New Ulm Sports Central - Preserving and Sharing New Ulm Area Sports History

A Minnesota Historical Society Legacy grant for $6,966 has been awarded to New Ulm to assist in expansion of research technology available to the community. Community Research Technology, Inc., (CRT) the powering organization of New Ulm Sports Central, participated in the grant request which was initiated by New Ulm Public Library (NUPL).

The library was granted the funds to establish a microfilm loaning library between CRT, Inc. and Martin Luther College library (MLCL), the third partner in a joint application for the three non-profit organizations.

NUPL will establish a resource center to establish the library of microfilm from newspapers of New Ulm Daily Journal, former Brown County Journal and New Ulm Review going back to their first publication dates. The film available will be for each year until 1985 when a set of film was established at New Ulm Journal, a for-profit partner of the grant request. Microfilm is also available at the Brown County Historical Socieity which is not involved in the current application.

Initially the film will be available to the three partners and to public library patrons. A modern vintage reader/printer will allow research pages to be printed out at the library and MLC.

The project will make the equipment and film available for researchers on a vastly expanded
day/night/weekend basis once the film has been made at the Minnesota Historical Society. That process can take several months due to reduced capabilities due to the economy.

The project partners are also working to procure a digital microfilm unit which would be computer based to produce images on take-home CD/DVD discs. These would enable the researcher to work with captured information and turn out finished product on household and business printers.

The unit would be located at the MLC library to access student labor and be available evenings and most days of the year including weekends and some holidays.

CRT is involved in preserving sports photos and reports in a massive historical collection and requires frequent and continued access to the microfilms to help document each object being preserved. These cataloged and index objects will start becoming accessible on New Ulm Sports Central in 2010 based on the rate of current development of this site.
For more information contact Herb Schaper at nusc@newulmtel.net.