The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, founded in 1895 with money earned from steelmaking, yesterday announced an ambitious project to preserve its archive of Pittsburgh's iron and steel industry.

The impetus for the Legacy of Iron and Steel project is a $600,000 grant from the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services. The money will fund a three-year program to digitize the library's 400,000 pages documenting the area's historic role in the production of industrial metals.

"The state of our collection is not ideal," said library Director Barbara Mistick. "About 20 percent of it is too fragile to touch.

"This project will not only preserve it, but make it available to everyone."

At the instigation of its founder, steel magnate Andrew Carnegie, the library became a repository for data and research from iron and steel firms dating to the early 19th century, Ms. Mistick said.

"As Pittsburgh celebrates its 250th birthday, it seemed to us that we could recognize the importance of Andrew Carnegie and the steel industry by preserving our collection," she said.

Among the library's collection are sales catalogs of various metal products from wrought-iron railings to valve springs for car engines. The Library of Congress has recognized the importance of the library's catalog array.

As part of the project, the library Web site will be open to users' comments and stories on the industrial documents.

Anne-Imedela Radice, director of the federal agency, said the Carnegie project will serve as a "benchmark" of computer technology for other libraries and museums interested in converting their printed materials to digital form that can be viewed on the Internet.

Ms. Radice cited the "Heritage Health Index," a survey of the nation's trove of historic material, that found "nearly 190 million objects need preservation." She added that 40 percent of the country's institutions lack preservation funding.

The latest grant is the second to the library from the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

In July, it received a $391,400 Laura Bush 21st-Century Librarian Program Grant for staff training.