Towards a Whole History: Archiving and Annotating Iraqi Ba'th Party Documents

Recipient: Mneimneh, Hassan (Washington, DC 20006 USA) in affiliation with Iraq Memory Foundation

Goal: A project to archive and annotate more than six million pages of documents of the former Saddam Hussein regime and Ba'th Arab Socialist Party in Iraq (1991-2003) at a documentation center to be established in the city of Erbil, in northern Iraq.

Description: The Iraq Memory Foundation proposes to archive, preserve and annotate more than six million pages of documents of the former Saddam Hussein regime and Ba'th Arab Socialist Party in Iraq at a Documentation Center in the city of Erbil in Northern Iraq. For thirty-five years, the Saddam Hussein regime terrorized the Iraqi people, erasing civil society and creating a "Republic of Fear". These documents provide a view of the inner workings of the party on a day-to-day basis, including membership files, correspondence, propaganda pieces, school registers and intelligence agency files. As Iraq struggles to rebuild and Iraqis struggle to find new identities in a democratic Iraq, these documents will play an important role in giving Iraqis, and scholars across the world, a view towards a whole history of Iraq during the Saddam Hussein regime.

Grant: 184740 / PC-50137-07,   Category: History,   Division: Preservation and Access,   Year Awarded: 2007

Creating an Image Database of the Mexican and South American Ethnology Collection

Recipient: Beelitz, Paul F (New York, NY 10024-5192 USA) in affiliation with American Museum of Natural History (New York, NY 10024 USA)

Goal: The digital imaging of 25,021 ethnographic artifacts and associated data from Mexico and South America documenting over 200 ethnic groups from Amazonian, Andean Highlands, Gran Chaco, Mexican, and Tierra del Fuego culture areas.

Description: The Anthropology Division at the American Museum of Natural History requests $350,000 from the NEH for a two-year project that will dramatically improve access to its important Mexican and South American ethnology collection, which is exceptional for its size, comprehensiveness, and level of documentation. The captured images of the 25,201 objects in the collection, and the associated data, will be made accessible via the Internet to the general public, descendant communities, and researchers. The collection had its beginning in 1890, when Carl Lumholtz conducted the AMNH's first anthropological expedition to Mexico's Sierra Madre. Between that time and the present, numerous notable anthropologists have collected for the AMNH in Amazonia, the Andes, the Gran Chaco, and Tierra del Fuego. This project is a continuation of the AMNH's overall initiative to increase access to its anthropological collections.

Grant: 184710 / PC-50107-07,   Category: Anthropology,   Division: Preservation and Access,   Year Awarded: 2007

Preserving Latin American Newspapers in United States Repositories

Recipient: Reilly, Bernard F (Chicago, IL 60637-2804 USA) in affiliation with Center for Research Libraries (Chicago, IL 60637 USA)

Goal: Microfilm reformatting of 500,000 pages of Latin American newspapers held in United States repositories, the cataloging of Latin American newspaper holdings at partner institutions, and the expansion and enhancement of a database of international newspapers.

Description: Continuing support for the activities of the International Coalition on Newspapers (ICON). ICON is an established multi-institutional effort to increase the availability of international newspaper collections by improving both bibliographic and physical access to these resources, and to serve as a focal point for activities relating to international newspaper collection development and preservation. CRL and ICON will work with the nation's major public and academic libraries with holdings of foreign newspapers to accomplish the following: 1) Reformat in microfilm important and endangered newspapers from Latin America held in U.S. institutions; 2) Catalog Latin American newspaper holdings at partner institutions, thereby increasing the accessibility of these resources for scholars; 3) Expand and enhance the ICON database of international newspapers; and 4) Disseminate information on availability and the preservation status of Latin American newspapers.

Grant: 184771 / PC-50168-07,   Category: Area Studies,   Division: Preservation and Access,   Year Awarded: 2007

Sound Directions: Digital Preservation and Access for Global Audio Heritage, Preservation Phase

Recipient: Burdette, Alan R (Bloomington, IN 47405 USA) in affiliation with Indiana University, Bloomington

Goal: The implementation and testing of a paradigm of best practices devised in a previous NEH Research and Development project for preserving analog sound recordings by converting them to digital form.

Description: The Indiana University Archives of Traditional Music and the Harvard University Archive of World Music propose the Preservation Phase of Sound Directions, which will pursue the following goals: 1. Preserve a large number of unique, deteriorating audio field collections carrying historical and cultural content of vital importance to the humanities; 2. Provide improved and, in some cases, initial access to these materials, repatriating some to the communities from which they were originally recorded; 3. Create, further develop, and/or make available both data and software tools to support the preservation process, aiding other humanities archives with audio content as well as the wider audio preservation community; and 4. Provide a model for the employment of digital technologies -- an area of special focus for NEH -- for the preservation of audio field collections, furthering the work of Phase I of the Sound Directions project.

Grant: 184675 / PC-50072-07,   Category: Folklore/Folklife,   Division: Preservation and Access,   Year Awarded: 2007

The North American Imprints Program, 1801 to 1820: Creation of a Union Catalog

Recipient: Degutis, Alan N (Worcester, MA 01609 USA) in affiliation with American Antiquarian Society (Worcester, MA 01609-1634 USA)

Goal: The continued creation of a union catalog of all books, pamphlets, and broadsides printed before 1877 in the United States and Canada. This project would enhance 7,150 records and create 500 new records for imprints from the period 1801 through 1820.

Description: This proposal seeks funding for the current phase of the North American Imprints Program (NAIP). NAIP's long-term goal is the creation of a machine-readable union catalog of books, pamphlets and broadsides printed in the United States and Canada before 1877. With funding requested here, NAIP staff will create detailed records for materials printed from 1801 through 1820. Staff will catalog both imprints held by the American Antiquarian Society (AAS) and imprints not held by AAS but known to be held by other libraries. Staff will build upon the more than 35,000 records descriptive of the "Early American Imprints, Second Series, 1801-1819" microform series and will create an estimated 5,600 new records for titles not reproduced in microform.

Grant: 184743 / PC-50140-07,   Category: American History,   Division: Preservation and Access,   Year Awarded: 2007

Preserving the Charles "Teenie" Harris African American Image Collection, Phase II

Recipient: Lippincott, Louise W (Pittsburgh, PA 15213-4080 USA) in affiliation with Carnegie Institute Museum of Art (Pittsburgh, PA 15213 USA)

Goal: The cataloging, conservation, creation of finding aids, and mounting on the Internet of 26,963 images that document African American history and culture in Pittsburgh from 1935 to 1975.

Description: In 2001, Carnegie Museum of Art (CMA) purchased the collection of negatives of African American photojournalist Charles "Teenie" Harris. In a 40-year career, Harris produced over 80,000 images that documented daily life in the Black communities of Pittsburgh from 1935 to 1975. Recognizing the potential of the Harris archive to significantly expand understanding about the urban African American experience, CMA made a commitment to preserve, research, and make accessible the images and the stories they tell. In 2005, the museum received an NEH grant of $340,000 for Phase I of the Teenie Harris Archive Project. With Phase I set to achieve its objectives by April 2007-and with mounting interest in and use of the Harris images-CMA is requesting a new grant to support Phase II of the Teenie Harris Archive Project to conserve, catalog, scan, and archivally store additional negatives and to scan these negatives for distribution on CMA's web site.

Grant: 184702 / PC-50099-07,   Category: American History,   Division: Preservation and Access,   Year Awarded: 2007

Access to New-York Historical Society's Pamphlet Collection

Recipient: Raine, Henry F (New York, NY 10024 USA) in affiliation with New-York Historical Society

Goal: Cataloging, rehousing, and preserving 18,000 pamphlets, including speeches, political tracts, annual reports, biographical sketches, catalogs, and sermons dating from the 19th and 20th centuries.

Description: The New-York Historical Society (N-YHS) is seeking funding for the first two years of a four-year project to catalog and conserve a collection of approximately 36,000 American pamphlets published during the nineteenth and early twentieth century. The N-YHS library?s pamphlet collection, which includes addresses, political tracts, annual reports, biographical sketches, catalogues, and sermons, illuminates the cultural, economic, political, religious, social, and scientific history of the United States. It contains more than 5,000 items cataloged nowhere else, and is the last sizeable collection at the N-YHS that is completely inaccessible to researchers. This first phase of the project will build upon catalog records found in the Research Libraries Information Network (RLIN) and create original cataloging records for items not cataloged anywhere else, resulting in the cataloging of 18,000 items, approximately half of the collection. It will also conserve approximately 9,000 items.

Grant: 184718 / PC-50115-07,   Category: American History,   Division: Preservation and Access,   Year Awarded: 2007

Cataloging and Digitizing a Collection of Near Eastern Manuscripts

Recipient: Davison, Stephen (Los Angeles, CA 90095 USA) in affiliation with University of California, Los Angeles (Los Angeles, CA 90024 USA)

Goal: The creation of catalog records, metadata, and an Encoded Archival Description finding aid for 1,506 Persian and Arabic manuscripts dating from the 11th through the 19th centuries; 304 manuscripts would be digitized and mounted on the Internet.

Description: UCLA will create metadata, catalog records, and a finding aid for the 1,506 Persian and Arabic manuscripts from the Caro Minasian Collection, a rich repository of Islamic learning containing many unique and rare documents relating to philosophy, law, religious practice, government, language and grammar, history, science, astronomy, and literature. 304 (ca. 55,300 pages) of the most significant manuscripts will be digitized and made available online via the UCLA Digital Library website, and will be available for metadata harvesting by Open Archives Initiative compliant harvesters. Master images and metadata will be archived with the University of California?s Digital Preservation Repository. A search and retrieval system that supports discovery, display, navigation and annotation by users in English, Persian and Arabic will be developed. The project period is May 2007 to April 2009.

Grant: 184658 / PC-50055-07,   Category: Library Science, Archival Management, and Conservation,   Division: Preservation and Access,   Year Awarded: 2007

Preserving and Creating Access to the Southwest Museum's California Indian Collections

Recipient: Karr, Steven (Los Angeles, CA 90027-1462 USA) in affiliation with Autry National Center (Los Angeles, CA 90027 USA)

Goal: Digital imaging and cataloging of 15,000 California Indian ethnographic objects, archaeological artifacts, and sound recordings from the collections of the Southwest Museum.

Description: The Autry National Center of the American West seeks a two-year $340,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to support the cataloging and digitization of 15,000 items in the Southwest Museum's California Indian collections. These materials include a variety of baskets, ethnographic, archaeological, and archival materials spanning all areas of the state. Records and images from the California Indian project will be made available to the public through the Autry's Collections Online web site. The Southwest Museum holdings of California Indian material are among the largest in scope of any single California Indian collection. Preservation and electronic cataloging of this material will greatly facilitate the Autry, as well as California tribal museums and cultural centers, in their ability to create permanent and temporary exhibitions, publications, online curricula, and other broadly accessible educational opportunities focused on California's indigenous peoples.

Grant: 184673 / PC-50070-07,   Category: Native American Studies,   Division: Preservation and Access,   Year Awarded: 2007

The Western Waters Digital Library: The Foundations of American Water Policy

Recipient: Paschal, Dawn Bastian (Fort Collins, CO 80523-1019 USA) in affiliation with Colorado State University (Fort Collins, CO 80523 USA)

Goal: Creation of encoded archival description (EAD) finding aids for 558 linear feet of archives and the digitization of 20,000 historical and legal records related to the history of 20th-century water policy along the Columbia and Colorado river basins.

Description: Colorado State University, in collaboration with four other academic libraries, proposes to expand the Western Waters Digital Library (WWDL) by providing integrated access to archival holdings related to water policy and environmental history for the Colorado and Columbia River basins. We will create an initial on-line repository of twenty-nine Encoded Archival Description (EAD) finding aids for 558 linear feet of archival collections and digitize approximately 20,000 images from selected resources in those collections for inclusion in the WWDL. In addition, we will link the digital files directly from the finding aids, resulting in significantly enhanced access to archival and manuscript materials for historians and other scholars, faculty, and students.

Grant: 184769 / PC-50166-07,   Category: Archival Management and Conservation,   Division: Preservation and Access,   Year Awarded: 2007

Diyala Virtual Archive

Recipient: Reichel, Clemens D (Toronto, ON Canada) in affiliation with University of Chicago (Chicago, IL 60637 USA)

Goal: The creation of a virtual archive of archaeological data on ancient Mesopotamia, focusing on sites in the Diyala Region of northeast Iraq (3200-1800 BCE), which incorporates a relational, expandable database to be mounted on an existing Web site at the Oriental Institute.

Description: This application seeks funding for a full web-based publication of the Diyala Excavations, a fundamentally important archaeological project undertaken in Iraq undertaken by the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago between 1930 and 1938. The results from these excavations helped to establish the backbone for much of Mesopotamia's early chronology and history. Since 1994 the Oriental Institute has been compiling a multi-relational database to publish these artifacts on-line. This database will go live in Fall 2006. The current proposal seeks funding for the creation of a "Virtual Archive," which will make all this documentation available on-line in scanned and indexed format. Scholars from around the world will have free and unrestricted access to this important corpus of archaeological material, allowing them to examine the field records first-hand and to question the excavators' conclusions and interpretations in light of their own research.

Grant: 184687 / PC-50084-07,   Category: Archival Management and Conservation,   Division: Preservation and Access,   Year Awarded: 2007

Preserving and Providing Access to the Maynard L. Parker Photographic and Manuscript Collection

Recipient: Watts, Jennifer A (San Marino, CA 91108 USA) in affiliation with Huntington Library

Goal: Arrangement and description of 90 linear feet of archives, including 80,000 photographs, correspondence, and business records created by Maynard L. Parker (1900-96), noted photographer of American architecture and landscapes. The project would also digitize a selection of 5,000 photographs for mounting on the Internet.

Description: The Huntington Library is requesting two years of NEH funding to arrange, describe, and preserve the Maynard L. Parker Photographic Achive. At project's end, the 90 linear feet of material, including 80,000 film negatives and transparencies, photographs, business records, and correspondence, will be physically and intellectually arranged according to archival best practices and standards; a collection-level MARC record will be available in national and local online catalogs; an EAD finding aid will be searchable through the Huntington's online catalog and the Online Archive of California (OAC); and 5,000 high-demand and research rich images will be digitized and available online in a database accessible through the Huntington's website and the OAC. The following proposal describes the archive's profound research significance and the increased demand for its use compelling the Huntington to seek a solution to its limited physical and intellectual access.

Grant: 184699 / PC-50096-07,   Category: Humanities,   Division: Preservation and Access,   Year Awarded: 2007

Preserving and Creating Access to Unique Afghan Records, 1989 to 2006

Recipient: Rawan, Atifa (Tucson, AZ 85721-0055 USA) in affiliation with University of Arizona (Tucson, AZ 85721 USA)

Goal: The training of Afghan library staff in digitization and modern cataloging procedures, who would then scan and mount on the Internet 6,000 titles selected from the archival collections of the Afghanistan Centre at Kabul University.

Description: The University of Arizona Libraries in partnership with the Afghanistan Centre at Kabul University will collaborate to catalog, digitize, and create metadata for a unique collection of documents related to Afghanistan history, culture, and its development during the Jihad period, 1989 to 2006. ACKU's Permanent Collection is the most extensive in the region covering a time of war and social upheaval in the country, with most of the documents in English or the principal languages of Afghanistan. The two-year project objectives are to: 1) train staff in standardized cataloguing, metadata creation, and digitization processing; 2) identify and provide international standardized cataloguing and classification (metadata) for 6,000 titles or 15,000 physical unique items; 3) scan, digitize, and preserve these 6,000 titles; 4) facilitate digital access and delivery; and, 5) build a preservation infrastructure at Kabul University that can be a resource for all 19 universities in Afghanistan.

Grant: 184666 / PC-50063-07,   Category: Near Eastern History,   Division: Preservation and Access,   Year Awarded: 2007

Cataloging and Creating Digital Access to American and British Children's Literature, 1890 to 1910

Recipient: Smith, Rita J (Gainesville, FL 32611 USA) in affiliation with University of Florida

Goal: Cataloging 7,500 American and British titles in children's literature published between 1890 and 1910 and providing online access to 2,500 titles containing color illustrations.

Description: This two year project (July 2007-June 2009) will catalogue and digitize titles from the University of Florida's Baldwin Library of Historical Children's Literature published from 1890 through 1910. The Baldwin Library is one of the largest collections of English-language children's literature in the world. It contains approximately 100,000 volumes published in Great Britain and the United States between 1656 and 2006. Of the 7,500 books to be cataloged in the selected date range, about half will be original records, indicating that the Baldwin Library holds the only known copy. The digitization portion will make over 2,500 of these historical books available to a wide audience of researchers, students, teachers, home schoolers and other people interested in children's literature via the internet.

Grant: 184645 / PC-50042-07,   Category: Literature,   Division: Preservation and Access,   Year Awarded: 2007

Mass Deacidification and Cataloging of Serials in the Raymond Danowski Poetry Library

Recipient: Nelson, Naomi L (Atlanta, GA 30322-2870 USA) in affiliation with Emory University (Atlanta, GA 30322 USA)

Goal: The mass deacidification of 6,500 volumes, the cataloging of 4,000 volumes, and the rehousing of embrittled materials from the Danowski Poetry Library.

Description: The Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library (MARBL) of Emory University seeks $280,368 from the National Endowment for the Humanities for a two year $467,539 project to deacidify and catalog poetry periodicals recently acquired by Emory University as a part of the Raymond Danowski Poetry Library. Specifically, Emory seeks support to catalog 4,000 titles, deacidify selected titles (circa 6,500 volumes), and to house limp bindings (i.e. paperbacks) in custom archival boxes.

Grant: 184688 / PC-50085-07,   Category: Literature,   Division: Preservation and Access,   Year Awarded: 2007

San Francisco Examiner Photograph Archive Preservation Project

Recipient: Leonard, Thomas C (Berkeley, CA 94720-6000 USA) in affiliation with University of California, Berkeley (Berkeley, CA 94720 USA)

Goal: Arrangement, description, and preservation of some 180,000 photographs, including 30,000 glass plate negatives, from the archives of the "San Francisco Examiner," 1919 to 1998. The project would also create Encoded Archival Description finding aids and digitize 2,000 photographs for mounting on the Internet.

Description: The recent acquisition of the San Francisco Examiner Photograph Archive, ca. 1919-1998, stands as the largest single donation ever received by The Bancroft Library. The 3.6 million negatives and 1 million photoprints more than doubles the Library?s holdings of photographs. The Examiner photograph archive preserves the original film negatives of the paper?s regional photojournalism from the late 1920s through the late 1990s. The negative collection is a virtually untapped reservoir of the visual documentation of many historic events which took place in the Bay Area over the 20th century. Unfortunately, due to their inherent fragility and deterioration, many of the negatives -- especially the glass, nitrate and cellulose acetate negatives which constitute the earliest part of the collection -- will self-destruct if remedial work is not immediately begun. With funding from the NEH, the collection will be surveyed, and negatives will be stored properly and re-housed.

Grant: 184696 / PC-50093-07,   Category: American History,   Division: Preservation and Access,   Year Awarded: 2007

Russian Émigré Archives Microfilming Project

Recipient: Raisian, John (Stanford, CA 94305-6010 USA) in affiliation with Stanford University (Stanford, CA 94305 USA)

Goal: The preservation microfilming of 120 linear feet of manuscripts related to Russian émigrés and their organizations from 1917 to the 1930s.

Description: This joint project between the Hoover Institution Archives (Stanford University) and Holy Trinity Seminary (Jordanville, NY) is to process and microfilm 245 manuscript boxes of the Seminary's archival material, representing the collections of Russian emigre individuals and organizations. The documentation includes previously unknown materials on the assassination of the Romanov family, the Anti-Bolshevik movement during the Russian civil war (1917-1920) and activities of Anti-Bolshevik veterans organizations in exile, emigre life and cultural activity in various countries (United States, China, Germany), espionage and subversive activity against the USSR in the 1920s and 1930s, collaborationism with the Third Reich during the Second World War, activities of the Russian Orthodox Church abroad. The purpose is to make these materials available to scholars and researchers.

Grant: 184731 / PC-50128-07,   Category: Russian History,   Division: Preservation and Access,   Year Awarded: 2007

Processing and Preserving the Chew Family Papers

Recipient: Lyons, Matthew (Philladelphia, PA 19107 USA) in affiliation with Historical Society of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA 19107 USA)

Goal: Arranging, describing, conserving, and rehousing 400 linear feet of records of the Chew family of Philadelphia covering the period from 1760 to the present.

Description: The Historical Society of Pennsylvania (HSP) seeks to address the preservation and access needs of one of its largest and most significant collections, the Chew Family Papers. This material was identified as having exceptionally high research value and significant preservation needs in a comprehensive survey of HSP's holdings in 2002. The collection, totaling 400 linear feet, spans nearly four centuries and provides extraordinary documentation of our nation's development, offering new insight into issues including as slavery and gender roles. Staff will arrange and completely describe the collection, providing a detailed EAD finding aid and series-level records in OCLC (intergrating RLIN) and on HSP's web-accessible OPAC. Reserachers' ability to locate, use, and handle this material will be greatly enhanced. This project will have a significant impact on the quality and depth of scholarship in and public understanding of existing and emerging topics in American history.

Grant: 184762 / PC-50159-07,   Category: American History,   Division: Preservation and Access,   Year Awarded: 2007

Arranging and Describing the Records of the New York Chamber of Commerce

Recipient: Ryan, Michael T (New York, NY 10027 USA) in affiliation with Columbia University

Goal: Arrangement, description, preservation, and selected digitization of the New York Chamber of Commerce and Industry records, comprising 399 linear feet and 560 architectural drawings.

Description: The Columbia University Libraries seeks a two-year grant to support a project to provide access to the Archive of the New York Chamber of Commerce and Industry, 1768?1979. Held in private hands until 2001, this collection has not previously been available for public study. The project will process 399 linear feet of materials and 560 architectural drawings to national archival standards, preserve damaged materials in the collection, and create a MARC record and EAD finding aid. Also, the project will create approximately 5,200 digital images from the Archive to post on a Web site that will serve as an entry point for access to the broader archival collection. The NY Chamber of Commerce and Industry is the oldest commercial organization in the U.S. and its Archive is a pivotal resource for the study of early American history, the history of New York and urban development in general, and the history of commerce and business in the U.S.

Grant: 184678 / PC-50075-07,   Category: American History,   Division: Preservation and Access,   Year Awarded: 2007

Access to Uncataloged Early American Imprints in the Library Company Collections

Recipient: Green, James N (Philadelphia, PA 19107 USA) in affiliation with Library Company of Philadelphia

Goal: Cataloging and conserving 2,884 pre-1820 pamphlets, broadsides, bound books, and other imprints published in America from the Michael Zinman Collection.

Description: The Library Company of Philadelphia, an independent research library for the study of early American history, seeks funding to make accessible some 2,884 pre-1820 American imprints, primarily ephemeral publications and popular books, that are uncataloged (or inadequately cataloged) in national data bases and have not been included in Readex?s digital collections of Early American Imprints. Newly created or substantially upgraded catalog records will make these imprints accessible by the usual points of access (author, title, and subject) but also by others that will facilitate advanced research. Once they have been cataloged, Readex intends to digitize these imprints at their own expense and publish them, along with fully searchable OCR text, as a supplement to their Early American Imprints series; the records created by this project will serve as the primary means of access to the digital images and texts.

Grant: 184749 / PC-50146-07,   Category: American History,   Division: Preservation and Access,   Year Awarded: 2007