Scan Day Captures Coal Dock History as Park Opening Nears

As the opening of the new Coal Dock Park nears, staff at W.J. Niederkorn are hoping to capture the history of what once was there with its first Community Scan Day.

The library is asking people to bring in any "family photos, documents, letters or objects related to the coal dock, the various versions of the power plant, the huge coal boats and other big ships," so that the group can scan the items and create a digital database of the location’s history.

"It just seemed like a good way that, as the coal dock becomes a whole new thing that it hasn't been in decades ... many, many decades ... can we preserve a little bit of that online so as people start to enjoy the new thing, they can just pop online (and check out old photos)," Library Director David Nimmer said.

The library is working with Rescata Foundation Inc., using the program’s software to create the digital collections, Nimmer said. Staff from Rescata will be on hand at the first scan day to help library volunteers get a good grasp of the software, and then the library plans to conduct more scan days on its own moving forward.

Nimmer said he hopes the library can conduct Community Scan Days at least quarterly; an idea for the next scan would be a "what was here before" theme, showcasing buildings that used to stand where something else does now – such as a house that was perhaps on the property where the library now is.

The June 15th event will be limited to 20 items per person, and will last from noon to 3 p.m. in the community room at the library; attendees can enter at the Grand Avenue entrance.

A grand opening event will allow the public to visit Coal Dock Park on June 22.