The museum, 20450 Saratoga­Los Gatos Road, is less than three months away from the unveiling of its newest addition, a 400-square-foot resource room located toward the rear of the building. Once complete, the room will house several computers and related learning materials for those who would like to research historical facts and figures in Saratoga. The facility would be an ideal working environment for students who are trying to gather historical information for class projects, said April Halberstadt, the museum's curator.

Construction, which began in November, was made possible through a $30,000 grant from the Santa Clara County Heritage Commission. The grant money is also being used to expand the restroom facility to make it compliant with the Americans With Disabilities Act.

"We are making the museum safer for our visitors," Halberstadt said. "Our goal is to accommodate as many people as we can."

But there are larger plans in store for the 100-year-old structure. With the help of a $5,000 grant from the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, the historical foundation hired Ann Danner, a longtime Saratogan, to be the management consultant for the museum, one of three buildings included in the Historical Park. Danner will assist in developing strategic and funding plans in hopes of bolstering community support.

According to Halberstadt and one of the docents, Lynn Johnstone, the museum has been suffering from a lack of community interest.

"It's a feast or famine situation," Johnstone said. "Some days we don't get any visitors, and other days, we get a group of 20 to 30 people."

Johnstone pointed out that most of the visitors are school groups and people from out of town.

"The museum is a little gem," Halberstadt said. "Although it has been around for a long time, there are so many Saratogans who have never visited [the site]. We need to correct this situation."

According to Halberstadt, one way the museum is addressing this issue is by going high tech. Thanks to computer technology, visitors can now get digital copies of old photos.

"We have a significant portion of our photography collection already available in digital format," Halberstadt said. "We're ahead of most local museums."

But Halberstadt and Johnstone said that there are other things that need to be improved to help boost traffic. One of the solutions is to put as many items on display as possible, in an orderly fashion. This would require a significant amount of digging in the vault, which currently holds boxes of collectible antique items that have never been seen by the public, such as vintage clothing from the 1920s, a wedding gown, quilts, Native American baskets and memoirs of early Saratoga residents.

"My personal goal is to get as many of these items out on public display [as possible]," Halberstadt said. "But these displays have to be carefully designed to tell a story. It is not appropriate to just put something on a shelf and hope the visitor will be amused. Artifacts need to be grouped, protected from damage and lit so they can be seen."

In addition, if the museum's displays are rotated, Johnstone said that people would be more apt to come on a regular basis.

"Saratoga has a colorful and unique history," Johnstone said. "More people should be aware of it."

In the meantime, Halberstadt is encouraging residents who may be doing some spring cleaning to donate any items to the museum that would help in telling Saratoga's history. These items might include books written by local residents, old menus from restaurants or posters from the annual Rotary art shows.