IMLS director, Susan Hildreth to visit Bangor, Maine on October 18 for Digitally Inclusive Communities forum

Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) director, Susan Hildreth will visit Bangor, Maine on October 18, 2011and work with state librarians to lead community and leadership forums. If you’re up there anyway, or if you always wanted to participate in a nation-wide forum, this is your shot.

According to IMLS, as access to broadband becomes increasingly important to full participation in society, the need for communities to develop plans that address the needs of all of their residents is urgent. Answering the call of the National Broadband Plan, IMLS has worked with more than one hundred organizations and individuals with deep knowledge about public access to technology and the diverse information needs of communities to develop a "proposed framework for digitally inclusive communities."

Libraries and other community-based organizations play especially important roles in meeting the needs of hard to reach residents and ensuring opportunity for all. Libraries are recognized community anchors with the capacity to convene public officials, businesses, schools, hospitals, public safety and cultural institutions so that they can work together to fully and effectively realize the value of a digitally inclusive community.

"We are looking forward to hearing directly from community members and local officials about the challenges they face in creating digitally inclusive communities" said Susan Hildreth, IMLS Director. "Every voice helps to strengthen this work which we hope will result in a resource that is truly effective and useful."

Bangor was selected in part to assure participation by diverse audiences from a mix of rural and urban environments.

The forums will help accomplish three important goals: 

1. Finalizing the framework with meaningful feedback from the general public and relevant stakeholders.
2. Building support for digital inclusion and fostering relationships with communities and partners who can facilitate future piloting of the digital inclusion framework.
3. Developing implementation and communication plans with meaningful feedback from community leaders.

IMLS is working with the University of Washington Information School and the International City/County Management Association to finalize the framework incorporating insights gathered from the forums. The framework will serve as the foundation for development of tools and resources to help communities across the United States in realizing the benefits of digital inclusion.

For more news and information about IMLS’s digital inclusion and broadband initiatives, please visit http://www.imls.gov/about/broadband.aspx. 

Yale U's Peabody Museum featured on IMLS home page

Yale University's Peabody Museum of Natural History's 2009 National Leadership Grant has been featured on the front page of the IMLS web site in a profile titled September 2011: Teachers Use Museum Objects to Help Students Learn about Real-World Problems.

   

 "...the Peabody Fellows Program is taking on a new direction. Over the past two summers, the program has held institutes for science and social studies teachers...[to] foster their ability to develop new and exciting curriculum that integrates museum objects while aligning with national and state standards for learning. Along with these week-long institutes, the grant is helping the Peabody Museum to establish a regional teachers’ association which will cultivate the museum’s relationship with educators while simultaneously making connections between teachers."
The project finds the teachers collaborating to develop curriculum, sharing the Museum’s resources and knowledge, and developing long-term relationships that help promote participation.

The Peabody is the prior recipient (March, 2011) of $450,000 in Save America’s Treasures Grants for its 19th-Century Dinosaur Collections of Othniel Charles Marsh. Othniel Charles Marsh was a leading American paleontologist whose dinosaur collection proved invaluable as the fossil record Charles Darwin needed to develop his theory of evolution. America’s Treasures grant will help re-house the collection in a climate controlled environment, providing greater improve access to the collection.

The Peabody is also the prior recipient (June, 2011) of  $100,901 (matched with $101,322 in local funds) in the "Provision of Optimum Environment" grant category to conserve and improve storage of its 2,000-item Historical Scientific Instrument Collection, which includes objects directly associated with 18th- and 19th-century scientists and instrument manufacturers as well as several 20th-century Nobel Prize winners. This project sees students and staff unpacking, documenting, and rehousing the collection in new museum-quality cabinets in a new storeroom equipped with environmental controls and a monitored security system. The collection is being organized according to scientific discipline and will be readily accessible to students, faculty, and researchers both physically and virtually through an online digital image database. This will promote the long-term preservation of the collection while improving access to individual instruments for study and teaching.

About the Institute of Museum and Library Services
The Institute of Museum and Library Services is the primary source of federal support for the nation's 123,000 libraries and 17,500 museums. The Institute's mission is to create strong libraries and museums that connect people to information and ideas. The Institute works at the national level and in coordination with state and local organizations to sustain heritage, culture, and knowledge; enhance learning and innovation; and support professional development. To learn more about the Institute, please visit www.imls.gov.

IMLS awards almost half a million in preservation funds to CT

The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) has awarded Save America’s Treasures Grants totaling $476,703 to two Connecticut institutions - out of only nine grants totaling $2 Million awarded nationwide.

Save America’s Treasures makes critical investments in the preservation of our nation’s most significant and endangered cultural treasures, which illustrate, interpret, and embody the great events, ideas, and individuals that contribute to America’s history and culture. This legacy includes the built environment as well as documents, records, artifacts, and artistic works.

“These Save America’s Treasures grants will preserve the physical fabric of our history and the rich diversity of America’s story, as told by its artists, scholars, and statesmen. These awards also honor the hundreds of volunteers, organizations, and communities whose energy and investment are ensuring that this national legacy endures for generations to come,” said First Lady Michelle Obama.

This year's nine grants will support projects that will help to save endangered museum collections. “The scope and breadth of the historical and scientific record that will be touched by these nine projects is amazing,” said Susan Hildreth, director of the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

“They include rare notebooks that document the construction of the Panama Canal, the only known Alutiiq warrior kayak, tree ring collections that tell the story of prehistoric times, archeological collections that reveal the story of survival of enslaved plantation workers, civil war flags that date to reconstruction, quilts that document 300 years of societal change, and historical circus posters. The Institute of Museum and Library Services is very proud of the work that the Save America’s Treasures recipients are doing to tell America’s story for future generations.”

Bridgeport Public Library: $26,703
Barnum and London Circus Posters
Two hundred years after the birth of P.T. Barnum of Barnum & Bailey Circus and Ringling Brothers, Bridgeport Public Library holds 47 “Barnum and London” circus posters in need of conservation treatment. Save America’s Treasures grant funds will be used to clean, repair, and strengthen the posters and then digitally photograph them, expanding access to the collection.

Yale University Peabody Museum, New Haven: $450,000
19th-Century Dinosaur Collections of Othniel Charles Marsh
Othniel Charles Marsh was a leading American paleontologist whose dinosaur collection proved invaluable as the fossil record Charles Darwin needed to develop his theory of evolution. America’s Treasures grant will help re-house the collection in a climate controlled environment, providing greater improve access to the collection.

Additional information on the Save America’s Treasures program can be found on the PCAH web site and the NPS web site.