About our Modernization and Library Automation Program

MBNA Grant Press Release
Maine State Library Grant

Date: January 25, 2001
For immediate release

APPLETON'S LIBRARY RECEIVES AUTOMATION TECHNOLOGY GRANT

APPLETON, ME -- Appleton's Mildred Stevens Williams Memorial Library has recently received a generous grant of $7,900 from the MBNA Foundation of Camden to install an automated catalog and circulation system and three new Macintosh computers and printers for patron's to search its holdings and browse the Internet. Appleton's library currently serves a rural community of about a thousand residents and lends from a collection of some 4500 books. "We might be a small library in an antiquated building in a tiny village," says Taylor Vaughan, the library's technical coordinator, "but now we will be able to organize our local holdings and make them more useful and available to our Appleton patrons and to a greater state- and world-wide audience." The library is currently connected to the Internet through the Maine School and Library Network and Midcoast Internet Solutions of Rockland at www.appleton.lib.me.us. When the new automation software is installed, patrons with Internet connections will be able to search through the library's catalog from home to see if books are available or checked out. The grant also includes special funds for cataloging the library's unique manuscript, genealogy, and photo collections -- rich historical material that portrays more abundant days when Appleton's population was four times greater, and farming and wood products were the center of wealth. The current card catalog, housed in a few wooden drawers and lovingly maintained decade after decade by volunteers with exacting penmanship, will be retired but preserved.

Appleton's library recognizes that to remain a central and vibrant asset to its community, it must grow with the times and provide a modernized facility and efficient electronic services in addition to excellent educational and reading programs. The library has thus begun a long-range effort to renew its physical plant, its holdings, its programs, and its management tools and infrastructure. "This grant from MBNA couldn't have come at a better time," says Vaughan, "Like skeet shooting, we are leading the target as we tool up for the future. This grant is an important seed that we will grow into new capabilities, new outreach programs, and greater services to our town and the state. In about three years, this investment will prove to be right on the mark!"

Library volunteers will contribute more than 300 hours to the cataloging, automation, and computer upgrade project. The library also intends to solicit contributions from local businesses to provide incidental but necessary items such as computer desks and furniture, refreshments for work parties, and other miscellany.

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For more information contact:

Taylor Vaughan
Technical Coordinator
Mildred Stevens Williams Memorial Library
Appleton, ME
207-785-5511
tay@timestream.com
www.appleton.lib.me.us