The UTA Libraries have been active during the past year preparing grant proposals for a number of projects. While it is true that the University is state assisted, grants from state and federal agencies and foundations often provide the Libraries with funds for special and/or pilot projects. Without grant funds these projects would be impossible to launch. Currently the Libraries are working on a number of grant projects that are vital in extending services and resources to more people and making the Libraries more user-centered. I want to use this article to report on the grants the Libraries currently have.
Telecommunications Infrastructure Fund (TIF) Grant. The Libraries received a $413,000 non-competitive grant from the TIF to improve teaching and instruction facilities, upgrade and expand our digital library capabilities, and develop a “portal” that will allow library users to customize their search for information. To qualify for the grant the library had to commit a match of more than $40,000 from its budget and another $70,000 for facilities and equipment to implement the grant. Specifically, the Libraries will be upgrading and replacing all of the projection and computer equipment in our only classroom at this time, Rm.315A, in the Central Library. In addition, the Libraries will be adding a 28-station interactive classroom in the basement of the Central Library as well as a 14-station Digital Media Classroom designed for use by faculty and students to incorporate and integrate technology into their research, teaching, and papers/publications. The Libraries will also use grant funds to purchase laptop computers and a portable digital projector for use in instruction sessions conducted outside of library buildings. These new facilities and equipment underscore the important role that librarians and archivists play in the educational enterprise at UTA and reconfirm the Libraries commitment to information literacy.
Additional grant funds will be used to purchase software, printers, scanners, memory upgrades, and a host of other equipment for the Digital Library Services program area. These enhancements, when added to state-of-the-art computers that the Libraries are purchasing for DLS, will allow us to implement and expand our digital services, such as electronic reserves and digital scanning projects for unique and historically valuable resources found in Special Collections. TIF funds will also be used to purchase the software and server necessary to develop a portal for UTA library users. The portal will allow users to build and customize personal search engines that will help them better navigate the tremendous amount of information available electronically. Tom Wilding is project director for the TIF grant.
National Endowment for the Humanities Preservation Assistance Grant. The Libraries’ Special Collections received close to $4,000 from the NEH to purchase archival supplies and re-house some 8,600 historical negatives from the W. D. Smith, Inc. Commercial Photography Studio Collection. The negatives all date from the 1940s and document the history and built environment of Fort Worth and the surrounding area. Shirley Rodnitzky is the project director for the project, which is also building a database for the negatives.
Tejano Voices, TexTreasures Grant, Texas State Library and Archives Commission. Ann Hodges is project director for the Tejano Voices Project funded by a TexTreasures grant from the State Library. The award is for $20,000 and is being used to provide wide access to 77 oral history interviews with Tejano leaders. The interviews were conducted by Dr. Jose Angel Gutierrez, a faculty member in the UTA Department of Political Science, and are held in Special Collections. This joint project of Special Collections and DLS will produce a website that will include transcripts of the interviews as well as streaming audio and video clips of the interviewees. The funds are being used to hire a halftime librarian, Carolyn Kadri, to fully catalog the interviews and also capture needed information for the project website, which is being developed by the DLS staff.
Cartographic History Preservation Grant, Summerlee Foundation. The Summerlee Foundation of Dallas recently awarded the Libraries $15,000 to be used to treat maps and atlases in Special Collections in need of conservation. The funds are being used to hire Gayle Young, a conservator in the area, to repair, stabilize, deacidify, and/or build enclosures for cartographic resources in the Virginia Garrett Cartographic History Library. Additionally, some of the grant funds will be used to purchase an encapsulating welder for the library. This is a machine that will enable library staff to more quickly and efficiently encapsulate items in need of protection and preservation. Kit Goodwin is the project director for the Summerlee grant.
Cartographic Connections, Houston Endowment Grant. The Libraries, in cooperation with the Center for Greater Southwestern Studies and the History of Cartography and other University entities, are in the third year of a $200,000 grant project designed to connect teachers across the state with the rich cartographic resources held in the Virginia Garrett Cartographic History Library. The project has brought 22 teachers from across the state to UTA to work with library staff, faculty, and the map collection in order to select, scan, and describe maps from the collection that are appropriate for classroom use in grades K-12. The teachers have selected 50 such maps and have assisted UTA faculty interpret, build classroom exercises around, and narrate each one of them. A website has been created that allows teachers access to the rich collection and to the teaching aids that have been created. The URL for the site is http://libraries.uta.edu/ccon . Gerald Saxon and Richard Francaviglia are the directors of the project.
Grants like the ones above are essential in providing a margin of excellence for the Libraries. The projects are all designed to move library services and resources beyond the physical facilities we currently have or to integrate instruction and information literacy into courses across the university curriculum. Grants have become increasingly important to the life of the Libraries and to enhancing services.
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