Special Collections closed on May 1, 2026, for the first phase of the Haverhill Public Library renovation project. We expect to remain closed for at least 4-6 months.* Phase 1 is addressing the Third Floor, which houses Special Collections, Special Collections’ closed storage areas, and staff areas. Neither patrons nor staff will be able to […]
To celebrate the 250th Anniversary of America, Special Collections is asking the community for their stories about coming to America – and to Haverhill, Massachusetts! Whether your family came over on the Mayflower, you arrived recently, or if your family was here all along, we want to hear your story. The Special Collections Department is […]
The Haverhill Public Library Special Collections Department has an extensive map collection, newly revised and updated! In the latest round of revisions and additions to this collection, we sorted through hundreds of maps (and similar items) that have been hiding in the corners of our storage spaces for the past decade or so. We also […]
The Special Collections team is happy to continue – and EXPAND – open hours on one or two Saturdays per month in 2026! The next two Saturdays we will be open are March 7th and March 28th, from 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM. Researchers are welcome to drop in during this time without an appointment, though […]
We are pleased to announce the latest round of rare shoe titles to be digitized and added our Internet Archive webpage! For the past two years, the Special Collections Department has been working with the Boston Public Library and the Internet Archive hub there to digitize the rarest shoe titles in our collections, making them […]
UPDATE: Issues resolved! Please let us know if you are experiencing any issues while using the Senter Digital Archive. Our vendor updated the Senter Digital Archive website on September 3, 2025, which temporarily caused issues with display, access, and overall functionality. We believe all issues have been resolved; please alert us to any problems while […]
As a quick recap from the last post, we are discussing preservation measures to counter issues in our home environment, including: We covered the first two bullet points in previous posts; in this post we are discussing pests and mold – which are not so cute in practice as the fellow in the cover image! Various […]
As a quick recap from the last post, we are discussing preservation measures to counter issues in our home environment, including: We covered the first bullet point in the last post, and today we are continuing on to pollution, dust, and clutter. Yep, we are talking about good, old fashioned housekeeping. Pollution can have surprising […]
Now that we’ve defined cultural heritage and preservation, and how these concepts apply to your own collections, it’s time to learn about deterioration and how we can slow it down. First, we need to know what we’re up against! In our home environment, sources of deterioration include: We’ll do a post on each bullet point, […]
In this series, we are going to cover the basics of cultural heritage preservation at home, or that is, taking care of your family papers, collections, and heirlooms, so they last as long as possible. We’ll begin by defining a few terms that will be helpful for you to know. What is cultural heritage? Wikipedia […]