The individuals and families who make up our present and past families are and were affected by the forces of history, social movements, military occurrences, economic happenings, accidents and medical happenings, religious beliefs, membership in organizations, social and sports activities, and work related groups.

Special collections are a difficult item to discuss in simple terms because to be really useful they have to be shelved or used in separate areas. In a library open to the public, separate shelving schemes are kept to a minimum because you can’t control who puts what where, and it makes more places to look for items when finding them.

Most items in the collection are shelved where they occur in their Dewey numbers. There are some guides to them, and new guides are being developed as well. These should be put on the library web page soon.

1. Atlases – cover Monroe and other New York State counties. Various time periods for Monroe 1853, 1872, 1902, 1924, and some towns 1941, 1959, 1963. City maps usually were in each year of the city directory but main maps are 1875, 1888, 1900, 1910, 1918, 1926, and 1935. They cannot be copied, but may be photographed.
2. Audio recordings – none at present. Video division contains some materials.
3. Biographical dictionaries – items such as the Dictionary of National Biography for England, Savage’s New England works, and many county histories with pictures and articles. All are cataloged.
4. Books about institutions, people, places, and organizations – there are histories of the brewers, the police department, and other organizations such as churches. All are cataloged.
5. Broadsides – these are larger format items that may have pictures. Brief information, or a longer statement on them may talk about performers or attendees. Uncataloged.
6. Brochures – can contain pictures, written materials Uncataloged.
7. Card index files – there are at least 20 separate sets of card files with biographies, scrapbooks, histories and many other sources indexed in them. Must be searched individually.
8. CD’s – Collection of about 25 CD ROMs.
9. Cemetery records – there are many which are in pamphlet boxes by town and location; others are cataloged and are shelved where the catalog number places them. Mt. Hope and Riverside cemeteries are also on film. They are NOT indexed. Many of these are also on the web at the Monroe County Genweb site, and possibly other places as well. Recent acquisitions include Ogden records. Genweb site has some updated descriptions.
10. Census records and indexes – these are available online through Heritage Quest and Ancestry, through microfilms, and there are bound volume indexes through 1870. The state census is available but only for Monroe County. Only the 1855 towns and 1892 Ogden are indexed in the state censuses. Collection area is NY, New England, New Jersey and Pennsylvania through 1850, and all of NY after 1850.
11. Church records – a guide to the cataloged material was prepared in autumn 2004. There are also uncataloged records in a 3 ring binder. They are NOT indexed. Some records are on microfilm – Plymouth church, Concordia, Zion – foreign language. Other such as Brick Church has years of Sunday pamphlets bound.
12. City, county and state histories – large collection of city, town, and county histories, including many from other parts of New York, and from the New England area as well.
13. City directories – collection starts with 1827, and continues to the present. The suburban directories start with 1930. There are street directories starting with 1892. These cannot be photocopied, but those that are on fiche or film can be copied. Post 1935 years can be scanned, if that service is available.
14. College and high school yearbooks – large collection of city and suburban schools and some college yearbooks. No elementary of middle school yearbooks. These may generally be copied if they are newer than 1930; earlier ones may be scanned or photographed.
15. Directories of organizations – various publications such as annual reports, publicity materials, etc. which may mention members or employees.
16. Ephemera – by definition these can be anything!
17. Institutional records – the library has very few if any. Nothing about the inmates of prisons, the Western House of Refuge, maternity hospitals, etc. Information about such places can usually be located but not for the residents or inmates. There are lists or directories of various governmental organizations, but these of course vary in coverage.
18. Maps – about 3000 maps, which are filed by size and by theme. There are very useful early maps from the 1850s, which show property owners. The most useful city plat maps cover several years; the county and some towns are also covered. Also own the Sanborn fire insurance maps. No copying, but photos are OK.
19. Manuscripts – these are well described in the Cornell “red books”. Only those manuscripts noted as being in the library are here, and there are restrictions on their use.
20. Newspapers – very large collection of all Rochester newspapers from 1818 to the present. Have nearly all the suburban papers, and some regional newspapers as well. The vast majority of these are on microfilm. The only index to these is the 1818-1903 card and book index. From 1936 to date there is an unindexed clipping file. From 1904-1935 these is no index at all. The newspaper clip file has 4 million items, arranged by subject. It is NOT indexed.
21. Organizational records – committee files, correspondence, financial records, minutes, organizational charts
22. Periodicals and journals – subscriptions to over 100 magazines. These range from local interest titles to suburban newspapers, genealogical periodicals, etc.
23. Personal papers – account books, diaries, financial records, letters, memoirs – examples would be those cataloged for Susan B Anthony, Frederick Douglass, and others.
24. Photographs – there are in excess of 22,000 photos. Many are filed by subject, and some have last names on portraits. About a third of these are on the Rochester Images website.
25. Scrapbooks – over 400 series of scrapbooks with several thousand actual volumes. Indexing of these is sporadic, but the material in them can be genealogical, architectural, about businesses, etc.
26. Ship Passenger Lists – there are guides such as PILI, GTA, ITA, RTA, Irish Famine immigrants, and many series of published book format lists. No films.
27. Soldier records - Revolutionary era, 1812, Civil War (expand), Spanish American, WW I, WW II, Korea, Vietnam, Gulf War, Iraq. Civil War bounty and others.
28. Telephone books – the earliest is about 1914, but they primarily start in the 1930s. They are the Rochester city and suburban, with some few other areas covered.
29. Video recordings – anything like this is in the video department.
30. Works by local authors.