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Projects Funded

2024  |  2023  |  2022  |  2021  |  2020  |  2019  |  2018

2024

Greenfield Public Library, Adaptive Story Time Expansion: Inclusive Story Sessions for All Ages and Abilities
Greenfield Public Library will expand its Adaptive Story Time program for adults with developmental and intellectual disabilities and create story time programs for elementary and high school-aged kids.

McIntosh Memorial Library (Viroqua), Culinary Literacy Mobile Demonstration Kitchen
McIntosh Memorial Library will provide weekly culinary literacy programming to the community at the Viroqua Farmer’s Market.

Milwaukee Public Library, Library Entrepreneur-in-Residence
The Milwaukee Public Library Entrepreneur-in-Residence (EIR) will leverage library resources to support early stage entrepreneurs and small business owners to conceptualize and grow their ideas and companies through expert led one-on-one mentoring appointments and workshops.

Northwoods Community Elementary School at Rhinelander School District, Sewing Seeds in the Library and Beyond
Students in Grades 2-5 at Northwoods Community Elementary School will learn machine and hand sewing skills to create pillowcases and a quilt to donate back to the community.

Sokaogon Chippewa Community, Welcome To The 21st Century: Digitizing Tribal Analog History
This project will create updated digital files of video and audio interviews with Tribal Elders on a range of topics including language, traditions related to harvesting wild rice, and other varied topics.

Somerset Public Library, Echoes of the Past: Revitalizing Community Heritage Through an Immersive Audio History Tour
This endeavor aims to make Somerset’s rich heritage accessible to diverse audiences through community signage, an interactive map that triggers playback of the oral history recordings on users’ smartphones, and an online repository.

UW-Eau Claire McIntyre Library, Blugold Makerspace Eau Claire Repair Fair
The Repair Fair is an event that expands the library’s mission of sharing knowledge and promoting sustainable practices by connecting community members, students, and skilled repair people to share a wide range of repair and problem-solving skills and techniques.

UW-Parkside Library (Kenosha), Invertebrate Insights: Community-Driven Collection and Education Initiative
The Parkside Library will partner with the Parkside Natural History Collection student organization and other organizations to engage scientists, museum specialists, students (K-12, undergraduate, and graduate), and community members through a series of events and programs with the aim of identifying, cataloging, digitizing, and exhibiting the extensive collection of invertebrates housed at the University of Wisconsin Parkside and improve public access to the collection.

West Bend Public Library, Grow, Cook, Save: A Journey to Food Economy and Healthy Eating
This project aims to empower individuals with the skills needed to cultivate their own gardens, effectively budget for food, and cook nutritious meals.

 

2023

Clear Lake School District, Bringing Our History to Life
Using traveling display cases, the project will bring historical items to students and community members so they can learn about the past and help strengthen our future.
Mid-project report, February 2024  |  Final report, June 2024

Hales Corners Library, W. Ben Hunt Prairie Learning Garden
The Learning Garden will offer a hands-on educational experience, inviting community members to engage in volunteer work or self-guided tours, fostering a deeper connection with prairie ecosystems as they explore and nurture native plants.
Mid-project report, March 2024

Hartland Public Library, Biking Along the Ice Age Trail with the Hartland Public Library
This project will add a bike repair station next to the Library building along the Ice Age Trail, purchase a foldable bike that can be checked out at the Library, and hold a bike safety event for kids to help promote both the Trail itself and the Library’s evolving mission in the 21st century, as a community center that supports everyone and all kinds of activities, which includes getting outside and taking part in an active lifestyle for better physical and mental health.
Mid-project report, April 2024

Lake Geneva Public Library, Leaves and Sheaves: Papermaking for Art and the Environment
The Lake Geneva Public Library will connect books, history, recycling, and plant foraging with a hand papermaking project that encourages sustainable thinking and innovative adaptations of traditional arts and crafts.
Mid-project report, July 2024

UW-Stevens Point, Poem in Your Pocket Day
This project shares the love of poetry in the Central Wisconsin region by distributing poems with colleagues, family, neighbors, and strangers to be read and shared at work, school, in local establishments, and even local government meetings, with the intention of spending one day – Poem in Your Pocket Day in April – to engage with each other through the beauty of poetry.
Mid-project report, January 2024

Western Technical College (La Crosse), Blooming with Books: Cultivating a Community of Readers of All Ages in the Learning Commons
Blooming with Books is a community- and literacy-building opportunity imagined by Western’s Learning Commons, which is an open-access college learning center and library that seeks to support all students in balancing parenting, academic, and work responsibilities.
Mid-project report, February 2024

Wisconsin Library Association (Madison), Great Lakes, Great Reads: A Community Read for Our Watershed
This basin-wide community read program will be piloted in Wisconsin with the goal of being a catalyst for other states and provinces in the Upper Midwest and Canada to engage and inspire passion and connection to the Great Lakes watershed through reading. 

WJ Niederkorn Library (Port Washington), Libraries for Everyone: Supervised Visitations at Your Library
This project includes creating a visitation guide for caseworkers and families, creating activity bags for families during visitations, and offering possible solutions to common needs such as private meeting areas and food-friendly spaces.
Mid-project report, June 2024  |  Final report, June 2024

2022

Chilton Public Schools, Calumet County STEAMFest
STEAMfest will interest Pre-K through eighth grade public, private, and homeschooled students of Calumet County in STREAM (science, technology, robotics, engineering, art, and math) careers by providing speakers, activities, and programming during the second week of October in conjunction with the Wisconsin Science Festival. Read a local news article from October 2023 about this event.

Kimberly Public Library, Celebrate Native American Heritage
Kimberly Public Library offered programming and exhibits in partnership with local Indigenous storytellers, artists, and a chef.
Final Report, February 2023  |  Indigenous Authors List  |  Event Surveys  |  Events Booklet 

Lakeshore Technical College (Cleveland), Supporting & Celebrating a Multilingual Campus Community
Lakeshore Technical College is building services and collections to support Spanish-speaking and Hmong-speaking students.
Final Report, May 2024  |  Supporting and Celebrating a Multilingual Campus Community Guide

Madison West High School, Building a Digital Archive of School Memorabilia
Madison West High School will digitize and develop a searchable, easy-to-navigate, database of school memorabilia for the West High School community, past and present, that can serve as a model to other K-12 institutions building a digital archive.

Marathon County Public Library, Digitizing Oral Histories and Transcripts
Marathon County Public Library will digitize its oral history collection, which includes digitizing transcripts, CDs and tapes, as well as creating transcripts for those oral histories without one.

Northern Waters Library Service (Ashland), Advocacy Toolkit
Northern Waters Library Service is creating templates and resources to communicate the value of libraries to communities and elected officials.

UW-Platteville, Capturing the Oral Histories of Rural Teacher Preparation
This project would pay undergraduates in the School of Education to collect the oral histories of students of the normal school, lab school, or local rural schools and properly catalog the recordings for Recollection Wisconsin for official archival purposes.

Waukesha County Technical College, Walking in Community: A Place of Our Own
Waukesha County Technical College is setting up and running a virtual wellness space for librarians of color.
Final report, August 2024

2021

Bekkum Memorial Library (Westby), Appleby Trail Story Walk: A Partnership With Westby Elementary School
Bekkum Memorial Library is partnering with Westby Elementary School to install a story walk at the school. Read an October 2022 local news story about this project.

Chilton Public Library, Technology Learning Lab
Chilton Public Library is hosting digital literacy training, particularly for seniors.
Mid-project report, June 2022  |  Final report, January 2023

D. R. Moon Memorial Library (Stanley), Outreach Services to Home Schools and Rural Amish/Old Order Mennonite Schools
D. R. Moon Memorial Library is providing outreach services to rural Amish and Mennonite schools.
Mid-project report, March 2022  |  Final report, June 2022

La Crosse Public Library, Threads of Tradition: Connecting Hmong Generations Through the Textile Arts
La Crosse Public Library is hosting Adult programming to teach traditional Hmong textile arts.

Lakeland Union High School (Minocqua), STEAM Field Day
Lakeland Union High School is hosting STEAM events at the school forest for Elementary and High School students, focusing on Indigenous cultures.
Final report, October 2022

Oconomowoc Public Library, Curbside/After-Hours Pickup Lockers
Oconomowoc Public Library is providing lockers for curbside/after-hours holds pickup.
Final report, October 2022

Patterson Memorial Library (Wild Rose), The Memory Spot: A Lab for Personal Digital Archiving
Patterson Memorial Library is creating a digitization lab for patrons for personal digital archiving.
Mid-point report, April 2022  |  Final report, February 2023

Racine Public Library, Multisensory Healing Room
Racine Public Library is creating a space to support people experiencing trauma or mental health barriers, which will reduce the need to dismiss people from the library for behavioral issues. Read local news stories from February 2022 about this project from the Racine Journal Times and the Racine County Eye.
Mid-point report, March 2022

River Valley High School (Spring Green), Windows and Mirrors: A Partnership With American Players Theatre
River Valley High School is partnering with APT actors, who are guiding high school sophomores in a shared read and discussion of race and racial profiling.

Wild Plum Memory Project (a collaboration of public libraries in Waukesha and Washington counties), Hybrid Outreach to Memory Cafe Attendees
Wild Plum Memory Project is providing equipment for public libraries in Waukesha and Washington counties to support combination virtual/in-person events.
Final report, December 2022

 

2020

Appleton Public Library, The Piano Project: Community Engagement through Music and Art
Appleton Public Library is partnering with local artists and community members to install interactive displays throughout the city that use music to engage the public in a community read while also raising awareness of the Hmong American experience through stories such as “The Latehomecomer” by Kao Kalia Yang. Read local stories from May 2021 about this project from Fox 11 News and the Community Foundation for the Fox Valley Region or watch this promotion video with artist and toy designer Tou Yia Xiong.
Mid-point report, March 2021  |  Final report, November 2021

Dane County Library Service (Madison), Ripple Project: Equity Teams
Dane County Library Service is supporting the sustainable development of four regional equity teams throughout Dane County libraries.

Kenosha Public Library, Mind and Body Challenge
Kenosha Public Library is helping keep patrons physically active and entertained while waiting outside the Bookmobile and Book Truck for their turn to board.
Mid-point report, March 2021  |  Final report, November 2021  |  Materials list and sample schedule 

Madison Trust for Historic Preservation, Madison Trust Archive Digitization Project
The Madison Trust for Historic Preservation is digitizing their archives and making them accessible to the public through Recollection Wisconsin. Read about this project in this Digital Readiness Case Study from January 2021.
Mid-point report, March 2021  |  Final report, November 2021

School District of Belleville, Documenting a Historic Time: COVID19 and Opening a New Library….and Beyond!
The School District of Belleville is providing opportunities for school and village community members to record experiences from the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as record segments or interviews to air as podcasts as Belleville opens a new public library in March of 2021.

Sun Prairie Public Library, Story Walks
Sun Prairie Public Library is providing an opportunity for the entire community to engage in literary walks that promote literacy, community and family engagement, physical health, and mental wellbeing. Read local news storis about this project from the Sun Prairie Star from August 12 and August 26, 2022.
Mid-point report, March 2021  |  Story Walks information

Tomahawk School District, Making Connections One Game at a Time
The Tomahawk School District is connecting community, schools, teachers, and students in a virtual gaming world, collaborating with Northcentral Technical College to establish a high school eSports team. Read local news stories about this project from the Tomahawk Leader (February 2021) and WXPR (March 2021).

Mid-point report, March 2021  |  Final report, November 2021

 

2019

Beloit Public Library, Memory Care Kits
Provide a collection of materials designed to trigger memories and encourage interaction, oriented for caregivers to use with family members/patients dealing with dementia or memory loss.
Mid-point report, March 2020  |  Final report, September 2020

Cardinal Stritch University Library (Milwaukee), Back to High School: A College and High School Collaboration for Teaching Information Literacy
Collaboration of college and high school faculty and librarians to develop information literacy curriculum for high school students.
Mid-point report, March 2020  |  Final report, August 2021

Door County Library, Door County Speaks: A Library Oral History Initiative
Provide kits of essential oral history equipment and supplementary materials to the satellite branches of the Door County Library as well as the Door County Archives, for use by both patrons and library staff.
Mid-point report, March 2020  |  Final report, September 2020  |  Resources for Oral History and Audio Projects

Fox Valley Technical College Library (Appleton), General Studies OER Un-Textbook Create Fest
A one-day event to bring Wisconsin technical colleges together to create a general studies OER un-textbook — this could include video, learning objects, PowerPoints, articles, chapters, student renewable homework, quizzes, and many other sources.
Mid-point report, March 2020  |  Final report, September 2020

Lodi Woman’s Club Public Library, Intro to Podcast Production
Working with groups of teens to teach them about podcast production, helping them create their own original podcasts.
Mid-point report, March 2020  |  Final report, September 2020

Mill Pond Public Library, Savvy Senior Space
Turn the library reading room into a space where older adults can meet, see presentations, and have fun.
Mid-point report, March 2020  |  Final report, September 2020

Sauk Prairie High School Library, Making Global Connections with VR and AR at Sauk Prairie High School
Students attending this rural Wisconsin high school will participate in and design immersive experiences using Virtual and Augmented Reality equipment through the classroom and Library.
Mid-point report, March 2020

 

2018

Chippewa Valley Technical College (Eau Claire), Affordable Resources Movement
This project will research the interest, needs, and feasibility of providing centralized support for open educational resources (OER) to Wisconsin libraries.
Final report, August 2019

Karl Junginger Memorial Library (Waterloo), Hispanic Community Outreach
The Karl Junginger Memorial Library will seek intentional interaction through educational, language and cultural exchanges that will encourage Hispanic members of the community to more fully use the library and feel safe and truly part of the larger Waterloo community.
Final report, August 2019  |  Hispanic Community Outreach bilingual flyer, September 2019

McMillan Memorial Library (Wisconsin Rapids), Community STEAM Kits
The library will develop Science / Technology / Engineering / Arts / Music kits to be made available for use by community non-profits.
Final report, August 2019  |  STEAM Learning Kit Brochure, September 2019

Menasha Joint School District, Elementary Digital Citizenship
This project will create an online curriculum to deliver Digital Citizenship lessons to 2nd – 5th graders.
Final report, August 2019  |  Standards-Aligned Lessons and Other Resources, June 2019

Schreiner Memorial Library (Lancaster), Lancaster Business Center
This project will establish a business incubator inside the Schreiner Memorial Library so that students and citizens of Lancaster have a space in which they can get startup business support and resources. Read an article about this project from the July edition of WI Libraries for Everyone.
Final report, August 2019

UW-Eau Claire McIntyre Library, Games in Libraries Conference
The library will host a one-day conference on games (board, card, video, etc.) in libraries in which people can learn and share about their use in libraries of all types.
Final report, August 2019