Special Collections @ OTL

The Ontonagon Township Library provides access to a variety of special collections in digital and print formats! (To search our main collection for books and DVDs, use the Enterprise search box at the top of this website.)

Shared Digital Collections

OTL offers over 100,000 e-books and digital audiobooks through the Great Lakes Digital Library and partnered collections using the Libby app, and high quality streaming movies through our Kanopy collection.

Libby works with Android and Apple devices, and materials can also be read or listened to directly from a web browser. Kanopy has streaming apps available for Chromecast, Apple TV, Amazon Fire, and Roku devices, and can be accessed directly from a web browser as well.

Use your library card number and PIN (typically the last 4 digits of your phone number by default) to log in to our online collections.

 Libby Kanopy
BARD

The BARD (Braille and Audio Reading Download) platform is available at https://nlsbard.loc.gov/. The program is available to anyone with a visual, auditory, or other reading impairment. For those unfamiliar with BARD, it may be helpful to think of it as a digital supplement to the Great Lakes Talking Books program.

BARD
The Maureen Guzek Digital Newspaper Archive

 

OTL has copies of local newspapers dating back to the 1800s available in JPEG, microfilm, and OCR-searchable PDF. The collection is named in memory of Maureen Guzek, long-time proprietor of The Ontonagon Herald, who was instrumental in helping us fund the digitization project. The archives are available for in-library browsing, or can be copied to personal storage devices for off-site use. The library also occasionally sells pre-loaded USB drives as a fundraiser.

There are no plans to make the archives available online at this time due to the financial considerations of developing and running such a web service. (Each PDF is over a gigabyte!)

Out-of-town researchers can contact the library for help searching the archives (results may take several business days).

Ontonagon Herald archives, 1905
Little Free Libraries

OTL maintains three Little Free Library locations around Ontonagon! Anyone can freely borrow or swap books from these self-service boxes during the spring, summer, and fall months. Our Little Free Libraries were built and donated by talented local woodworkers Tom Pestka and Don Chastan. The Little Free Libraries are located at The Ontonagon Village Marina fish cleaning station, the Ontonagon Township Park campground, and the Lakeshore Park near downtown Ontonagon.

Little Free Library at Village Marina Little Free Library at Township Park Little Free Library at Lakeshore Park

If you find one of our Little Free Library locations low on books, please notify us at info@ontonagonlibrary.org.

Digital Yearbook Collection

OTL DIGITAL YEARBOOK INDEX

1914 Boulder Browse Now

1915 Boulder Browse Now

1916 Boulder Browse Now

1917 Greenlander Browse Now

1917-1919 Ontonagon County Honor Roll Browse Now

1922 Northern Normal News Browse Now

1925 Boulder Browse Now

1926 Boulder Browse Now

1927 Boulder Browse Now

1928 Boulder Browse Now

1947 Boulder Browse Now

1947 Greenland Hi-Lights Browse Now

1948 Boulder Browse Now

1948 Mass Adventurer Browse Now

1949 Boulder Browse Now

1949 Mass Adventurer Browse Now

1950 Boulder Browse Now

1950 Mass Adventurer Browse Now

1951 Boulder Browse Now

1951 Mass Adventurer Browse Now

1952 Boulder Browse Now

1952 Rockland Highlights Browse Now

1953 Boulder Browse Now

1953 Mass Adventurer Browse Now

1954 Boulder Browse Now

1954 Mass Adventurer Browse Now

1954 Rockland Highlights Browse Now

1955 Boulder Browse Now

1955 Rockland Highlights Browse Now

1956 Boulder Browse Now

1956 Mass Adventurer Browse Now

1957 Boulder Browse Now

1958 Boulder Browse Now

1958 Mass Adventurer Browse Now

1959 Boulder Browse Now

1959 Mass Adventurer Browse Now

1959 Rockland Highlights Browse Now

1960 Boulder Browse Now

1960 Mass Adventurer Browse Now

1960 Rockland Highlights Browse Now

1961 Boulder Browse Now

1961 Mass Adventurer Browse Now

1961 Rockland Highlights Browse Now

1962 Boulder Browse Now

1962 Mass Adventurer Browse Now

1963 Boulder Browse Now

1963 Mass Adventurer Browse Now

1963 Rockland Highlights Browse Now

1964 Boulder Browse Now

1964 Mass Adventurer Browse Now

1965 Boulder Browse Now

1965 Mass Adventurer Browse Now

1966 Boulder Browse Now

1966 Mass Adventurer Browse Now

1967 Boulder Browse Now

1967 Mass Adventurer Browse Now

1968 Boulder Browse Now

1969 Boulder Browse Now

1970 Boulder Browse Now

1971 Boulder Browse Now

1972 Boulder Browse Now

1974 Boulder Browse Now

1975 Boulder Browse Now

1976 Boulder Browse Now

1977 Boulder Browse Now

1978 Boulder Browse Now

1979 Boulder Browse Now

1980 Boulder Browse Now

1981 Boulder Browse Now

1982 Boulder Browse Now

1983 Boulder Browse Now

1984 Boulder Browse Now

1985 Boulder Browse Now

1986 Boulder Browse Now

1987 Boulder Browse Now

1988 Boulder Browse Now

1990 Boulder Browse Now

1991 Boulder Browse Now

1992 Boulder Browse Now

1992 Ontonagon Elementary Browse Now

1993 Boulder Browse Now

1993 Ontonagon Elementary Browse Now

1994 Boulder Browse Now

1995 Ontonagon Elementary Browse Now

Frequently Asked Questions about the OTL Digital Yearbook Collection

Q: Why isn’t the yearbook from 19XX available?
A: We probably didn't have a copy as of November 2015 when the collection was digitized. The yearbook collection held by the library is donation-based, and there are some gaps in the collection.

Q: Why isn’t the yearbook from 20XX available?
A: We only digitized yearbooks from the previous millennium to limit the scope of the project. We do have physical copies of some post-Y2K yearbooks.

Q: I don’t use Facebook, why are these all on Facebook?
A: The Digital Yearbook Collection can be viewed by anyone; you should not need a Facebook account to access these links. Facebook was chosen as the platform for storing this collection because it allows for many image uploads with no charges for storage or bandwidth. Physical print copies of all yearbooks are also available for in-library browsing.

Q: I need a print-quality image/I can’t read the text on this image/can these be blown up any further?
A: All pages have been uploaded using Facebook’s “high quality” setting, so we apologize if some text is still too fine to read. We have the original (higher-resolution) images available for in-library use, including printing, e-mailing, or copying image files to your own device(s).

Q: I have a copy of a yearbook missing from the collection. Do you want it?
A: If it is from a school in/near our service area, and something we do not already have, then YES and THANK YOU! Our yearbook collection would not exist without donations. (Please note that donating a missing yearbook, while much appreciated, does not mean it can be added to the digital collection.)

Q: If I bring in my personal copy of a missing yearbook can you scan it and add it to the Digital Yearbook Collection?
A: No. The yearbook digitization was done off-site, by a third party. Manually digitizing 100+ pages on the equipment available at the library is unfortunately not feasible.

Q: Somebody tagged me in an unflattering yearbook picture on Facebook. Can you remove it?
A: No, but you're able to remove it yourself! Log in to your Facebook account, go to the picture in question, and delete the tag. Facebook gives you full control over your own tags, regardless of who created the tag. For additional assistance, see Facebook Help.

Q: Boulder? What does that mean?
A: A large rock. Oh, it's also the long-standing title of the Ontonagon High School yearbook! It is a reference to the Ontonagon Copper Boulder, a famous float copper specimen weighing nearly two tons!

Andrew Lockhart Genealogy Collection

Ontonagon's Andrew Lockhart was well-known to amateur genealogists and historians of the area. He did an enormous amount of work looking into local families and Ontonagon's early history. Upon his passing, the Ontonagon Township Library was honored to receive his personal library of genealogical and genealogy-adjacent books.

The items in this collection are currently reserved for in-library research use, and are not labeled for checkout or interlibrary loan.

Local Videos

The following YouTube videos were digitized from OTL's VHS archives. We hope to digitize more videos of local interest in the future.

Mass City Centennial (1999)

North Country Renaissance Tax Free Zone (1999)

 

Mel e-Resources

The Michigan e-Library (MeL) maintains a large collection of useful databases. All users located in Michigan are able to access these resources to find articles, reports, diagrams, statistics, homework help, reference materials, ebooks, and more! Use the buttons below to try out some of their most popular databases.

Academic Search Complete web button Adult Core Skills from LearningExpress Library web button
Alt HealthWatch web button Auto Repair Source web button
Biography Reference Center web button College Admissions Test Preparation from LearningExpress Library web button
Computer Skills Tutorial from LearningExpress Library web button Consumer Health Complete web button
DemographicsNow web button Hobbies & Crafts Reference Center web button