Library's Pilot archive moved to Kalispell

The dispute between the city and county

over who owns certain library materials has reared its head

again.

The archive of the Whitefish Pilot back

issues on microfilm was removed from the Whitefish Community

Library prior to the recent transition from county to city

control.

The Flathead County Library System

removed the archive despite already having a set of Pilots on

microfilm at the Kalispell branch.

“The county library feels that the

county tax payers own the microfilm,” said Whitefish Community

Library director Joey Kositzky. “Their director was asked by their

board to remove the film.”

Kositzky says the film is in a box

somewhere. The county is offering to sell the film back to the

Community Library for $5,000.

The Pilot archive dates back to 1904.

The Montana Historical Society Library archives each of the state’s

papers on microfilm, including the Pilot, which is archived through

2007. The Whitefish Pilot partially contributed to the original

microfilm project, Kositzky said, as did Big Mountain.

Copies of a roll of microfilm can be

purchased for $65 from the Historical Society Library. About one or

two years worth of Pilots fit on a roll, depending on how big the

papers were at the time, said Lea Solberg of the Historical Society

Library.

An extensive online Newspaper Index

database accompanies the Pilot microfilm. Volunteers Rosalia and

Larry Rooney took 13 years to create the Pilot database by looking

through each issue back to 1904 on microfilm. The Pilot index is

the only complete newspaper database in the valley and is updated

weekly.

“The index doesn’t do us any good if we

don’t have the microfilm to use,” Kositzky said.

It’s not only locals or historians who

use the microfilm, Kositzky noted.

“Visitors will come in to do research

about their family,” she said. “They look for past obits or

information about train wrecks, for example. Now, we have to send

them to Kalispell.”

Jill Evans at the Stumptown Historical

Society says she gets calls every week from people who used the

microfilm for personal research projects.

Losing the film, she said, has crippled

their ability to finish research projects.