| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 11, 2008
IMLS Press Contacts
202-653-4632
Jeannine Mjoseth, jmjoseth@imls.gov
Mamie Bittner, mbittner@imls.gov
Statement of IMLS
Director Anne Radice Before the House Subcommittee
on Healthy Families and Communities
Webcast
of hearing now available.
Madame Chairwoman and Members
of the Subcommittee:
Thank you for the opportunity
to appear before this subcommittee today to report on
the Institute of Museum and Library Services and the ways
in which it helps museums and libraries strengthen communities.
My name is Anne-Imelda Radice
and it has been my privilege to serve as the Director
of IMLS since May of 2006. Previous federal positions
I have held include Acting Assistant Chairman for Programs
at the National Endowment for the Humanities, Chief of
Staff to the Secretary of the United States Department
of Education, Acting Chairman and Senior Deputy Chairman
of the National Endowment for the Arts, Chief of the Creative
Arts Division of the United States Information Agency,
Curator and Architectural Historian for the Architect
of the Capitol, and Assistant Curator at the National
Gallery of Art. I was also the first Director of the National
Museum of Women in the Arts from 1983 until 1989.
The Mission and Goals
of 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 122,000 libraries and 17,500 museums.
The impact of our funding reaches into nearly every community
in America.
We involve hundreds of library
and museum experts from communities across the nation
in our stellar peer review process for our competitive
awards. And we work in close partnership with every state
and the territories to support library services through
a population-based grant to every state. We provide federal
leadership that helps institutions connect with the expertise
they need to make a difference in their communities.
Each year we make hundreds
of grants that go beyond supporting individual projects.
We are strategic. By encouraging great projects, innovative
ideas, and solid research we are changing the way library
and museum services are delivered in the United States.
Our mission is to support these
essential institutions in their efforts to connect people
to information and ideas, the fundamental purpose of all
museums and libraries. In carrying out that mission we
have four major goals.
Goal One: Attaining
Excellence in Federal Management, Operations, and Service
This first goal is the one
that undergirds all the others. The Institute is focusing
on its administrative capacity in order to fulfill its
statutory grant making, research, evaluation, and policy
activities. We continue to implement the consolidation
of federal responsibilities for library statistics activities
and provide advice on library and information policy.
My management team and I are committed to meeting growing
expectations to demonstrate accountability. Strategic
planning and evaluation, as well as implementation of
the President’s Management Agenda (PMA), are a priority
at the Institute and will enable the Institute to continue
achieving high-quality management and performance. I am
proud to report that IMLS has received only clean audits
since my tenure as Director.
Goal Two: Sustaining
Heritage, Culture, and Knowledge
The Institute’s second
goal is to help sustain heritage, culture, and knowledge.
The collections in libraries and museums connect people
to the full spectrum of human experience: culture, science,
history, and art. By preserving and conserving books,
artwork, scientific specimens, and other cultural artifacts,
libraries and museums provide a tangible link with humankind’s
history.
Late in 2005, Heritage Preservation,
the national not-for-profit organization dedicated to
saving the objects that embody our history, issued the
Heritage Health Index, a study funded by IMLS. The findings
of the Heritage Health Index were sobering:
- 190 million objects in the United States are
in need of conservation treatment.
- 65 percent of collecting institutions have
experienced damage to collections due to improper storage.
- 80 percent of collecting institutions do
not have an emergency plan that includes collections,
with staff trained to carry it out.
- 40 percent of institutions have no funds allocated
in their annual budgets for preservation or conservation.
IMLS, which has always supported
conservation and preservation activities through conferences,
publications, and millions of dollars in grants each year,
responded with the Connecting to Collections initiative,
or C2C. The purpose of this initiative is to raise public
awareness of the importance of caring for our treasures,
and to underscore the fact that these collections are
essential to the American story.
Moreover, through C2C we are
providing direct assistance to the collections care efforts
of museums and libraries in ways we never had before.
The initiative has included a national summit on conservation
with representatives of libraries and museums from every
state, forums in different parts of the country on different
aspects of collections care, statewide planning grants
to promote collaborative efforts, and grants of an essential
collection of books and other resources on conservation.
This Connecting to Collections Bookshelf has
been particularly well received. I have received hundreds
of heartwarming expressions of thanks.
I will excerpt briefly just
a few:
The Pittsburgh Zoo and PPG Aquarium wrote,
“We…appreciate the resources that help us
prepare for emergencies. Our collection contains representatives
of 22 threatened or endangered species, and the loss of
those animals—some of whom are among the most genetically
valuable in American zoos—would be of incalculable
harm to the cause of conservation.”
Expressing a sentiment echoed by many of
the Bookshelf recipients, the curator of the Goldsmith
Museum in Baltimore wrote, “Since we are a small
museum with a limited budget, this library of resources
is one that we could only have dreamed of owning.”
It was particularly gratifying
for me to read the following from the Mandarin Museum
& Historical Society in Jacksonville:
“We received our Bookshelf a couple
of days before [Tropical Storm] Fay hit near Jacksonville,
Florida. Although we have a disaster plan in place, it
is fairly limited... Through the Bookshelf, we were able
to ascertain quickly what we still needed to do to prepare
our museum for the storm. After the storm, our historical
park received substantial flooding, as well as a major
tree fall, a sizeable amount of debris, and a couple of
displaced alligators. With the guidance of the bookshelf,
I am happy to say that we came through the storm with
our structures and collections intact.”
The collections we are working
to protect are the tangible link to every aspect of our
culture. They are as significant to the American identity
and character as any natural resource. That is why we
have made this work such a high priority.
Many IMLS grant programs can
support some component of collections care. Conservation
Project Support (CPS) is the one that is entirely focused
on this area. CPS grants may be used to fund surveys of
collections, improvements to environmental conditions,
and the treatment of all types of collections, both living
and non-living. To be eligible for a grant, the project
must be addressing the institution’s top conservation
priority. Members of the subcommittee might be aware of
some of these IMLS grants that have been awarded in recent
years.
Goal Two Examples
- The Tucson Museum of Art and History received
$66,000 to properly rehouse the museum's collections,
which include Mexican folk art and a collection of masks,
pre-Columbian textiles, framed works on paper, regional
sculpture, and a 50-piece furniture collection.
- The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Museum was
awarded $27,000 to conduct a detailed condition survey
of the museum’s vast historic paper-based and
audiovisual collections, which include motion picture
film, videos, sound recordings, photographic prints,
slides, transparencies, and glass plate/film negatives
related to early American railroading.
- The National Aquarium in Baltimore will use
a $150,000 grant to upgrade the Life Support System
of its Atlantic Coral Reef exhibit.
- With a $9,000 CPS grant, the Currier Museum
of Art in New Hampshire treated the Weare Press Cupboard,
the most important piece of New England furniture in
the museum's collection.
- The Brooklyn Museum received $80,000 this
year to complete Phase I of an Art Storage Master Plan,
consolidating existing storage areas, eliminating storage
shortages, creating a textile center and viewing area,
and transporting the collection of textiles and Asian
screens into these newly reorganized units.
- In response to a 2005 tribal resolution,
the Big Pine Paiute Tribe of the Owens Valley will establish
a museum/cultural center on its reservation in southeastern
California. In anticipation of this event, an outside
consultant will provide training in collections management
techniques and will help draft a collections management
policy. The tribe currently has several ethnographic
pieces, mainly in the form of baskets, as well as 14,442
archaeological artifacts from excavations on its property
that will form the core of the material for the museum/cultural
center. In addition, a case in the office if the Tribal
Historic Preservation Officer will host an exhibit of
material from the Papoose Flat Archaeological District
that is on loan from Inyo National Forest. This exhibition
will be designed to creatively depict the cultural heritage
of the Big Pine Paiute Tribe.
Goal Three: Enhancing Learning and
Innovation
The third goal of IMLS is to enhance learning
and innovation. Success in today’s society requires
information literacy, a spirit of self-reliance, and a
strong ability to collaborate, communicate effectively,
and solve problems. Combining strengths in traditional
learning with robust investment in modern communication
infrastructures, libraries and museums are well equipped
to build the skills Americans need in the 21st century.
Libraries and museums bring tremendous learning assets
to communities engaged in a wide range of concerns, from
workforce issues and parenting to cross-cultural understanding
and student achievement. As partners in the exercise of
civic responsibility, libraries and museums are part of
larger efforts to weave a stronger community fabric.
Much of the work we do at the Institute
serves this important goal. Through grants, convenings,
and research, we are constantly striving to help the fields
of museum and library services in ways that enhance the
learning opportunities of all Americans.
Goal Three Examples
- Dr. Patricia Montiel Overall at the University
of Arizona, in partnership with Sunnyside Unified School
District and Tucson Unified School District, is examining
the effect of teacher/librarian collaboration on science
information literacy of Latino students. Using qualitative
and quantitative methodologies over three years, this
study will look at teacher/librarian collaboration in
the preparation of science instructional modules for
third, fourth, and fifth graders in predominantly Latino
elementary schools. This research will examine questions
about the relationship of teacher/librarian collaboration
to Latino students’ performance on standardized
tests of science proficiency and information literacy.
- The Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico partnered
with Operacion Exito (OE) to create an Art-Science-Technology
Project that to bring to the museum top high school
students from low-income areas, providing previously
unavailable education opportunities. The project was
to develop an enhanced computer lab at the museum through
OE, an innovative education initiative in science and
math supported by the Puerto Rico Department of Education.
Through the enhanced curriculum, students from the Central
Visual Arts School will use new learning tools that
integrate art and science using new technologies. A
key component is the integration of multiple resources
at the museum, including use of museum collections,
space to engage with other students, and interaction
with artists. There will also be teacher workshops to
further integrate the museum resources into the curriculum.
- The York County (Pennsylvania) Heritage Trust
(YCHT) will develop communications and activities with
local educators to facilitate creative methods of teaching
history to children in grades four through six. The
museum will hire an experienced educator with a working
knowledge of Pennsylvania Commonwealth curriculum standards
for two years to compile a contact list of educators
and education advocates, establish and build a network
with schools and educators for future cooperation in
lifelong learning activities, increase YCHT visibility
in the schools through an electronic newsletter, conduct
workshops in which teachers and administrators develop
new programming, create and implement a list of traditional
and electronic outreach products that schools can use,
and publish and distribute an education service guide.
- The Frazier Arms Museum in Louisville will
use videoconferencing capability to expand its education
resources and provide the local community access to
museum activities they would not normally encounter.
A collaboration with the British Royal Armouries, this
project will serve as a model, demonstrating how, using
partnerships and the adaptation of some common technologies,
museums can play a vital role in engaging local teachers
and students in new learning opportunities.
- The Jonesborough–Washington County
(Tennessee) History Museum is a major source of heritage
education for this region of southern Appalachia. The
objectives of the project are (1) to construct a Storytelling
Porch in the museum gallery to provide an engaging and
interactive experience for visitors and to achieve greater
flexibility for special exhibits, and (2) to tell the
story of Jonesborough through interpretive panels, using
the National Register Historic District as an outdoor
exhibition space and tying specific panels to stories
visitors can listen to on the Storytelling Porch. Through
this project, the museum aims to make its exhibits more
engaging and to make use of the historic downtown as
a unique resource for outdoor interpretation.
Goal Four: Building Professional
Capacity
The fourth goal is building professional
capacity in the museum and library fields. The need for
lifelong learning applies to the staff of museums and
libraries as well as their users. The Institute places
a priority on building leadership capacity to address
societal changes by supporting the development of a highly
skilled workforce in libraries and museums. The Institute
helps to spur innovation, support diversity, and build
traditional library and museum service expertise.
Several of the Institute’s grant
programs address this goal. We have two programs in particular
that focus on it exclusively. The Laura Bush 21st Century
Librarian program and the 21st Century Museum Professionals
program fund projects that anticipate the needs of the
next generation of library and museum professionals. These
projects recruit and educate new professionals and enhance
the training opportunities of those already in the field.
Goal Four Examples
- The University of Arizona School of Information
Resources and Library Science recruited 48 Native American
and Hispanic students to a master's program in library
and information science as part of its Knowledge River
initiative. The initiative also involves 12 second-year
scholars for the Knowledge River program and 24 Native
American and Hispanic high school students in a Teen
Community Health Information Institute to explore health
sciences librarianship and provide community health
services. The Knowledge River program helps students
develop valuable skills such as leadership, professional
contribution, and community service as well as improve
their job preparation and job-seeking skills by providing
workshops, community learning experiences, and opportunities
to interact with library leaders.
- The Weeksville Heritage Center in Brooklyn
has strengthened its institutional capacity by professionalizing
its collections practices. As the only museum interpreting
African American history in the 19th and 20th century
in the Northeast, Weeksville Heritage Center needed
to preserve its collections, while identifying ways
to use them more effectively in exhibits and programs.
IMLS funding supported the creation of a part-time position
of Collections Manager, responsible for evaluating the
450 artifacts in the center’s collections, developing
and implementing a collections management policy, overseeing
the initiation of an environmental monitoring system,
and collaborating with program staff to utilize collections
more effectively in public programming.
- The Cleveland Zoological Society will begin
a conservation medicine program to enhance institutional
capacity for research, training, and staff development.
The program will allow the zoo to better understand
the causes of health problems in captive animals through
scientific research for improving animal management,
health, and welfare. The proposed expansion of the project
will support the zoo’s veterinary epidemiologist
(one who studies factors affecting the health and illness
of populations) and add a master’s degree student
position and a three-year residency program in conservation
medicine. By providing information to be shared with
both public and professional members of the local, national,
and international community, the zoo hopes to establish
programs and initiatives to enhance conservation efforts
and create a direct link to conservation programs in
the field.
- The Beaver Area Memorial Library (Pennsylvania)
used IMLS funds to subsidize the tuition cost of a student
who will receive a master’s in library science
degree and work at the library.
Policy, Research, and Statistics
The 2003 reauthorization of the Museum
and Library Services Act directed the Institute to conduct
and publish analyses of the impact of museum and library
services. IMLS responsibilities in this area were expanded
with the passage of the FY 2008 Consolidated Appropriations
Act.
In fiscal year 2008, the transfer of responsibility for
national collection of data about public and state libraries
from the National Center for Education Statistics to IMLS
was completed. These data are essential to inform good
management practices in libraries as well as to inform
policy. The collection and use of these data is a core
factor in the delivery of high-quality library services
in the United States. The data provide ongoing basic information
about libraries and library service. Over the years, these
data have been collected consistently and with an astounding
100 percent rate of public and state library participation.
IMLS is continuing this record of participation and striving
to ensure that the data collected are accurate and delivered
to the public as quickly as possible so that they can
be of maximum use. We are also hopeful of having funds
appropriated to begin ongoing national data collection
about museums.
Also in FY 2008, the role of advising the
President and Congress about libraries and information
policy was transferred from the National Commission on
Libraries and Information Science to IMLS. This responsibility
fits well with the mission of the agency; the Institute
has been a source of support for examination of library
and information policy issues both nationally and internationally
for more than 10 years. In the years to come, the Institute
will continue to support research and convene experts
to help inform public debate in a range of policy issues,
such as the new role of libraries and museums in the Internet
age, the ways that communications policy affects public
access to information, and the role of libraries and museums
in supporting learning throughout the lifetime.
National Medals for Museum
and Library Service
All of the library and museum activities
IMLS supports have the end user of those institutions
in mind. All of the technology and education in the world
means nothing unless it is put to use in the service of
the communities museums and libraries serve. To emphasize
this fundamental principle, the Institute established
the National Medal for Museum and Library Service.
The National Medal honors outstanding institutions that
make significant and exceptional contributions to their
communities. Selected institutions demonstrate extraordinary
and innovative approaches to public service, exceeding
the expected levels of community outreach and core programs
generally associated with its services.
Youth Initiative
The Institute’s Engaging America’s
Youth initiative shines a spotlight on the role libraries
and museums play in bringing about positive change in
the lives of young people. The initiative included a study
on youth programs in museums and libraries, the results
of which showed that these institutions are unique in
their ability to influence and educate youth. IMLS published
a report on the study in December 2007. In May 2008 we
published Nine to Nineteen: Youth in Museums and Libraries;
A Practitioner’s Guide, which features several
examples of successful youth programming from around the
country, as well as useful information for planning exemplary
youth programs. I submit these two publications for the
record.
21st Century Skills
IMLS is undertaking a landmark project
to create tools that will enable museums and libraries
to become effective 21st century institutions. This work
will highlight the ways in which museums and libraries
can use their resources to help communities develop the
21st century skills they need to succeed in the new global
economy.
Conclusion
The Institute of Museum and Library Services
is a small agency that makes a big difference. And that
difference is felt in communities all over the United
States. Museums and libraries are more than buildings
with artwork or books or historic artifacts. They are
integral parts of their communities and, as much or more
than any other entity, they are crucial to the community’s
quality of life. It is my privilege, and that of everyone
who works at IMLS, to help libraries and museums in essential
work.
Thank you again for this opportunity. I
look forward to answering any questions you might have.
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