Grants and Acquisitions
Mann Library at Cornell University has received $1.8 million in new funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to achieve a major expansion in the production, delivery, and integration of The Essential Electronic Agricultural Library (TEEAL), particularly in the countries of sub-Sahara Africa. TEEAL is a compact library of more than 140 of the most important journals in a variety of agricultural fields. Providing off-line access to a huge number of full-text PDFs stored on a palm-sized external hard-drive, TEEAL is sold to developing countries at a tiny fraction of the cost of the individual subscriptions. The three-year grant, provided as part of the Gates Foundation’s agricultural development initiatives, will provide funding for TEEAL for up to 114 institutions in 14 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. It will also halve the cost of TEEAL, putting the program within the reach of research institutions in every eligible country in the developing world, including those in Latin America and Asia.
The Louisiana State University Libraries’ Special Collections division has been awarded a grant of $351,380 from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to digitize 100,000 pages of Louisiana newspapers published from 1860 through 1922. The project is part of the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP), a partnership between the NEH and the Library of Congress (LC) launched in 2005 to provide enhanced access to United States newspapers. NDNP builds on more than 20 years of collaboration between the NEH and LC to preserve and make accessible the content of millions of pages of historically important American newspapers, first by microfilming and now by digitization. As of June 2009, the Chronicling America Web site (chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/) hosts more than 1 million pages of historic American newspapers. Currently NDNP has 22 state partners. Louisiana is one of seven added in 2009. The Louisiana project builds on more than 60 years of work done by LSU Libraries staff to preserve Louisiana history by microfilming the state’s newspapers of record.
The Rhode Island Historical Society (RIHS) has received a $99,400 grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) to make a collection of audiovisual materials produced in Rhode Island accessible to the public. The collection includes maps dating to the 1660s to news footage of the now infamous Mayor of Providence, Vincent “Buddy” Cianci. RIHS can now complete the final three years of a five-and-a-half-year project to create a detailed inventory of its audiovisual materials. Thus far, the inventory has identified more than 155,000 individual items within 5,600 collections. The inventory will also generate statistics that will be indispensible for prioritizing future work and maximizing staff efficiency for years into the future.
Belk Library and Information Commons has been awarded a $12,000 LSTA (Library Services and Technology Act) planning grant from the State Library of North Carolina, a Division of the Department of Cultural Resources. The grant will fund the planning process for a Web site devoted to the history of nursing in North Carolina. Grant funds will be used to identify significant materials for the digital collection such as photographs, archival records, periodicals, and oral histories. The planning process will involve partnering with other institutions and organizations throughout the state to survey collections and build collaboration in preparation for an NC ECHO (North Carolina Exploring Cultural Heritage Online) Digitization Grant in 2010.
The library at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has received a $15,150 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to promote and host Big Read programs between September 2009 and June 2010. The Big Read is an initiative of NEA, designed to bring communities together to read, discuss, and celebrate one of 30 selections from U.S. and world literature. NEA presents The Big Read in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and in cooperation with Arts Midwest. The University Library was chosen to highlight Sun, Stone, and Shadows: 20 Great Mexican Short Stories, edited by Jorge F. Hernández. The anthology presents a selection of Mexican short stories whose authors include Juan Rulfo, Octavio Paz, Rosario Castellanos, and Carlos Fuentes.
Acquisitions
An collection about the rubber industry was donated to the University of Akron (UA) by the Talalay Foam Rubber Archive. The archive chronicles the Talalay Foam Rubber Process, one still used today throughout the world for the production of latex foam rubber. The process subjects latex to a reduced pressure, thereby causing the latex to expand, and then allowing it to gel under the influence of a gelling agent such as sodium silicofluoride or a water-soluble inorganic electrolyte. The collection, which consists of original agreements, proposals, patents, formulae, blueprints, and photographs from the 1920s to the 1970s, was donated to UA’s University Libraries Archival Services by the Talalay family. It will be of use to students, faculty, and scholars who are researching rubber and polymer chemistry, as well as rubber history and development.
A second secret wartime letter authored by General George Washington to his chief spymaster Benjamin Tallmadge was acquired by Stony Brook University Libraries (SUNY) at Christie’s auction house in Manhattan. These acquisitions document Long Island’s critical role during the American Revolution and specifically the actions of the Culper Spy Ring, which was based in Setauket, New York. The first letter, dated September 24, 1779, reveals Washington’s game of espionage, as he instructs his Tallmadge about how to manage a key New York agent, referring to Townsend (1753–1838). Townsend was the central figure in the “Culper Ring” of New York and Long Island spies. In the letter, Washington launches into a lengthy discussion of the mechanics of espionage and suggests methods for transmitting intelligence. Written from Bergen County, September 16, 1780, the second letter suggests that Washington was quite dependent on the intelligence being gathered by Townsend. He states to Tallmadge, “. . .he may rest assured, that should he continue servicable (sic) and faithful, and should the issues of our Affairs prove as favorable as we hope. . . I think myself bound to represent his conduct in the light it deserves and procure him a compensation of another kind.” The acquisition of these letters was made possible with private funds from an individual donor, Henry Laufer (a former professor of mathematics) and from the New York State Legislature through Assemblyman Steven Englebright. A series of educational outreach activities have been implemented in partnership with local historical societies and nonprofit organizations. The letters will be exhibited on campus in fall 2009.
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