Friends of the Tyler Public Library president Fran Cooper (left) and board member Beth Shepperd look through ancestry.com at the Tyler Public Library on Thursday. The service is free of charge for both library members and nonmembers.

The third floor of the Tyler Public Library contains unique pieces of the city’s history that organizers of a new project aim to protect.

Friends of the Tyler Public Library this past month launched the Protect Pieces of the Past project to raise funds focused on preserving books, magazines, newspapers and other items in the library’s Local History & Genealogy room. The area also contains computers where anyone can access Ancestry.com to research their family’s past at no charge.

The group’s goal with the project is to raise $40,000 to put in place ways to keep genealogy and historical documents along with rare books safe from damage that can occur from sunlight, humidity, insects and limited storage. Funding is expected to be in place next month.

Friends of the Tyler Public Library President Fran Cooper said the Local History & Genealogy room was extremely important for several reasons including that it contains information still not available online.

“Rare books and original manuscripts tell us about the town’s early history — who was here and how we’ve changed over time. These documents need a highly regulated environment, which they don’t currently have,” Cooper said. “New space-saving shelving systems can keep these precious library collections stored at optimal temperature, humidity and airflow.”

One “modest” model showed new shelving could create 200 or more extra square feet of floor space while delivering a three-year return on investment.

The project will be funded through grants and donations. Friends of the Tyler Public Library also recently received a gift of stock from the estate of Mary Boyd La Tourette, according to Cooper, part of which will go to the Protect Pieces of the Past project.

In October, Friends hosted its a Night at the Library fundraiser, where members and guests enjoyed hearing internationally acclaimed author Joe Lansdale, a silent auction and the raffle of a quilt donated by Treasurer Millie Wester.

“The community was amazingly generous in donating to the silent auction. Funds from this event support library projects,” Cooper said.

Among the collection of items that the program will protect are Tyler and John Tyler High School yearbooks dating back to the first one in 1909, the remaining books from the first 150 volumes that were purchased for the original Carnegie Public Library, the Ella Reid collection from the Negro Public Library and hundreds of LIFE Magazines dating back to 1938.

“When these important documents and pieces of information are lost, you lose your local histories. You can’t uncover and analyze clues from the past,” Cooper said.

Reference Associate Jammer Smith said he couldn’t be happier about the project.

“This will be a new life for these materials, and I’m excited to see them get the attention,” he said. “The library’s history is in these documents, and local historians will now have easier access to a wealth of information about early Tyler.”

Fellow reference librarian Rozanna Bennett said the project was an integral part of not only looking back, but moving forward.

“We are a proud community with a grand history. We are working to preserve the past, so we can see where we’ve been, where we are and know where we will grow to,” she said.

Protecting pieces of the past also has a modern element. Friends wants to provide a subscription to original military records that include the stories, photos and personal documents of the men and women who served. The subscription is an additional $3,000 to the library’s current ancestry.com subscription.

Beth Shepperd, a member of the Friends of the Tyler Public Library board, said the subscription addition is very exciting to her.

“I would love to see my great-grandfather’s Civil War record but have been unable to find it. Most online genealogy services are very expensive. It will be amazing to have this information available for our entire community,” Shepperd said.

For more information on the Protect Pieces of the Past Project or the Friends of the Tyler Library, visit friendsofthetylerpubliclibrary.com.