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Contact OGS Return to OGS News Page |
Ohio Genealogical Society Receives Grant and Loan for New Headquarters and Library Mansfield, Ohio (7 July 2006)--The Ohio Genealogical Society (OGS) has been awarded a $40,000 grant and $600,000 loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Rural Development program. These funds will go toward the Society's new library, being planned for a 7.6 acre site on State Route 97 near Interstate 71. OGS maintains a comprehensive collection of materials for family historians studying their Ohio roots. The Society's library has more than 30,000 volumes and is growing at a rate of nearly 10% per year. The current building is too small to properly house the OGS collection, the HVAC systems are inadequate and there is no fire suppression system. The current building also lacks facilities to properly care for and process the many original documents that it has in its possession and to make them available to its members and the general public. To meet the needs of the growing society, OGS is planning an 18,000 square foot purpose-built library on State Route 97 on land donated by the Gorman family. The USDA grant and loan are a first step in developing the funding required to fulfill this objective. The entire building cost is projected to be about $2,400,000. With the land, OGS's current building and the society's building fund, about $800,000 are available for the project. The USDA loan/grant brings the available fund to about $1,440,000. Potential donors are being sought to complete the remaining funding need of about $960,000. Please contact Tom Neel, OGS Library Director, at (419) 756-7294 or ogs@ogs.org for more details. The Ohio Genealogical Society (OGS) was established as a 501(c)3 non-profit corporation in 1959. It is the largest state genealogical society in the United States with over 6,000 members and almost one hundred local chapters. |
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