ACRL College & Research Libraries News

College & Research Libraries News

Grants and Acquisitions

Tara Weikum

The Medical Center Library at the University of California-Irvine has been awarded $88,000 by the staff of the university’s Medical Center to equip an Information Technology Center with an instruction facility. The funds were derived from the membership fees of all the affiliated medical professionals. Also, the campus administration has promised $50,000 annually to support the facility.

The Library of Congress has received adonation of $1 million for its National Digital Library (NDL) Program for the digitization of the papers of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. The contribution by Reuters America Inc. and the Reuter Foundation will enable the library to make the nearly 65,000 items in the Washington Papers and the 25,000 items in the Jefferson Papers available online. The Washington collections contain correspondence, account books, and other papers which have been an important source for study of the American Revolution. Jefferson’s papers comprise his correspondence on a wide array of subjects such as scientific farming and foreign government.

Syracuse University has been given a$250,000 grant to preserve the Street & Smith Archive, a vast collection of pulp fiction from the mid-19th to mid-20th centuries. Obtained from the National Endowment for the Humanities’ Division of Preservation and Access, the money will enable the university to microfilm the popular culture collection and preserve the covers of many of the novels and serials which were printed on highly acidic paper and have been disintegrating over the years. The collection contains works by authors such as Jack London and Upton Sinclair, who wrote under pseudonyms, and artwork by illustrators such as N. C. Wyeth and Winfield Scott.

The University of thePacific Libraries’ Holt-Atherton Department of Special Collections received a grant of $14,410 to catalog 325 manuscript collections on OCLC. The grant came from the California State Library in federal Library Services and Construction Act (LSCA) funds. The material includes the John Muir papers, ethnic and women’s studies collections, Gold Rush accounts, and many more research collections.

Acquisitions

The diaries of James Millinder Hankshave been donated to the Special Collections Division at the University of Arkansas Libraries, Fayetteville. The collection contains 45 l eatherbound books which record daily life from January 1, 1865, to May 21, 1909. Hanks was a planter, businessman, and member of Congress, and his diaries represent a historical time of change in Arkansas and in the Mississippi River Valley.

The personal papers of Charles E.Donegan, a social activist, civil rights lawyer, and legal educator, have been donated to the Amistad Research Center at Tulane University. Donegan was a founding member of the National Conference of Black Lawyers, and had a long, distinguished career of legal counsel. He has also taught law at many universities across the country and is a contributor to the Dictionary of American Negro Biography.

Congressman Charlie Rose’s papershave been acquired by the University of North Carolina at Pembroke’s Livermore Library. Rose served in Congress for 24 years and designed the House’s computer systems. He also supported the motor-voter bill and worked for Tibetan independence. His papers will provide a look into federal government and legislation spanning almost a quarter century. ■

Ed. note: Send your news to: Grants & Acquisitions,C&RL News, 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611; e-mail: tweikum@ala.org.