FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE
December 20, 2006
National Endowment for the Humanities and Institute of
Museum and Library Services Invite Grant Applications
for New Digital Innovation Program, “Advancing Knowledge”
Washington, DC--The Institute
of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and the National
Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) invite applications
to a new digital humanities grant competition sponsored
by the two federal agencies. The new grant program, “Advancing
Knowledge: The IMLS/NEH Digital Partnership,” seeks
applications for innovative, collaborative humanities
projects using the latest digital technologies for the
benefit of the American public, humanities scholarship,
and the nation’s cultural community.
“The NEH partnership with the IMLS,
which is one of five new programs launched under the Endowment’s
Digital Humanities Initiative, should accelerate the development
of new technological tools and applications to the study
of the humanities,” said NEH Chairman Bruce Cole.
“Our ultimate goal is to make more education and
scholarly resources more broadly available to more people.”
“This partnership and this new grant
competition hold great promise for our nation’s
libraries and museums,” said IMLS Director Anne-Imelda
M. Radice. “Libraries and museums connect people
to information and ideas; these grants will spur innovation
and new collaborations, and they will advance the role
of cultural repositories in online teaching, learning,
and research.”
Chairman Cole and Director Radice announced
in late September that the two federal agencies together
will dedicate $1.5 million to Advancing Knowledge. In
announcing the partnership, they noted that digital technology
developments to support science research are outpacing
the development of such advances for the humanities. Both
agree that the collaboration of the two federal agencies
can help turn that around.
Through this new partnership, NEH and IMLS
will help teachers, scholars, museums, and libraries take
advantage of developing technology. Successful projects
funded through this partnership will explore new ways
to share, examine, and interpret humanities collections
in a digital environment and develop new uses and audiences
for existing digital resources.
Grants awarded through Advancing Knowledge
will bring together museum, library, archives, and IT
professionals with humanities scholars to use innovative
approaches in digital technology to provide new perspectives
on humanities collections, offer new interpretive contexts,
and allow existing resources to be widely shared. Nonprofit
institutions interested in applying can find guidelines
online at www.neh.gov.
The deadline for applications to the Advancing Knowledge
grant program is March 27, 2007, and
applications must be submitted through Grants.gov.
The first awards will be announced in early summer.
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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 122,000
libraries and 17,500 museums. Its mission is to grow and
sustain a “Nation of Learners” because lifelong
learning is essential to a democratic society and individual
success. Through its grant making, convenings, research
and publications, the Institute empowers museums and libraries
nationwide to provide leadership and services to enhance
learning in families and communities, sustain cultural
heritage, build twenty-first-century skills, and increase
civic participation. To learn more about the Institute,
please visit: www.imls.gov.
About the National Endowment for
the Humanities
Created in 1965 as an independent federal agency, the
National Endowment for the Humanities supports learning
in history, literature, philosophy, and other areas of
the humanities. NEH grants enrich classroom learning,
create and preserve knowledge, and bring ideas to life
through public television, radio, new technologies, museum
exhibitions, and programs in libraries and other community
places. To learn more about NEH, please visit: www.neh.gov.
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