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Community History Archives

Community History Archive Partner

Peoria Heights Public Library

Peoria Heights, Illinois

Explore this community history collection to discover the people, places, organizations, and events of Peoria Heights.

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1Title

Explore publications and collections from the past.

1941 to 1998Dates represented

See individual titles for available dates.

39,756Archive pages

Historical pages reported for this collection.

Explore local history

Discover the people, places, and stories of Peoria Heights, Illinois.

Explore the past of Peoria Heights, Illinois through newspapers in the Peoria Heights Public Library's digital archive. The archive includes The Heights Herald, with material from 1941 to 1998.

You can open the archive using the link below.
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  • Selected title

    The collection shared by Peoria Heights Public Library features “The Heights Herald”.

  • Free and open access

    No subscription or payment required.

  • Ways to explore

    Consider when and why the material was created. Keep those details with any quotation or observation you use.

Reporting from the time can reveal how people described the events, work and concerns of their day, placing a local story within the history unfolding around it. Whether you are tracing a family connection, exploring a local event or sharing history with a class, there is more to discover than names and dates alone. Explore the archive online for free, without a subscription.

Explore the collection

Titles in this collection

Explore The Heights Herald through 39,756 digitized pages, with material from 1941 to 1998. This collection is shared through Peoria Heights Public Library's partnership with Advantage Archives. Some years or items may be missing between the dates shown.

You may be tracing a family story, exploring a familiar place or simply curious. The source offers a point to begin.

The Heights Herald

39,756 pages from 1941 to 1998

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About the Archive

About The Peoria Heights Public Library's Historical Archives

The Peoria Heights Public Library offers access to a significant collection of historical newspapers through its archives. In collaboration with Advantage Preservation , the library provides valuable primary sources that allow the community to engage with their local history. This initiative reflects the library's commitment to enhancing accessibility to historical content for its patrons.

Peoria Heights Public Library photo 1

About the Library

About The Peoria Heights Public Library

The Peoria Heights Public Library serves as an essential educational resource for the community, dedicated to providing access to information and fostering a love of reading. It is committed to supporting the educational, cultural, and recreational needs of its patrons, and it actively promotes community engagement through a variety of programs and services. The library serves Peoria Heights and all library card holders within the Resource Sharing Alliance consortium, ensuring that everyone can benefit from its extensive resources.

Library History

The History Of The Peoria Heights Public Library

Established to meet the community's needs, the Peoria Heights Public Library has evolved over the years to become a central hub for information and learning. The library has embraced modern technology while preserving its historical roots, providing patrons with access to a wide range of resources, including historical newspapers. Its mission reflects a dedication to serving the diverse population of Peoria Heights, fostering literacy, and promoting lifelong learning.

Local History

Did You Know?

Did you know that the Peoria Heights Public Library is part of the Resource Sharing Alliance consortium? This partnership enables library card holders to access a wider range of resources and services, enhancing the library's ability to meet the needs of the community.

More ways to explore and share local history

Research Guidance

Look for the story behind a result

A family name, a familiar street or a story passed down through generations can lead to a closer look at the history of Peoria Heights. The digital archive shared by the Peoria Heights Public Library offers a place to begin. When using historical newspapers, try alternate spellings and nearby dates, then read the surrounding page to place a local story in its time. Compare later reporting or another available title to explore different perspectives rather than treating one account as the whole story. Search a person, place, or event with a second term, then compare the date and context of each result. A repeated name needs more evidence before it identifies the same person or connects two parts of a story.

After recording the issue and page, search a second term tied to the result and compare the surrounding dates and accounts. Keep matching names provisional until the place and context fit. This can turn one result into a better question without turning a repeated name into a confirmed story.

Capture the title, date, and page or item location for a detail you may want to revisit. Label your interpretation as your reading, not the source's own words. Keep enough context with the note that another reader can retrace it.

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Community Partnership

Keeping local history a community resource

This community archive is made possible by the collaboration of the Peoria Heights Public Library, its community, and Advantage Archives. Together, these partnerships preserve local sources and give people a way to explore, learn from, and share the history around them.

Advantage Archives covers ongoing archive hosting, storage, development, and maintenance. The institution and its community do not pay a subscription, seat license, annual support contract, or other recurring archive-service charge. Local history remains a community resource, not a subscription to maintain.

Would you like to see more of your community's history preserved and accessible? Start a conversation with your library, newspaper publisher, historical or genealogical society, museum, or school about the materials they would like to share and a possible partnership with Advantage Archives.

Learn about partnerships
Read All About It

Stories, research tips, and archive news

Read All About It connects archive research with the people and institutions preserving local history. Explore partner and community stories, project updates, research ideas, and perspectives on digitization, education, and working with primary sources. Use the articles as a starting point for your next question or a new way to share a discovery.

Newest published articles

March 18, 2025

It’s Your Community’s History, So Why Rent Something You Own?

We believe that history belongs to the communities where it was made - not locked behind paywalls or inaccessible due to budget restrictions. Subscription-based services and large content aggregators are generally more concerned with "content" and less concerned with the history that content contains. Their models typically involve a reoccurring charge for a plan that renews annually or licensing agreements with the library based on population served or circulation numbers. You are essentially Renting Access To YOUR History.
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