Books
More than 6,000 volumes relating to the history of Kalamazoo, the state of Michigan, and genealogical research are housed in the Local History Room. These may be located using KPL’s computerized Catalog. Books in the Local History collection may not be checked out, but circulating copies of some titles may be located in the main adult collection or one of the branches, and can be found by consulting the Catalog. Many short biographical sketches and portraits from books in our collection have been indexed into the Local Information Database.
Useful multi-volume sets
• County, town, and township histories
• Kalamazoo city directories and telephone books
• High school and college yearbooks
• Historical Directory, compiled by Robert E. Meader, 36 volumes of biographical information about Kalamazoo County residents from the 1930s and 1940s
• Michigan climatological data
• Michigan Pioneer Collections, 40 volumes
• DAR Lineage Books, 166 volumes
• Germans to America, 74 volumes in two series
• Passenger and Immigration Lists Index
• The Barbour Collection of Connecticut Town Vital Records, 55 volumes