Archive Librarian Virginia Ellis holds a reel of microfilm up to the light Friday in the Lucille Miller History Room at Bryan Public Library in West Point. The library is currently asking for donations to fund the purchase of a new $13,000 microfilm machine to replace its damaged one. Emma McRae/Dispatch Staff	
			WEST POINT – No matter how many pictures a family has of someone they’ve lost, Virginia Ellis said it never seems to be enough.
That’s often when family members show up to the Lucille Miller History Room at Bryan Public Library, asking Ellis, the archive librarian, to help find just one more picture of a father who was a city official, a relative with a successful dairy farm or an uncle who played football for West Point High School.
Finding that picture is easy enough for Ellis, who is deeply familiar with the 500 rolls of microfilm stored in the history room chronicling everything from local newspapers spanning 1873 to 2019, Census records collected in the 1980s and Clay County court records ranging from deed transactions to marriage licenses.
“Well, it’s in the paper,” Ellis tells the patrons. “But I can’t get to it.”
The microfilm is only viewable on a microfilm machine, which magnifies the tiny images stored in the film onto a screen. The machine in the history room at Bryan Public Library, Ellis said, has been damaged since about 2021.

			
			
				
				The microfilm machine sits broken Friday in the Lucille Miller History Room at Bryan Public Library. The machine, which was purchased for the library in 1970, was damaged by a water leak shortly after the COVID-19 pandemic. Emma McRae/Dispatch Staff
				
		

When the library opened back up following the COVID-19 pandemic and she walked into the history room, Ellis said she noticed a leak had impacted the machine, which has been used at the library since about 1970. The machines last a long while, she said, “so long as they don’t get wet.”
“I got somebody with the company to come and look at it, and when he realized what it was, he told me that the optics are destroyed,” Ellis said. “… (I said) ‘I have to ask, OK, can it be fixed?’ He said, ‘It will cost you more to fix it than to buy a new one.’”
After consulting with staff at Mitchell Memorial Library at Mississippi State University, Ellis said the library received a $13,000 price estimate for a new machine that would allow patrons to view the microfilm. Plus, the new machine has better capabilities, she said, including better viewing and record selection.
To raise the funds, the library is asking for donations, which are being accepted at the library circulation desk, by mail or during the annual Book Sale during the Prairie Arts Festival, set for Sept. 5. Ellis said she’s already had some success garnering donations since posting about the need on Facebook.
“It’s so important to the people of our town,” she said. “We need to know how connected we are to each other.”
Stepping up
There have been larger projects delaying the purchase of a new machine over the years, including a major roof replacement in 2022. Ellis said the library considered working the funding into its annual allocation request to West Point and Clay County, which both contribute to fund library operations, but ultimately decided to go the donation route.
“Municipalities have to figure out this is how much tax money we’re getting in … and this is what we’ve got to do,” she said. “You want your garbage picked up. You want your streets cleaned. You want your policeman paid. … If you’ve got to figure out what you’re going to pay for, don’t cut any of these other essential services just because I need a microfilm machine.”
Head Librarian Priscilla Ivy said donations made for the new machine are investments in the library’s future.

			
			
				
				The oldest record on microfilm at Bryan Public Library, a June 1873 edition of the West Point Citizen, is pictured atop other records Friday in the Lucille Miller History Room. The library has 500 rolls of microfilm stores in the history room, holding everything from local newspapers to Clay County court records. Emma McRae/Dispatch Staff
				
		

“We all have family history, and that history room holds a lot of (it) and a lot of history in general about town,” Ivy said. “So as people come in and search for their families, even kids who may have to do a project on the history of West Point, … we don’t need them to come in and find out we don’t have what they need for something as simple as that.”
Digitizing the collection is a long-term goal for the library, Ivy said, though Ellis estimated that could cost three times as much as a new microfilm machine. Staff will continue seeking grant funding to eventually pursue full digitization though, Ivy said.
For now, Ivy hopes to see community members continue to support the library by donating for the new machine, and she has no doubt they will.
“One thing I can say about this community and surrounding places, they step up,” Ivy said.
			
						
			McRae is a general assignment and education reporter for The Dispatch.			
			
      
      
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        Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 42 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.