The Library is a great source of local historical information in many different formats. We have histories of our region, counties, and communities. We have a solid collection of railroad history books and photographs.
Altoona Area Public Library Digital Collections
Altoona Area School District History Collection
Blair County Oral Histories
Altoona Tribune Indexes February 1858 – January 1872
New resources digitized by Penn State, the Library of Congress, and others:
Digital History Books
The Altoona Area Public Library offers local history books in digital format to preserve the history of the area. In recent years, we have seen an increasingly urgent need to find a way to capture information about our past from books that are crumbling with age. Many of the books in our Pennsylvania Room collection are in very brittle condition and deteriorate more each time they are handled.
In a digital format, the information can easily be read and studied without causing further harm to the original publications. We hope this will preserve our local history well into the future for anyone who may be interested.
Some digitized resources presented on this page were made possible by a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services as administered by the Pennsylvania Department of Education through the Office of Commonwealth Libraries, and funding from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
The Pennsylvania Room
The Pennsylvania Room, located on the 2nd floor balcony, is full of books of local significance. It is dedicated to the illustrious histories of Pennsylvania, its Counties, and our local towns and cities including Altoona, Claysburg, Hollidaysburg, Martinsburg, Roaring Spring, Tyrone, Williamsburg, and many more.
Through the generosity of the Blair County Genealogical Society, we have many of their publications available for use in research.
The following books are available on our website:
Architecture: Practical and Theoretical
Louis and Michael J. Beezer
Altoona, PA 1894
Canal Towns: Survey of Canal-Era Resources in Huntingdon. Hollidaysburg and Williamsburg
Scott D. Heberling 2013
The Reunion of Scholars of the Old Third Ward Schools
Altoona, PA held at the Logan House June 12th, 1896
