NEH Grants Support Library Construction, Preservation, Training

319 projects, several involving libraries, awarded a total of $20 million

Norman Oder -- Library Journal, 12/28/2009

• OR public library gets $300K for humanities portion of new library
• Lincon traveling exhibit will go to more libraries
• Digging into Data Challenge boosts digital library

Public and academic libraries will receive a slice of the $20 million in grants that the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has awarded for 319 humanities projects, including traveling exhibitions, research fellowships and faculty research, the preservation of humanities collections, and educational programs for libraries, museums, and archives.

While there are dozens of library grants, many are small—numerous libraries got $6000 each for preservation projects. There are some large ones, however.

Library construction
For example, the Lake County Library District, Lakeview, OR, received a $300,000 challenge grant for its new building. How does that fit within the NEH mandate? Well, funding supports construction costs for the humanities-related portions of the new library. With this challenge grant, the campaign team has raised $2,215,940 toward the $2,822,684 goal.

"Receiving this $300,000 challenge grant is a real boost for our fundraising efforts and will provide our library with the critical resources needed to build our new library,” said Amy Hutchinson, Lake County Library District director. The goal is to complete the new library by December 2010. 

A major exhibition
National Constitution Center was awarded $167,552 for an additional copy of the "Lincoln: The Constitution and the Civil War" traveling exhibition that will visit 25 public and academic libraries across the United States. While the original award provided for the production of one exhibition for 25 libraries, now two will travel to a total of 50 libraries.

Training
The Lyrasis consortium was awarded $450,000 for a regional preservation field service program that provides preservation surveys, workshops, and educational materials to libraries, archives, and historical organizations in the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic. 

The University of Florida, Gainesville, got $32,225 for archival education and training for 130 archivists, librarians, and curators to attend four workshops on preservation and access practices and standards. 

Digging into Data
A new competition, the Digging into Data Challenge, facilitates collaboration between scholars in the United States, the UK, and Canada related to innovative humanities and social science research using large-scale data analysis.

In one award, Tufts University will use $100,000 to create a framework to produce "dynamic variorum" editions of classics texts that automatically link to variant editions and also to relevant citations, quotations, people, and places in a digital library of more than one million primary and secondary source texts. Team members come from Tufts University, Medford, MA; the University of Massachusetts, Amherst; Imperial College, London; and Mount Allison University, Sackville, New Brunswick.

More construction help
Cape Cod Community College (West Barnstable, MA) Educational Foundation got a $170,000 matching grant for renovations to the college's library to house and safeguard the W.B. Nickerson Cape Cod History Archives, and an endowment for acquisitions and other archival costs.

American School of Classical Studies at Athens, which has a Princeton, NJ, home base, got a $578,750 matching grant for capital improvements in the ASCSA's two libraries: a new HVAC system for the Blegen Library and a renovated west wing and new extension of the Gennadius Library.

Preservation help
Several libraries got small preservation grants; some are mentioned below.

The Prosser Public Library, Bloomfield, CT, got $6000 for a general preservation assessment of historical materials about the town and the purchase of storage supplies.

Bowdoin College, Brunswick ME, got $6000 for a general preservation assessment of the library; consultation with the staff to review policies and procedures for preservation, conservation, and disaster preparedness; and recommendations for short-term improvements of environmental conditions.

The Massachusetts State Library, Boston, got $5,995 for preservation supplies and environmental monitoring equipment to preserve an extensive collection of publications, maps, and documents dealing with the political and cultural history of the state.

The CUNY Research Foundation, Brooklyn College, NY, got $3,338 for environmental monitoring equipment to preserve an archival and manuscript collection documenting the Brooklyn College community.