The following is a selective list of external grants that have supported preservation of the UW Libraries’ collections from 1988 to 2009.
Projects Funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities
The University of Washington Libraries participated in the United States Agriculture Information Network (USAIN) Preserving the History of U.S. Agriculture and Rural Life Grant Project from 2004 to 2008 with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). As part of this project, the University of Washington Libraries compiled bibliographies of journals and books published between 1820 and 1945 on Washington State agriculture, forestry, and fisheries. The bibliographies contain a total of 2,323 entries.
A panel of scholars and librarians subsequently ranked the titles on the bibliographies by their importance for future scholarly research. The top-ranked titles were then preserved on microfilm. Thirty serial titles and 98 book titles (748 volumes, 278,000+ pages) were microfilmed and are now available through the University of Washington Libraries. Project director for the Washington State portion of the grant: Stephanie Lamson.
Projects Funded by Washington State Library Washington Preservation Initiative Competitive Preservation Grants
- Preserving Washington State Agricultural History: Microfilming Washington Farmer, 2008-2009
This project microfilmed Washington Farmer, an early weekly that documents the agriculture and rural life of Washington State. Combined with additional funding from the UW Friends of the Library, we completed microfilm for 1914-1950. Project director: Stephanie Lamson.
- The Washington Film Preservation Project, 2004-2005
A collaborative project of ten institutions to preserve their moving image materials. UW’s equipment and expertise were used to clean, repair, and rehouse films from: University of Washington Libraries Special Collections, Museum of History and Industry, Highline Historical Society, Providence Archives, Museum of Flight, Everett Public Library, Yakama Nation, Burke Museum, UW Ethnomusicology, and the City of Seattle Archives. Project director: Nicolette Bromberg.
- Preserving Washington’s Newspaper Heritage Project, 2004-2005
With funding from a Washington State Library Washington Preservation Initiative Competitive Preservation Grant, the UW Libraries:
- Microfilmed backlog of the Port Townsend Leader, a weekly newspaper published since 1889.
- Transferred deteriorating acetate master negative microfilm of the Bremerton Sun rescued from a bankrupt microfilmer to a more stable polyester film base.
Project director: Glenda Pearson.
- The Pacific Northwest Collection Deacidification Project, 2003-2004
Employed mass deacidification to assure the long-term preservation of select books on the history of Washington housed in the UW Libraries Pacific Northwest Collection. Project director: Gary Menges.
- The Preservation of Historical Film Collection, 2002-2003
This project preserved part of the UW Libraries’ Special Collections historical film collection and also funded the production of a Washington State Film Preservation Manual, a manual for other archives setting up film preservation projects. Project director: Nicolette Bromberg.
Other Completed Projects
This web resource with 10 introductory essays, 2,300 images, and 7,500 pages of textual sources is available on the University of Washington Libraries Digital Collections and the Library of Congress American Memory page. The site was developed in partnership with the Museum of History and Industry and Cheney Cowles/Eastern Washington State Historical Society. It was partially funded by a Library of Congress/Ameritech Digital Library Grant. Project director: Gary Menges.
- Save A Book Projects, 1988-1999
Save A Book was a fundraising program that supported rare book conservation. The following books were conserved with donations from the public:
- Save A Book I: The Nuremberg Chronicle
- Save A Book II: John Ogilby’s America
- Save A Book III: Baist’s Real Estate Atlas; Surveys of Seattle, Wash.
- Save A Book IV: A Dictionary of the English Language
For an example of the work done in the Save A Book Project, see the following description of the conservation of John Ogilby’s America (London, 1671).
We are also very grateful for the Allen Endowment Funding for Collections, Friends of the UW Libraries, Preservation Gift Fund, Libraries Excellence Award, and others that have provided internal support for preservation projects. This funding helps us to preserve the significant and unique collections at the UW Libraries.