The Ohio Historical Records Advisory Board (OHRAB) is proud to announce that the recipients of the 2020 OHRAB Achievement Award are the Clark County Historical Society and the Toledo Lucas County Public Library.

In 2019, the Clark County Historical Society confronted every archivist’s worst fear:  an overhead water pipe that bursts in the middle of the night.  The pipe burst severely damaged the ceiling over the archives and genealogy library.  Staff and volunteers worked courageously to save the collections.  By acting quickly, the Society saved the entire collection.  Following this experience, the Society’s staff has reached out to other institutions and professionals to teach the value of disaster planning and preparedness, using themselves as an example of how quick thinking and preparation can save an archive from disaster.  OHRAB honors the Clark County Historical Society for their fortitude in saving the Society’s collections and for their resulting commitment to teaching others about the necessity of disaster planning and preparedness.

The Toledo Lucas County Public Library possesses an enormous collection of architectural records.  For decades, the staff of the Local History and Genealogy department have worked to organize and preserve the records donated to the library by local architecture and engineering firms.  The records, which includes hundreds of thousands of drawings, pertain not only to buildings in Toledo but also to buildings in the entire Midwest.  To make the records more accessible, the library has created the Architecture of Northwest Ohio, a digital library that allows researchers to search and browse images from the collection.  This website gives researchers an unrivaled view into the architectural past of the Midwest.  OHRAB applauds the Toledo Lucas County Public Library for their continuing efforts to preserve their vast architectural records collection and to make it accessible to all through the Architecture of Northwest Ohio digital library.