FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 2, 2006
Press Contact
202-653-4632
Eileen Maxwell, emaxwell@imls.gov
Mamie Bittner, mbittner@imls.gov
| WHO |
• National Museum
and Library Services Board Members
• Deborah Hess Norris, Chairperson, Heritage
Preservation
• Lawrence
L. Reger, Director, Heritage Preservation
• Kristen Overbeck Laise, Director, Heritage
Health Index
• Lonnie Bunch, Director, Smithsonian National
Museum of African-American History and Culture
• Mary Chute, Acting Director of the
Institute of Museum and Library Services and senior
officials of the Institute |
| WHAT |
7th Meeting of the National Museum
and Library Service Board |
| WHERE |
Institute of Museum and Library Services
1800 M Street, N.W.
9th Floor
Washington, D.C. |
| WHEN |
Monday, March 6, 3:00 p.m. –
4:45 pm
Tuesday, March 7, 9:00 a.m. – 1:00 pm |
Washington, DC—The
7th meeting of the National Museum and Services Library
Board will focus on the recently released report A Public
Trust at Risk: The Heritage Health Index Report on the
State of America’s Collections. This report is the
first comprehensive survey ever conducted on the condition
and preservation needs of our nation’s collections.
The results are both stunning and sobering— 4.5
billion artifacts held by more than 30,000 archives, libraries,
museums and other repositories and visited 2.5 billion
times a year are threatened by lack of environmental controls,
perilous storage conditions, insufficient security and
lack of emergency plans.
Lonnie Bunch, the director of the National
Museum for African American History and Culture, will
extend a welcome to the National Museum and Library Services
Board members on Tuesday morning. He will share his vision
for the new Smithsonian museum.
National Museum and Library Board Members
will also review and discuss implementation of recently
announced Administration policy to consolidate into the
Institute the activities of the National Commission on
Libraries and Information Science and two library-related
statistical collections currently housed at the National
Center for Education Statistics: the state library data
collection and the public library data collection.
Concurrent meetings of the Policy and Planning
Committee and the Partnerships and Government Affairs
Committee will take place on Monday, March 6, 2006 from
3:30 p.m. until 4:45pm. The Board meeting will take place
from 9:00 a.m. to approximately 1:00 p.m. on March 7,
2006. Please
review the agenda for details.
The National Museum and Library Services
Board is a policy advisory board. It is chaired by the
director of the federal Institute of Museum and Library
Service and consists of twenty Presidentially-appointed
and Senate-confirmed members, the deputy directors of
the Institute, and the chair of the National Commission
on Libraries and Information Science. The members of the
board are selected based on their expertise and commitment
to public service through the nation’s libraries
and museums. For more information on board members see
http://www.imls.gov/about/board.shtm.
|
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 life-long
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: http://www.imls.gov.
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