Worthington Room

The Worthington Room contains resources by and about the history, government, organizations, and citizens of the Worthington area. The Worthington Room is open to the public and is located on the lower level of the Old Worthington Library. Holdings include books, maps, newspaper clippings, magazines, newsletters, microfilm and a microfilm reader.

Printing and scanning

Scanning and printing from microfilm is free.

Community resources

The Worthington Room contains a wealth of information on the Worthington community, both past and present.

• City of Worthington Annual Budget, 1961, 1977, 1979-1998, 2000-2008, 2014-2016. [977.156 WOR]
• City of Worthington Annual Report, 1963, 1967-1968, 1970-1984, 1986, 1988-1994, 1996-2018, 2021-2022. [977.156 WOR]
• Worthington Schools Alumni Directory, 2011. [371.8 WOR]
• The Intelligencer, monthly newsletter of the Worthington Historical Society, 1971-present [977.156 WOR]

Plat Maps

The Worthington Room collects numerous historic and recent plat maps of the Worthington Area, including:

• Franklin County: 1842, 1883
• Perry Township: 1872, 1910, 1977
• Sharon Township: 1872, 1910

Telephone Directories

• Columbus Ohio Suburban Directory, 1983-1986, 1988-1991, 1993-1994 [917.7156 POL]
• A Directory of Worthington and Sharon Township, 1928, 1933. [977.156 DIR]
• Franklin County, Ohio: Polk City Directory, 1997, 1999, 2002-2019 [917.7156 FRA]
• Polk's Columbus City Directory, 1984-1989, 1991-1993 [917.7157 POL]

Worthington High School Yearbooks

• The Cardinal (Thomas Worthington High School) 1937-38, 1942, 1945-1970, 1972-present
• The Oracle (Worthington High School) 1922, 1923, 1926, 1928, 1929, 1930
• The Sentinel (Worthington Kilbourne High School) 1992-2006, 2008-present

Most of Worthington's high school yearbooks have been digitized and are also available online at Worthington Memory.

Vertical files

The vertical files include newspaper clippings, brochures, pamphlets and other information on Worthington history, buildings, organizations, businesses, people, neighborhoods, schools and events.

Newspapers on microfilm

The library offers Worthington-area newspapers on microfilm, from 1812 to the present day. Worthington Memory includes an index of articles published in a selection of these newspapers and houses abstracts of newspaper articles that visitors may search in order to access the full-text articles on microfilm.

Not all of the library's microfilmed newspapers have been indexed. Linked titles below have been partially or fully indexed; clicking on a linked title will take you to a search page for that title on Worthington Memory. Visit Ohio Memory's Worthington News Collection to access digitized full text for the years 1925-1963.

• Central Ohio Review (1/14/1884 - 5/2/1885)
• Citizen Journal (1/1/1980 - 12/31/1985)
• Columbus Dispatch (1/1/1979 - 12/31/2014)
• Delaware Gazette (12/21/1855 - 12/25/1857)
• Delaware Patron (4/16/1823 - 4/15/1824; 4/22/1824 - 5/14/1824; 7/23/1829 - 5/6/1830)
• Franklin Chronicle [Worthington] (1/7/1820 - 9/24/1821)
• Franklinton, Ohio Freeman's Chronicle (9/19/1812 - 9/3/1813; 11/5 & 12/10/1813; 12/31/1813 - 9/23/1814)
• Ohio Gazette [Delaware] (8/23/1834 - 12/20/1834)
• Ohio State Gazette [Delaware] (5/13/1830 - 7/7/1831; 7/21/1832 - 8/16/1834)
• Olentangy Gazette [Delaware] (12/27/1834 - 10/6/1838; 1/4/1840 - 8/31/1844; 3/14/1851 - 12/14/1855)
• Patron & Franklin Chronicle [Delaware] (11/19/1821 - 4/9/1823)
• This Week in Worthington (2/8/1993 - 4/19/2012)
• This Week Worthington News (4/26/2012 - 1/26/2023)
• Western Intelligencer (1/1/1812 - 12/10/1814)
• Westerville Public Opinion (4/29/1887 - 9/14/1893; 6/27/1895 - 12/27/1906; 1/2/1908 - 12/23/1920; 2/10/1921 - 4/24/1930)
• Westerville Review (1/7/1880 - 12/29/1883; 1/12/1884 - 6/7/1884)
• Worthington News (3/12/1925 - 8/26/1992)
• Worthington News (SNP) (3/25/1998 - 4/19/2012)
• Worthington News This Week (9/14/1992 - 2/1/1993)
• Worthington Spectator (5/5/1971 - 3/6/1974)
• Worthington Spotlight (6/1/2020 - 12/31/2022)
• Worthington Suburbia News (1/6/1993 - 3/18/1998)

Sayama book display

The Sayama Book display includes a collection of Japanese-language books donated to the Worthington Libraries by the Sayama Library in Sayama, Japan, a northern suburb of Tokyo. Since 1999, Worthington has been sister cities with Sayama, Japan.

Local history book collection

The Worthington Room collection features a number of books highlighting the history of Worthington, Columbus, Franklin County, and Ohio. Some of these books are also available to be checked out.

Worthington History

• Around Worthington by Robert McCormick. 1999. [977.156 MCC]
• Histories of Structures in Worthington and Sharon Township by Robert McCormick. 1992. [977.156 MCC]
• A History of Law Enforcement in Worthington, Franklin County, Ohio 1803-2017 by Lieutenant Richard Tennant, Michael Mauger, Linda Roberts and Wina Waters Phelps. 2018. [363.2097 HIS]
• Interstitial: Sixty years at Rush Creek Village by Darren M. Kelly. 2017. [720.9771 KEL]
• Linking Past to Present: an Historical Account of Flintridge Terrace & Its Surrounding Areas by Sharon Flintridge Residents' Association. 2000. [977.156 LIN]
• National Register of Historic Places, Worthington Sites and Buildings Compiled by Ohio Historical Society. 2018. [977.156 NAT]
• New Englanders on the Ohio Frontier by Virginia McCormick. 1998. [977.156 MCC]
• Probing Worthington's Heritage by Robert and Virginia McCormick.1990. [977.156 MCC]
• Style and Structures of Old Worthington: A Photographic Survey by the Worthington Historical Society. 1997. [720.9771]
• Two Centuries of Educational History, Worthington, Ohio by Virginia McCormick. 2008. [370.9771 MCC]
• Walking Tour, Historic Worthington by the Worthington Historical Society. 2006. [977.156 WAL]
• A Walking Tour of Old Worthington by Frank Corbin. 1969. [977.156 COR]
• Worthington Landmarks by Robert McCormick. 1992. [977.156 MCC]
• Worthington Neighborhoods by Virginia McCormick. 2006. [977.156 MCC]

Columbus and Franklin County

• A Centennial Biographical History of the City of Columbus and Franklin County, Ohio. 1901. [920 C32.] (Index located at 977.157 IND)
• History of Franklin County: a collection of reminiscences of the early settlement of the county, with biographical sketches, and a complete history of the county to the present time by William T. Martin. 1858. (reprinted 1969) [977.156 MAR]
• History of Franklin County, Ohio by Opha Moore. 1930. [977.156 MOO]

Ohio

• Echoes. May 2018-present. [MAG ECHOES]
• Historical Collections of Ohio by Henry Howe. 1888. [977.1 HOW]
• History of Ohio by Charles Galbreath. 1925. [977.1 G13]
• Timeline: A publication of the Ohio Historical Society. 1984-January 2018. [MAG TIMELINE]