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[PADG:1103] University of Maryland receives NEH Grant to upgrade climate




*UM Libraries Receive $700,000 NEH Grant To Stabilize Valuable Special Collections *

*College Park, MD* – The University of Maryland Libraries have received a $700,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to create more appropriate environmental conditions for its Special Collections, Dean of Libraries Charles B. Lowry announced. The funds, made available through NEH’s /Stabilizing Humanities Collections/ program, will be used primarily to make upgrades to the HVAC systems in Hornbake Library, where many of the Libraries’ most valuable Special Collections are housed. The NEH grant was matched by funds from the University Provost.

“With the receipt of this grant, Hornbake Library – housing collections valued in excess of $100 million – will become one of the premier special collection library facilities in the United States,” said Lowry.

The NEH grant will be used to acquire and install machinery and related systems to provide the stable humidity levels required of special collection materials, and also to upgrade lighting controls, air filtration and environmental controls for the building. These upgrades will stabilize the environment in which these often fragile materials are kept, thereby increasing their longevity. Most of the materials held in the Libraries’ Special Collections are not available in libraries or archives elsewhere, these improvements are crucial to guarantee their continued availability and accessibility to current and future generations of researchers and scholars everywhere.

Special Collections housed in Hornbake Library include the photo archive of /The Baltimore News American/; the literary archives of Katherine Anne Porter and Djuna Barnes; the National Trust for Historic Preservation library; and the Library of American Broadcasting and National Public Broadcasting archives. In fall 2006 the Gordon W. Prange Collection, the most comprehensive collection in existence of publications issued in Japan during the immediate post-World War II years, 1945-49, will also move to Hornbake Library.

The University of Maryland is the only nationally-ranked public university in the Baltimore/Washington area. With a total student enrollment approaching 40,000, the University is supported in its academic endeavors by the University of Maryland Libraries, a system comprised of eight libraries and more than three million volumes. The University of Maryland Libraries represent the largest library system in the state.

For more information on the University of Maryland Libraries, please visit www.lib.umd.edu <http://www.lib.umd.edu>

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Yvonne Carignan
Head of Preservation
University of Maryland McKeldin Library
College Park, MD 20742


carignan@xxxxxxx
(301) 405-9343
(301) 314-9971 FAX


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