Grants and Acquisitions

David Free

The Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Libraries has received a $24,585.00 grant from the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) to support the preservation of the Films of Richmond Police Department (RPD) Surveillance Records (1961–1973). The award was part of CLIR’s Recordings at Risk program, which is made possible by funding from the Mellon Foundation. The VCU Libraries will preserve and provide access to 156 films and 13 audio reels from the Richmond, Virginia Police Department (RPD) Surveillance Records (1961–1973). The films include footage of Black Panther Party meetings and activities in the 1960s; anti-draft, anti-war, and anti-busing protests; student protests at local universities; marches including the Poor People’s Campaign and the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial; and the trial of H. Rap Brown. These films will provide new opportunities to investigate aspects of the Civil Rights Movement for scholars from a wide variety of disciplines and locations.

The Penn State University Libraries has received a $30,000 grant from the Hamer Foundation to expand access and investigate ways to ship materials to Penn State students with military affiliation studying remotely at United States military bases. Provided through a competitive proposal process, the grant aims to remove the University Libraries’ Interlibrary Loan department’s delivery challenges to active-duty, military-affiliated students. Military bases do not permit direct shipment of materials via commercial shipping companies, such as FedEx and UPS, which the University Libraries uses for most remote shipment of requested materials. With the support of the Hamer Foundation grant, the Libraries’ ILL department will continue its collaboration with Penn State World Campus and Office of Veterans Affairs and Services to enhance the University Libraries’ academic support for military-connected users.

The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) recently announced 85 awards totaling $22,533,904 to support libraries and archival services across the country. The FY 2024 awards were made through National Leadership Grants for Libraries and the Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program. The National Leadership Grants for Libraries program supports projects that address critical needs of the library and archives fields and have the potential to advance practice in these professions to strengthen library and archival services for the American public. IMLS awarded 50 projects totaling $13,206,160. The Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program supports the development of a diverse workforce of librarians and archivists to better meet the information needs of the public. IMLS awarded 35 projects totaling $9,327,744. For a complete list of grantees and project descriptions, visit the awarded grants search on the IMLS website at https://imls.gov/grants/awarded-grants.

Atla has been awarded an $800,000 grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. to develop a federated search solution for supporting research, teaching, and ministry. The first of its kind for theological education, this centralized hub will be an open discovery platform that cross-searches a wide range of materials, including a significant number of open access resources, special archives and collections, and institutional histories. It will be designed to serve and support theological education, interdisciplinary research in religion, preaching, and teaching. It is intended especially to make discoverable the at-risk and underrepresented collections and histories held by libraries, archives, organizations, and communities that fully reflect the diversity of contributions in religion and theology in society.