Journeys of Discovery: Robots rule at Tennessee’s new State Library & Archives

Join correspondent Tom Wilmer at the Tennessee State Library & Archives in Nashville, Tennessee with State Librarian and Archivist Charles Sherrill. The new 165,000 square-foot, 3-story facility is a game changer for anyone seeking information about any nuance of Tennessee’s history via robotic access to historical documents. The multi-story robotic retrieval system archives are so extensive that if all the historical documents were set on one linear bookshelf—it would be 26-miles long. The Library and Archives' extensive and wide-ranging collections of books and original historical documents include state and county records, censuses and genealogical information, military records, penitentiary records, newspapers, city directories and telephone books, bibliographies, ledgers, manuscripts, letters, diaries, maps, photographs, broadsides, prints, postcards, oral histories, films, sheet music and general reference materials. The Library and Archives is home to several notable