Van Sickle Library Up-Date

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What’s New at the Library

By: Shannon Hickey

First, I would like to introduce myself: I’m Shannon Hickey, a sixth generation Nevadan. In my everyday life I am a bookkeeper and secretary for Hickey Homes and co-owner of Heritage Tours. I have been in charge of the Van Sickle Library at the Carson Valley Museum and Cultural Center for almost two years.

The Van Sickle Library was originally at the Douglas County Library in Minden in the Van Sickle Room. Jack Van Sickle, great-grandson of Henry Van Sickle, donated the money to the Douglas County Library to build a room dedicated to his great-grandparents and to be used to house local history. The library eventually needed more space so donated a large portion of the Van Sickle Collection to the Douglas County Historical Society. Over the years not much attention has been paid to the collection, but that is all changing.

The Van Sickle Library is a research library that has a treasure trove of local history on a variety of subjects: local oral histories, family folders with newspaper articles, biographies and obituaries; history of local towns and places, schools and churches; scrapbooks from local organizations and a large collection of local school yearbooks; water rights and boundary line material; probate and old court records; books about the Washo and other Native Americans and the Basque people; books and information on the Emigrant Trail and Pony Express; a large section dedicated to Snowshoe Thompson; novels pertaining to the area; all the biographies from the Women’s History Remembering Project, and much more.

I have been working with historical society curator, Ellen Martin. We have been busy cataloging, stabilizing the old books, putting protective covers on many items and labeling, organizing and re-organizing the library shelves. Our goal is to make the library more user-friendly. We are cataloging everything in the library into the Past Perfect computer program. For those who are not computer literate, we will also have a binder with the information printed.

While we are undergoing this process, you can use the library by contacting me or Ellen Martin at 782-2555.