The Legacy Foundation of Northwest Indiana has contributed funds through a capacity building grant that has provided the Hobart Historical Society opportunities to move forward with new projects in support of community members throughout Northwest Indiana.
Christopher Kosovich, treasurer of the Hobart Historical Society said, “The organization hasn’t had any technology updates in more than a decade. The new technology including firewall, router switch, access points and sensors helps us preserve the artifacts within the building and make them more accessible to our constituents around Northwest Indiana and beyond.”
One such project is the digitizing of obituaries that were published long before the internet ever existed.
Robert Migoski, show in the picture above left, with Paula Isolampi, president of the Hobart Historical Society in the picture above right, review newspaper clippings of obituaries from newspapers from the 1940s and 50s.
“All these obituaries are carefully sorted within the museum, but they are fragile due to the aging paper. They contain so much family history information and connections and we want to make this information more accessible,” said Migoski.
The technology obtained through the Northwest Indiana based Legacy Foundation grant was part of a capacity building grant cycle, intending on helping non-profit organizations increase the infrastructure capabilities of organizations to serve constituents.
“This technology goes far beyond any single project or program here at the Historical Society,” said Kosovich. “This grant funding helps bridge the gap between the in-person experience of the museum and our ability to meet the digital access needs that are increasingly important to our constituents.”
“We have taken initiatives recently working with other grants that have provided us access to Microsoft cloud-based software and financial management software grants from Intuit. Having the technology hardware provided partially through the grant from Legacy Foundation really provides the engine for the Hobart Historical Society to put all these pieces of the modern-day digital puzzle of organization management together.”
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