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GIRARD —
A Crawford County Jail booking ledger that originated in 1923 is heading to Pittsburg State University for preservation.
Crawford County Sheriff Sandy Horton said that, by state law, sheriffs have to keep a ledger for the jail. He said that the book from 1923 uses the same format as the one the Sheriff’s department uses today.
“I really feel this is important to preserve,” Horton said Friday.
Horton turned the book over to Randy Roberts with Pittsburg State University’s Axe Library.
Roberts said that he would store the book in the Special Collections section of the library before digitizing each of the pages so that they can be viewed electronically.
“We are very excited to get any early documentations,” Roberts said.
He said that the book — which was the first jail ledger for the Crawford County Jail that was built on South Ozark St. in Girard — will be cataloged and the contents of the ledger will be placed in a spreadsheet. From there, each page of the book will be scanned and cataloged.
“It allows us to have a great organizational tool for the ledger,” Roberts said.
After the book pages are fully scanned and cataloged, Roberts said that the book will remain in the Special Collections vault at the Axe Library for safekeeping.
The preservation is not the first undertaking for Pittsburg State. Roberts said that he and his staff are finishing up a call log book for the Pittsburg Fire Department, using the same process.
“We think we can be successful in preserving the documentation,” Roberts said. “It will be easy to search for and it will also take less of a toll on the original document.”
Horton added that, once the process is complete, the digital version of the book will be available for viewing on the Sheriff’s Department Web site.
“There are a lot of things in there,” Horton said about the ledger. “You see a lot of prohibition violations and things like that ... it is really neat to see.”
Horton said that he would pass along other ledgers to Pitt State for preservation. The ledger will also be available for use for PSU students doing local history research.
“The records we have now are being used by future scholars and this will just add to that collection,” Roberts said.
Crawford County Commissioners lauded the effort to preserve the ledger and make it available electronically. Commissioner Linda Grilz went a step further and said that the collaboration was “a perfect example of how the county and PSU can work together.”
“It will be great to know that we have a way to keep this document around for the next 88 years,” Horton said.
On the Web:
PSU Special Collections: http://library.pittstate.edu/spcoll/
Matthew Clark can be reached at matthew.clark@morningsun.net or at 620-231-2600, Ext. 140.
A Crawford County Jail booking ledger that originated in 1923 is heading to Pittsburg State University for preservation.
Crawford County Sheriff Sandy Horton said that, by state law, sheriffs have to keep a ledger for the jail. He said that the book from 1923 uses the same format as the one the Sheriff’s department uses today.
“I really feel this is important to preserve,” Horton said Friday.
Horton turned the book over to Randy Roberts with Pittsburg State University’s Axe Library.
Roberts said that he would store the book in the Special Collections section of the library before digitizing each of the pages so that they can be viewed electronically.
“We are very excited to get any early documentations,” Roberts said.
He said that the book — which was the first jail ledger for the Crawford County Jail that was built on South Ozark St. in Girard — will be cataloged and the contents of the ledger will be placed in a spreadsheet. From there, each page of the book will be scanned and cataloged.
“It allows us to have a great organizational tool for the ledger,” Roberts said.
After the book pages are fully scanned and cataloged, Roberts said that the book will remain in the Special Collections vault at the Axe Library for safekeeping.
The preservation is not the first undertaking for Pittsburg State. Roberts said that he and his staff are finishing up a call log book for the Pittsburg Fire Department, using the same process.
“We think we can be successful in preserving the documentation,” Roberts said. “It will be easy to search for and it will also take less of a toll on the original document.”
Horton added that, once the process is complete, the digital version of the book will be available for viewing on the Sheriff’s Department Web site.
“There are a lot of things in there,” Horton said about the ledger. “You see a lot of prohibition violations and things like that ... it is really neat to see.”
Horton said that he would pass along other ledgers to Pitt State for preservation. The ledger will also be available for use for PSU students doing local history research.
“The records we have now are being used by future scholars and this will just add to that collection,” Roberts said.
Crawford County Commissioners lauded the effort to preserve the ledger and make it available electronically. Commissioner Linda Grilz went a step further and said that the collaboration was “a perfect example of how the county and PSU can work together.”
“It will be great to know that we have a way to keep this document around for the next 88 years,” Horton said.
On the Web:
PSU Special Collections: http://library.pittstate.edu/spcoll/
Matthew Clark can be reached at matthew.clark@morningsun.net or at 620-231-2600, Ext. 140.
