Board chairman Vince Bourgault said the grant would go toward upgrading and enhancing the memory lab, local history projects, and enhancements to library services and space. Library Directory April Ide said the library had two goals in mind when applying for the grant.

“To improve our ability to act as a community gathering space and to collect and preserve stories of the past in the present in our local area,” she said. “The grant will allow us to offer some new services that we don’t currently have available in the library, which will include study room pods, a Spanish language version of our website, and charging stations for mobile devices.”

In terms of memory lab enhancements, she said additional formats will be added for preservation. These include 8mm film, Hi8 tape, beta tape, and oral recording devices among others. The current formats supported include VHS, 3.5 in floppy disc, CD, DVD, and cassettes.

Funding will also go toward stabilizing the temperature and humidity in their basement archival area and creating a mobile memory lab to be used at events and brought to locations.

Harris points out the varied archives they have within the library basement, including large preserved versions of the New Ulm Daily Journal. Part of the grant money will go toward creating a more temperature and moisture-stable environment for these older texts.

Programming and Technology Services Librarian LeRoy Harris, who also wrote the application for the grant, said the opportunity came about in connection with the library’s memory lab.

“The Mellon Foundation reached out to libraries that were already part of the memory lab network established by the Institute for Museum and Library Sciences, and the Washington DC Public Library,” he said. “They reached out to libraries as part of that network to ask if they would be open to receiving a grant to support the memory lab and library services.”

Ide said this is the largest single grant the library has ever received. Without it, these projects would not have come to fruition anytime soon.

“Probably quite a few years because it’s a budgetary thing,” she said. “We’re well supported by the city and the county. At the same time, these are extra things outside of our normal budget bounds we’d want to be adding. We’d have to chunk it up into little pieces, pursue things one at a time, and go for smaller grants.”

Some of the projects, like stabilizing the archive’s environment and creating the mobile memory lab, are expected to be completed within the next year. Other projects, like the study pod area, are expected to take longer. Another long-term project would be an oral history project conducted by the library with other partners.

“We’ve been getting equipment to be able to conduct oral history interviews,” Harris said. “We’re looking at partnering with the Brown County Historical Society. The goal is to be able to curate a collection of those oral histories. They will be available for people to access and learn about the diverse voices old and young and their experiences and memories they have here.”

The grant is for five years, with the money meant to be spent in that time. Board member Carl Ziedler made the motion to accept the grant, with Board member Lynn Henle seconding the motion. The final approval will come from City Council at their meeting March 19.