After many years of anticipation, the Oak Bluffs Public Library succeeded in digitizing our collection of Town Reports. Dating back to 1890 (with a few early volumes missing), many of the reports are available in person at the library and are anthologized in leather-bound volumes in our Reference Collection. Due to the fragile condition of the individual reports and importance of the collection, they have remained in-library use only items until now. As a result of digitizing, you can browse and easily search within the whole collection from anywhere at anytime by clicking the image below.
If you have any questions on how to search the Internet Archive, or would like to further your research, please contact the library oakb_mail@clamsnet.org ; 508-693-9433
Download instructions for searching the Oak Bluffs Library Collection on Internet Archive.
The availability of this collection is the result of Boston Public Library and Digital Commonwealth’s Statewide Digitization Program, offered free of charge to member organizations. The behind the scenes work before digitization, including applying to the program, was spearheaded by Reference Librarian, Nina Ferry Montanile, who hand delivered the volumes to Boston Public Library in the Spring of 2022. There, they were added to the Internet Archive’s collection that contains billions of important primary sources and Oak Bluffs officially became one of the hundreds of members in Massachusetts’ statewide digitization effort. For more information on how the program began or to apply for your own project, please see their website.