Feb 24, 2011 Mary Hanel
Posted by Andrew Ratermann
Local History Librarian Mary Hanel will discuss and display the types of Santa Clara City local history materials that are housed in the Heritage Pavilion of Central Park Library. She will present a slide show of digitized historical images from Santa Clara's past; bring along a few of her favorite Santa Clara history books; a bound copy of an early 20th century Santa Clara newspaper; a pre-World War II Santa Clara Chamber of Commerce scrapbook; and a 1960s era Santa Clara Business and Industrial Directory. She will also explain why the Library-sponsored 'THE BIG READ' program coming in the Spring will help residents of Santa Clara learn more about what their town was like 100 years ago.
Biographical Sketch
Mary Hanel, Local History Librarian, Santa Clara City Library
Mary Hanel has worked for the Santa Clara City Library for almost twenty years. Since the "new" Central Park Library opened in 2004, she has served as the Library Program Coordinator for Local History & Genealogy, managing the Heritage Pavilion section of the Library. The Heritage Pavilion on the Library's second floor houses one of the Bay Area's finest genealogy collections; a California and Santa Clara City and County history book collection; plus scrapbooks, manuscripts, school yearbooks, city directories, photographs and clippings files pertaining to the history of the City of Santa Clara. The Santa Clara County Historical & Genealogical Society is headquartered in the Heritage Pavilion and volunteers from the Society assist Mary with displays, managing and processing special archival collections, digitizing photographs and helping genealogists, historians and library patrons with family and local history research. Mary also serves as the City Staff Liaison to the Historic Preservation Society of Santa Clara (which manages the Harris-Lass Museum for the City) and the Santa Clara Arts & Historical Consortium (which manages the Headen-Inman House for the City). She also conducts occasional oral history interviews for the City.
Mary is a member of several library professional organizations and local history societies. She was awarded the California Library Association's 2005 Award of Excellence as a Public Librarian. She collaborated with other Santa Clara County local history librarians and archivists in establishing the Silicon Valley History Online database of digitized historical Santa Clara Valley photographs.
Mary has as a Bachelor's degree in History from UC Davis and a Master's degree in Library Science from UC Berkeley. Before coming to Santa Clara she served as a Reference Librarian for the Kern County Library System in Bakersfield and then as the Historical Records Officer for the Caltrans Transportation Library in Sacramento.
Mary's favorite hobbies are hiking, traveling, and of course, reading. She particularly enjoys reading mystery novels, local history books and biographies.