San Francisco Public Library‘s history center, under the direction of city archivist Susan 
Goldstein, with the help of 15 staffers, has tremendous project in preserving and cataloging the city’s history. The library has now won a grant from the Mellon Foundation. The grant is to preserve historical items originally intended to be thrown away. These items include old menus, theater programs, wine bottle labels, political flyers and such. All these items will become a part of the California Ephemera Project.
Stuff like the “hippies collection” and old Mayor’s letters may now get out of boxes and into a cataloged state where researchers can have better access to them.
The following is a teaser from a very good article on San Francisco’s “stuff,” by Heather Knight, published in the February 1, 2009 edition of the San Francisco Chronicle.
While the history center is located on the Main Library’s sixth floor, rows and rows of old documents – including voting records, marriage licenses and deeds – fill the giant space under Civic Center Plaza that was once a convention center but now serves as library storage.
In the middle of the massive room sits Phillip Adair, another researcher, who listens to music on his radio and hunches over obscure documents. That’s where he’s been working for two years on behalf of the Mormon church, diligently scanning records so church members and others can more easily track their genealogy.