The Nashville Public Library in Nashville, Illinois partnered with the Washington County Historical Society to offer a series of history and genealogy programs called “Root for Your Ancestors @ Your Library.” The library applied for a Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) grant and was awarded a grant of $14,813 in October 2008. The target audience for this grant included adults, ages 45 and over, although some of the programs attracted people of all ages. The historical society did not have a meeting space large enough for their membership to hold regular programs. However, the public library was able to provide that space and had an established tradition of offering educational, informational, and recreational programs to the public. The Nashville Public Library hoped through this grant to acquaint people with the technology and resources available to them at the library while working with the historical society to encourage people’s interests in genealogy and local history.
The two partnering agencies developed a schedule of events, consisting of six primarily evening programs. Flyers were created, posted, advertised to the public through the local media, and distributed directly to the membership of the historical society and Friends of the Library organization. Members of both organizations provided refreshments following each program and all of the programs were held at the Nashville Public Library, except for the final program in the series. The final program, the Independent Silver Band, involved 15 brass and percussion players from all over Southern Illinois. Because of the size of this band, this concert was held outside at the Nashville Community Center, with a rain location prepared to use inside the center if necessary.
As part of the technology component of this “In Sync with Technology” grant, the Nashville Public Library also purchased a digital projector and screen for speakers’ slideshow or Power Point presentations. The purchase of a new digital microfilm reader/scanner and a separate scanner for paper documents enabled the public library to offer improved opportunities to researchers for printing or emailing documents.
The six programs presented by the Nashville Public Library and Washington County Historical Society in this series were:
February 21, 2009. “An Introduction to Genealogy Research” given by Kenneth Cochran, Genealogy Society of Southern Illinois.
March 5, 2009. “Lincoln Tales Tall and True” by storyteller, Brian “Fox” Ellis.
March 10, 2009. “Mighty Cahokia: America’s First City” given by William Iseminger, Illinois Humanities Council.
March 24, 2009. “Washington County History Skits” narrated by Rita Harris, Washington County Arts Council.
April 28, 2009. “The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library” given by Kathryn Harris, Director of Library Services. (Genealogy and history resources at the library)
(left) Dennis Cook, President of the Washington County Historical Society, Kathryn Harris, Director of Library Services at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library in Springfield, Illinois, and Linda Summers, Director Nashville Public Library, Nashville, Illinois.
May 14, 2009. “Echoes of Yesteryear” by the Independent Silver Band, a band comprised of brass and percussion players from Southern Illinois playing music dating from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
The Nashville Public Library set three measurable outcomes for the target audience. We predicted that the number of people attending the programs would average over 20 people for each program. Collecting attendance data to measure this outcome was done through a simple headcount of those attending the programs. The first program drew 31 people; the second, 59 people; the third, 45 people; the fourth, 31 people; the fifth, 36 people; and the sixth program, 30 people.
The second measurable outcome predicted that there would be a 50 percent increase in the number of people using the genealogy resources in the library as a result of the programs offered through this grant. Collecting the user data involved keeping track of the people using the genealogy room from the start of the grant and during the course of the grant programs. We had approximately 25-30 people using the genealogy resources from November 2008 through May 2009. The number of people remained consistent for each month. Thus, we found no negligible increase in the number of people using the genealogy resources in the library during the course of the grant period. One possible reason for this outcome might be that the programs were held during the winter and early spring when we traditionally have fewer genealogists visiting our library.
The third outcome predicted an increased interest in the county museum and a 25% increase in membership for the Washington County Historical Society as a direct result of these programs. The measurable outcome resulted from the comparison of the current membership in the historical society compared to the total membership following the grant period. Membership in the historical society at the beginning of the grant period was 71 regular memberships and 93 lifetime memberships. At the conclusion of the grant programs, the historical society president reported that there was no significant change in membership. In retrospect, additional marketing of the Washington County Historical Society may have created more interest in their organization and increased their membership.
The public library and the historical society had hoped to make people aware of the rich history and resources available to them in our library and elsewhere and we achieved that goal. Many of the historical society’s resources, such as cemetery records, are kept at the public library to provide access to the materials. The Washington County Historical Society sees the future potential of sponsoring programs with the Nashville Public Library that will benefit all people in Washington County. Through this partnership, the two agencies were able to offer many educational and informative genealogy and history programs to the public.
The equipment purchased as a result of this grant improved the technology available for public use and made it easier to offer slideshow and Power Point programs in the future.