Sangamon Valley Collection

Beginning February 19, 2010, the Sangamon Valley Collection will close at 1 p.m. on Fridays. Regular library hours will be observed all other days.

The Sangamon Valley Collection (SVC) provides in-depth resources for the study of Springfield, Illinois, Sangamon County and the eleven adjacent counties. The collection, established in 1970, contains materials from the past and present. 

Examples of items to be found here are

  • Photographs
  • City and county directories
  • High school yearbooks
  • City and county documents
  • Long-range planning reports and surveys
  • Histories
  • Maps

Staff maintains a computer index of the State Journal-Register and the Illinois Times back to 1981.  Articles of local interest are indexed. Search the index

SVC is a favorite haunt of genealogists who use the extensive Sangamon County Obituary File.  Genealogical materials are not limited to the local area.  For example, family histories from Virginia and German immigrant passenger lists can be found. Copying and mailing obituaries to out-of-area customers costs $2.00.

SVC is a reference collection; materials may not be checked out, but must be used in the library. It is located on the third floor of the Main Library. 

For more information, phone 217-753-4900 extension 234 or TDD 217-753-4947.

Indexes of SVC resources

Internet resources

  • Community Connections Local interest web sites.
  • Illinois Newspaper Project Locate microfilm of Illinois newspapers.
  • Oak Ridge Cemetery Interment Records The first two volumes of interment records for Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield, Illinois have been digitized and made available online at the Illinois Digital Archives. The timeframe covered in these volumes is March 1858 to January 2, 1894. Each volume entry includes the name of the deceased, date of death, age at death, cause of death, designation of the grave location through a combination of block, lot, range, and grave numbers, place of birth, and remarks. The SVC is working with the Papers of Abraham Lincoln to digitize the first eight volumes of Oak Ridge Cemetery's interment records. Two grants were awarded to the SVC by the Illinois State Library, A Division of the office of Secretary of State, using funds provided by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the federal Library Services and Technology Act.

Purchased databases

Home use allowed
America's Obituaries & Death Notices Comprehensive collection of newspaper obituaries and death notices in Newsbank. (Limited to Lincoln Library customers only; home use requires Lincoln Library card number).

HeritageQuest Census data, family records & local histories. (Limited to Lincoln Library customers only; home use requires Lincoln Library card number).

The State Journal-Register  Search full-text local news in The State Journal-Register back to 1985 (Limited to Lincoln Library customers only; home use requires Lincoln Library card).

In-house use on Lincoln Library computers only
Ancestry Library Edition One of the most important genealogical collections available today. It has unparalleled coverage of the United States and the United Kingdom, including census, vital, church, court, and immigration records, as well as record collections from Canada and other areas. This collection has more than 4,000 databases and two billion names. (Not available from home computers)