We’re excited to work with Team Menomonee Falls Library as part of the Recollection Wisconsin Digitization Initiative! Founded in 1906, the Menomonee Falls Public Library encourages lifelong learning by providing materials, services, and programs to enrich our community’s educational, informational, and recreational needs. It also seeks to stimulate children’s appreciation for reading and interest in learning. Menomonee Falls Public Library is a proud member of the Bridges Library System.
Their project includes digitizing and sharing materials documenting their community history including Menomonee Falls Women’s Club scrapbooks, yearbooks and ledgers, early firefighters and fire stations history, and historic photos of street scenes, buildings, community families, and schools.
Leading Team Menomonee Falls is Elizabeth Feucht, a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee SOIS pursuing a Master’s in Library and Information Science.
Elizabeth didn’t have to journey far for her digitization work as she lives and works in Menomonee Falls as a technical services and reference assistant for Menomonee Falls Library. Through this fieldwork experience, she hopes to make local history more accessible through digital preservation best practices. She also enjoys reading, baking, playing D&D with friends, and birdwatching in her spare time (not simultaneously).
This spring, Elizabeth will work closely with two dedicated Menomonee Falls Library staff members, local history room manager Ellen Rohr and adult services librarian John Kruse.
Ellen is the business manager at the Menomonee Falls Public Library. She’s also taken on the role of Local History Room coordinator where she works with a group of volunteers who help organize and process their collection of historical documents collected over the years. Passionate about genealogy and local history, she is a member and soon-to-be Board Member of the Menomonee Falls Historical Society.
Much of the collection contained in the MFPL archives, including materials selected for digitization, is owned by the Menomonee Falls Historical Society, located at the Old Falls Village Historical Park.
John Kruse is the Adult Services Librarian at the Menomonee Falls Public Library. He’s been working with communities for about 12 years. Prior to his career in libraries, John was a social worker, working with youth and families and in case management. This background emphasizes seeing the “whole person” and John designs their library programs following this philosophy. Though his background is not in digitization or history, John’s looking forward to involvement with Recollections Wisconsin as a vehicle to develop more local history programming highlighting the incredible resources housed in our Local History Room.
The Recollection Wisconsin Digitization Initiative brings together Wisconsin content partners and information school graduate students to create new digital collections. Content partners will choose collections to digitize, and student staff will handle the digitization, metadata work, and project documentation creation as part of a paid practicum or independent study experience. Most digitized collections will be added to Recollection Wisconsin throughout the year. Thanks to the State of Wisconsin for funding this important work.
Interested in participating in the Recollection Wisconsin Digitization Initiative? Visit our program website for more information.
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