WINDSOR, Vt. (AP) – A museum that has spent the past 40 years recording the history of the precision manufacturing industry in southeastern Vermont is getting some help celebrating its birthday.

The federal Institute of Museum and Library Services awarded The American Precision Museum a $136,936 grant for its Collections Information Project.

The grant will enable the museum to hire a trained collections manager for three years who will plan and implement a system to track inventory and documentation of the museum’s artifacts.

A majority of the museum’s artifacts are machine tools or items made with those tools.

“We need to take things to the next step. The information is here, but it’s not well organized,” said Executive Director Ann Lawless.

“This highly competitive federal grant will help the museum manage its large invaluable collections ensuring generations to come will be able to learn from the decades of American innovation and work ethic found right here in Vermont,” said U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, who wrote a letter in support of the museum’s application.