The Inter-Institutional History Committee, consisting of Shaker Library, the City of Shaker Heights, the Shaker Heights City Schools, the Shaker Historical Society, and interested citizens, began developing the Local History Project in 1994.

In 1998, the Cleveland Foundation, the John P. Murphy Foundation, and the George Gund Foundation granted partial funding for the project. The library provided about a third of the annual budget of nearly $100,000, and the Historical Society gave in-kind contributions of approximately $4,000. The City and the Schools each donated $10,000 a year to the three-year project. In 2001, the library began fully funding the project. The Local History Collection is now part of the Adult Services Department of Shaker Library, and is supported in part by the Sheldon “Skip” Baumoel Fund and the Walter N. Larson Trust.