Mellon Grants to Benefit
Universities of Illinois, Michigan
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded the University of Illinois/Urbana-Champaign a $1 million grant to preserve library materials and the University of Michigan $860,000 for postdoctoral fellowships to encourage use of the university’s research collections.
Champaign-Urbana will receive an outright grant of $300,000 to design and equip a conservation laboratory by spring 2003. $700,000 will be given as a matching grant contingent on the school raising $1.4 million over the next five years. The university estimated that nearly 40% of the 9-million-volume collection is in danger of physical deterioration.
“While there have been many preservation activities throughout the decades, there has not been—until now—a focused, comprehensive program, which will be enhanced significantly by this magnificent award from the Mellon Foundation,” said University Librarian Paula Kaufman.
The UM grant, along with $140,000 in matching funds from the office of the university’s provost, will fund four-year junior and senior postdoctoral fellowships in the humanities and social sciences. The fellows are to teach undergraduate seminars to encourage greater utilization of the collections. “We are interested in providing undergraduates with research experience that draws on the important and unique research resources housed at the UM,” said Bentley Historical Library Director Francis X. Blouin Jr.
Posted January 28, 2002.
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