IMLS Grants awarded

IMLS Announces 2008 Award of 19 Connecting to Collections: Statewide
Planning Grants

The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) awarded 19
Connecting to Collections: Statewide Planning Grants that will be
used to create conservation plans for collections held in libraries,
museums, and archives. The Statewide Planning Grants are an
important component of the IMLS initiative, Connecting to
Collections: A Call to Action, a multi-year, multi-faceted national
plan to raise public awareness and inspire action on collections
care. View the winners of this year's grants at

    <URL:http://www.imls.gov/news/2008/012308_list.shtm>

Under the new program, 19 states will receive $720, 497, matched
with $527,930 of non-federal funds, to implement recommendations of
the Heritage Health Index Report on the State of America's
Collections, which found that the nation's collections are at great
risk. The IMLS-supported report recommended that collecting
institutions provide safe conditions for their collections, create
an emergency plan for collections, designate a person for
collections care, and raise public awareness and support for
collections care.

   "These 19 projects represent movement toward collaborative
    thinking among collection-holding institutions that have a
    strong commitment to collections stewardship," said Anne-Imelda
    Radice, IMLS Director. "IMLS funding will assist these
    relationships in blossoming into powerful alliances that will
    serve collections and the people who use them for years to
    come."

In the first year of this two-year initiative, IMLS received 26
applications from 23 states and territories requesting more than $1
million. Over the next two years, IMLS hopes to make one grant to
each eligible state or territory; the next deadline for applications
is in October 16, 2008.

The best proposals, in addition to meeting the review criteria,
shared the following characteristics:

    Project goals were tied directly to the findings of the Heritage
    Health Index

    The application engaged a broad array of partners across the
    state, including museums and libraries of many disciplines,
    archives, representatives from the philanthropic community, and
    state government officials with relevant collections oversight
    or disaster preparedness responsibility

     The proposed partnership coalition included the "major players"
     within the state and will reach out to institutions of many
     sizes in an inclusive planning process

See <URL:http://www.imls.gov/collections> to learn more about this
multi-year, multi-faceted national initiative.


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 21:40
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