCounty/.

The Web site’s homepage contains an electronic “bookshelf” connecting users to cemetery listings, scanned plat maps, school histories and records and Clark County veterans’ records, among other materials.

Source: Clark County Press (Neillsville, Clark Co., Wis.) 07/29/2009

Governor’s Archives Award presented

Clark County Register of Deeds Lois Hagedorn (center), on behalf of the Wisconsin Historical Society, presents the 2009 Governor’s Archives Award for archival innovation to Stan (l) and Janet Schwarze of Rochester, MN.  The Schwarzes are County Historical Internet Library webmasters. (Contributed Photo)

On behalf of the Wisconsin Historical Society, Clark County Register of Deeds Lois Hagedorn presented the 2009 Governor’s Archives Award for Archival Innovation to Stan and Janet Schwarze, County Historical Internet Library webmasters.  The presentation was held Saturday, Aug. 8, as part of the Tribute to Civil War Veterans program sponsored by the Greenwood American Legion and held at the Greenwood High School.

The Schwarzes and the Clark County Historical Internet Library for the Archives Award were nominated for “their unending pursuit and dedication to preserving Clark County Historical records,” Hagedorn said during her presentation.

Hagedorn and her staff witnessed firsthand the tremendous amount of time and effort Stan and Janet Schwarze contributed to the historical Website during the past 10 years.

Though originally from Greenwood, the Schwarzes now reside in Rochester, MN, but made quarterly visits to the Register of Deeds Office from their home in Rochester to research records and key the information into their database.

During their trips to Clark County, they visited local cemeteries to photograph grave markers, meet with local residents to fill in missing information and research records housed at the Clark County jail Museum, local newspapers and libraries.

The Wisconsin Historical Society, in their selection process, found the Clark County Historical Internet Library’s “book-shelf presentation of document groups clever and an inviting way to help people find the historical information.”

The society also admired the range and variety of historical records the Internet Library offers, along with the site’s bulletin board, information about work in progress and the invitation to users to request records that can be added to the library.

The Wisconsin Historical Society stated the Internet Library “breaks new ground and looks continuously for ways to make improvements.”

The Clark County Historical Internet Library can be accessed at Website http://wvls.lib.wi.us/ClarkCounty/.

Clark County Press, Neillsville, WI, August 19, 2009, Page 5

Transcribed by Dolores Mohr Kenyon