Library's Pilot archive moved to Kalispell
The dispute between the city and county
over who owns certain library materials has reared its head
again.
The archive of the Whitefish Pilot back
issues on microfilm was removed from the Whitefish Community
Library prior to the recent transition from county to city
control.
The Flathead County Library System
removed the archive despite already having a set of Pilots on
microfilm at the Kalispell branch.
“The county library feels that the
county tax payers own the microfilm,” said Whitefish Community
Library director Joey Kositzky. “Their director was asked by their
board to remove the film.”
Kositzky says the film is in a box
somewhere. The county is offering to sell the film back to the
Community Library for $5,000.
The Pilot archive dates back to 1904.
The Montana Historical Society Library archives each of the state’s
papers on microfilm, including the Pilot, which is archived through
2007. The Whitefish Pilot partially contributed to the original
microfilm project, Kositzky said, as did Big Mountain.
Copies of a roll of microfilm can be
purchased for $65 from the Historical Society Library. About one or
two years worth of Pilots fit on a roll, depending on how big the
papers were at the time, said Lea Solberg of the Historical Society
Library.
An extensive online Newspaper Index
database accompanies the Pilot microfilm. Volunteers Rosalia and
Larry Rooney took 13 years to create the Pilot database by looking
through each issue back to 1904 on microfilm. The Pilot index is
the only complete newspaper database in the valley and is updated
weekly.
“The index doesn’t do us any good if we
don’t have the microfilm to use,” Kositzky said.
It’s not only locals or historians who
use the microfilm, Kositzky noted.
“Visitors will come in to do research
about their family,” she said. “They look for past obits or
information about train wrecks, for example. Now, we have to send
them to Kalispell.”
Jill Evans at the Stumptown Historical
Society says she gets calls every week from people who used the
microfilm for personal research projects.
Losing the film, she said, has crippled
their ability to finish research projects.