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Charlotte Neighborhood History Toolkit

The Charlotte Neighborhood History Toolkit can help you answer those questions and more. The Toolkit offers tips on using Newspapers, City Directories, Plat Maps, Property Deeds and Building Permits to uncover the history around us.

External Websites

Exploring Race in Society

Essays that provide a deeper understanding of how current issues stem from actions and policies of the past.

Designed for high school and undergraduate students, Exploring Race in Society contains proprietary essays that provide today’s students with a deeper understanding of how current issues stem from actions and policies of the past.

Each topic includes an overview article and three essays suggesting potential solutions. Solutions essays are written by a diverse group of writers representing the fields of academia, journalism, medicine and other disciplines working to address issues related to race.

Topics include: Affirmative Action, Black Lives Matter Movement, Digital Divide, Food Insecurity, Police Use of Force, Wealth Gap and more.

Research Databases

FamilySearch

FamilySearch is a nonprofit organization and website offering genealogical records, education, and software. FamilySearch maintains a collection of records, resources, and services designed to help people learn more about their family history. Although it requires user account registration, it offers free access to its resources and service online at FamilySearch.org.

Charlotte Mecklenburg Library is an Affiliate Library.  As an Affiliate library, Charlotte Mecklenburg Library gains additional access digital records not available outside a family history center. These digital records include images and names indexes. Currently, there are about 400 million original records available in a digital format that Affiliate libraries have access to.  To access the extra content, please visit a branch and connect to CMLibrary's wifi or use a public pc.  You will need to log into your free FamilySearch account to access FamilySearch Affiliate materials.

External Websites

SIRS Discoverer

Designed specifically for elementary and middle school students. SIRS Discoverer offers articles, nonfiction books, images, activities and websites curated for educational relevance, age appropriateness, and readability.

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Research Databases

Sanborn Maps, 1867-1970 (Digital)

Digital Sanborn Maps (1867-1970) for North Carolina provides digital access to 816 large-scale maps of 158 North Carolina towns and cities, including Asheville, Charlotte, Durham, Raleigh, Winston-Salem and many others.

Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps are the most frequently consulted maps in public and academic libraries. Founded in 1867 by D. A. Sanborn, the Sanborn Map Company was the primary American publisher of fire insurance maps for nearly 100 years. The maps were originally compiled to help insurers assess the value of property, identify risk factors, and underwrite losses. These maps contain detailed data such as building outlines, size, use, construction details, and function of structures. They also give street names, street and sidewalk widths, property boundaries, house and block numbers, and other features like pipelines, railroads, wells and dumps. Historians, urban planners, architects, environmentalists, geographers, genealogists, and others will find the maps a valuable tool for exploring the grid of everyday life in the United States across a century of change.

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Research Databases

Research Library (ProQuest)

General reference database from business and political science to literature and psychology scholarly journals, trade publications, magazines, and daily news content, accessible to readers and researchers at every level.

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Research Databases

ProQuest Central

General reference database for over 175 subjects from magazines, journals and newspapers, including peer-reviewed and scholarly works.

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Research Databases

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