1. Successful
partnerships with
public libraries

2. Plan for today
• Chuck Adleman and Jill Glover will share about
their space collaboration in Luck
• Denise Anton Wright and Janis Merkle will share
about a digital collaborative project in New Glarus
• Stef Morrill will share survey results throughout! [73
responses, solicited from Wisconsin Historical
Societies]

3. Are we collaborating?

4. Do we share space?

5. How do we share space?

6. Lucky Partners
The Luck, Wisconsin
Public Library and
Historical Museum
Working Together
Chuck Adleman, Jill Glover

7. Luck, Wisconsin
70 miles from Twin Cities
Population 1200

8. Luck
Population stable
at 1000 for 50 years
Road Side Marker on Hwy 35
1885 First Co-op Creamery

9. Lake Country

10. In "Luck" to get 1/2
way

11. Luck Grows and Changes
• Indian cession treaties open land for 1837
settlement
• Logging era rest stop 1850s
• Danish immigration brings dairy farming 1870s-1880s
• Soo Line R.R. reaches Luck in 1902
• Duncan Yo-Yo “capital” from 1946-1965
• Family dairy farms give way to large farms
• Recreation industry gathers importance
• Wood products industry a main stay
• Luck becomes tied to Twin Cities metropolitan area

12. Incorporated 1905

13. Luck Today (pop 1100)

14. The Small Old Library

15. Planning Begins in 2000
• First interest in new library and museum building
• Luck Historical Society formed
• Site on Main Street chosen and purchased
• Dormant period, brown site pollution mitigated
• Steering committee of interested citizens formed 2006
1. Chairman chosen
2. Firm consensus that a new Public Library critical
3. General agreement that library and museum should
be housed together in single building
4. Committees assigned
5. Fund raiser chosen
6. Committees assigned
7. Fund raising begins

16. Fund Raising Continues,
Building Designed and Constructed,
2006-2008
• Cedar Corporation chosen for design, engineering
and oversight
• Final design of building approved in 2007
• Construction summer of 2007 to fall 2008
• Mortgage (bridge loan from village) burned in fall of
2010

17. Building Plan

18. The Finished Building
Design
• Library space (main floor, meeting room, break
room and office) - 47%
• Museum (and work/storage) - 35%
• Public areas (lavatories, lobby) – 17%
• Mechanical – 1%

19. Ground Breaking 2007

20. Construction Begins 2007

21. Construction through the cold
winter

22. Putting on the Lid

23. Completed Building, 2008

24. Other Things to Consider
• The lot and building are owned by the
village of Luck but were built with private
donations
• The public library is operated with
local, county and state tax dollars
• The Museum is self supporting through
grants, donations and museum sales
• Building decisions are made by a
committee of the Luck Public Works Director
and representatives of the Library and
Historical Society Boards

25. Benefits of living together
• Synergy of sharing space and ideas
• Better drawing power for both
• Cost savings by sharing space and equipment
• Able to plan and offer better and more varied
programs and activities
• Large group programs possible with flexible space
in the museum

26. Successful Things We have Done
Together
• Partner to show classic free movies
• Cooperatively sponsored Civil War speakers
• Offer shared seasonal events eg. Lucky Days, Winter
Carnival, visit from Santa, etc.
• Shared space for adult exercise classes
• Provide space for census training
• Make space available for community meetings
(non political)
• Provide location for Luck Senior Class Art Show
• Give programs for school and community field trips

27. Working Together
Santa comes to Luck

28. Spring High School Art Show

29. Polk County Genealogical Society Partners
with Library/Museum
• Library has ancestry.com and
other genealogical resources
online free
• Monday afternoons museum is
staffed by Genealogists
• Many programs are co-
sponsored by museum and
genealogy group
Danish immigrant history talk

30. Indianhead Gem and Mineral Society
Supported Geology Exhibit

31. Large Group Meetings in the Museum
Sound system, Video projector
Monthly Program

32. Key Elements of Success
• Strong rapport established during building project
• Friendly, cooperative staffs
• Broad community support
• Gathering point for the community
• Central Main Street location
• Open six days a week with predictable schedule
• Facilities available for community activities
• Provides only public rest rooms on Main Street
• Free WI-FI hotspot
• Ability to accept the fact that things won’t always
go exactly the way you might like

33. Possible Pitfalls When Living
Together
• Don’t expect the library staff to watch the
museum
• Importance of keeping library and museum
budgets completely separate
• Difficulty of determining a fair and equitable
division building operating costs
• Carefully planned billing procedure
• Coordination of schedules
• Mechanism for making joint building
decisions
• What if one partner defaults?

34. Future
• August 30, 2012 $90,670 grant for Family
Heritage, multipurpose shared addition
• Storage
• Questions?
• Websites:
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~wilahs
/index.html
• http://luckpubliclibrary.org/

35. More survey results…

36. How else are we
working together?
• Share programs/events (21 out of 44)
• Work together to get questions answered about
people/community (4)
• Cross-promotion (4)
• Share data and research (4)
• Share equipment (3)

37. How else are we
working together?
• Dividing collection responsibilities: collecting
different formats
• Rotating collection lent to Historical Society
• Get discarded books from library
• Traveling display created by historical society lent to
libraries
• Planning
• Page in the quarterly library newsletter
• Board member overlapping
• Collaborate on book of photos

38. Developing online content

39. What kinds of content?
• Photos (6 out of 17)
• Documents/Books (6)
• Obituary database
• Local newspaper
• Ancestry.com
• Facebook page
• Library catalog: Historical society collection in the
catalog
• Library maintained website (2)

40. Successful Partnerships
with Public Libraries
New Glarus
Denise Anton Wright
Public Library Administration Consultant
South Central Library System, Madison
dawright@scls.lib.wi.su
Janis Merkle
Assistant Director, New Glarus Public Library
jmerkle@scls.lib.wi.us

41. Successful Partnerships
New Glarus
Village of 2,172 people – located in Green County
Rich history – founded in 1845
as a colony of Switzerland
Re-invented itself as a tourist
destination in early 1960’s
Home to New Glarus Brewing Co.
& Swiss Center of North America

42. Successful Partnerships
New Glarus
New Glarus Public Library New Glarus Historical Society
•Founded in 1934 •Founded in 1938
•Staff with interest / abilities •Historical Society maintains
relating to local history Swiss Historical Village
•Staff with experience in •Active Board of Directors
digitization & Membership
•Connections already in •No paid coordinator
place with Historical
Society

43. Successful Partnerships
New Glarus
New Glarus Public Library – located inside Village Hall

44. Successful Partnerships
New Glarus
New Glarus Public Library – 2,074 square feet

45. Successful Partnerships
New Glarus
New Glarus Public Library – Limited Local History Space

46. Successful Partnerships
New Glarus
New Glarus Historical Society – Swiss Historical Village Museum

47. Successful Partnerships
New Glarus
New Glarus Historical Society – Swiss Historical Village Museum

48. Successful Partnerships
New Glarus
New Glarus Historical Society – Archives Space

49. Successful Partnerships
New Glarus
New Glarus Public Library New Glarus Historical Society
•Values local history •Values local history
•Limited space (2,074 SF) •Adequate space for
•Very little space for local collections
history collection •Limited public access to
•No room to accept archives
donations of local history •Archival materials not as
materials organized as Board would like
•Open year-round – 50 hours •Open part-year (May 1st to
per week October 15th)
•Staff willing to coordinate a •Board willing to help with
digitization project digitization project

50. Successful Partnerships
New Glarus
Local History Digitization Project
•FY2011 – Federal LSTA (Library Services & Technology Act)
grant administered by the IMLS (Institute of Museum &
Library Services) & the Wisconsin Dept. of Public Instruction
•Janis Merkle – wrote the grant application & coordinated
all aspects of the grant project – also wrote the metadata
to accompany each item
•Involved New Glarus Historical Society, New Glarus Public
Library & the New Glarus Swiss United Church of Christ
•Emphasized the strengths of the collections owned by the
NGHS & Swiss Church (photos & unique book items)
•Focused on early New Glarus history as much as possible

51. Successful Partnerships
New Glarus
Local History Digitization Project
•Grant requirement - UWDCC did actual digitization
•Janis & project partners made decisions on what items
would be digitized
•Historical Society members assisted with identification of
individuals / locations / details of the photos that did not
have information
•Goal to have as much information as possible connected
to each item / each image
•Items needed to be physically transported to UWDCC
•Digitized items / images housed on UWDCC server

52. Successful Partnerships
New Glarus
Local History Digitization Project – Three Objectives:
#1 – Preserve local history information
Final Report: The selected materials – many of which are
fragile – can now be consulted without handling the physical
materials. Digital reproductions of the materials – both online
and contained on physical media – provide a backup
against the loss or destruction of the originals.

53. Successful Partnerships
New Glarus
Local History Digitization Project – Three Objectives:
#2 – Provide the general public with free access to local
history materials through the Internet
Final Report: These materials were previously accessible only
in person at the owning institutions during limited hours. Our
digital collection is now hosted and maintained by UWDCC
on their website, which is accessible 24 hours a day at no
charge to anyone with Internet access. The collection can be
found easily through a Google search, and it will soon be
included in the Wisconsin Heritage Online portal.

54. Successful Partnerships
New Glarus
Local History Digitization Project – Three Objectives:
#3 – Publicize & promote the newly-digitized materials
Final Report: As described above, the availability of the new
collection has been announced to the public through various
avenues including newspapers, e-mail lists, social
media, websites, and an open house. Handouts describing
the collection and how to use it are also on display in the
library.

55. Successful Partnerships
New Glarus
Local History Digitization Project housed on the UWDCC
website – State of Wisconsin Collection
“New Glarus and Green County Local History”
http://uwdc.library.wisc.edu/collections/WI/NewGlarusLocHist
New Glarus Public Library (www.newglaruspubliclibrary.org)
New Glarus Historical Society (www.swisshistoricalvillage.org)
Swiss United Church of Christ (www.swisschurch.org)

56. Successful Partnerships
New Glarus
Categories:
•People
•Buildings, Streets & Scenes
•Leisure & Celebration
•Schools, Churches &
Community
•Business & Commerce
•Farming
•Books (including “The
Establishment &
Development of the New
Glarus Colony” – in its
original German, as well as in
a English version that was
recently translated by a
local New Glarus resident)

57. Successful Partnerships
New Glarus
Benefits to the Digitization Grant Project:
•Extremely positive reaction from the community
•Links to the UWDCC site from the website of each
partnering organization = widespread access
•Projects a positive, progressive image for all three
partnering organizations (library, historical society &
church)
•Solidified positive relationships among all three
partnering organizations

58. Successful Partnerships
New Glarus
Lasting Impact for the Library & Historical Society:
•More projects to benefit both (local newspaper
microfilm project & future digitization projects)
•Future partnerships (location of new library)
•Historical Society = improved organization of photo
collection & up-to-date policies on access / use

59. Parting words…
”Having a good working
Community.working
“The Museum and Library relationship with the public library
haverelationship and
a good working in your community is a "win-win"
relationship and
complement one another situation for both the historical
complement one another society and the library. We
for the good of theof the
for the good …
promote and advertise each
Drummond Community.
Community.” other's events to our patrons,
members, and the community.”
Community.working
Community.working
“it is a great idea, as we
“A Great Opportunity to both preserve local history
educate the public together” in different ways” good
Community. of the Drummond
Community.
“They're very useful and usually lots of fun. Great way to expand visibility
and membership.”

60. Thanks!
• Questions?
o Chuck Adleman, lahsmuseum@gmail.com
o Denise Anton Wright, dawright@scls.lib.wi.us
o Stef Morrill, smorrill@wils.wisc.edu