NJ State Library Receives NEH Funding for Disaster Preparedness Training
The National Endowment for the Humanities awarded a $6,000 Preservation Assistance Grant for Smaller Institutions to the New Jersey State Library (NJSL), an affiliate of Thomas Edison State University, for a year-long project in partnership with the New Jersey Cultural Alliance for Response (NJCAR).
The funds will support training workshops to help New Jersey’s cultural heritage organizations prepare for and recover from disasters that could damage their invaluable humanities collections of photographs, rare books, maps, oral histories, paintings, textiles and historical objects.
The two-part workshops will be held in the northern, central and southern regions of the state in mid-2017. Workshop attendees will learn the basics of risk assessment, disaster plan development, salvage priorities and methods, and wet material recovery. Thomas Clareson of LYRASIS, a non-profit preservation consultant, has been contracted to lead the workshops.
NJSL is a lead partner in NJCAR, a statewide network of organizations and professionals dedicated to safeguarding New Jersey’s cultural heritage. Through workshops, webinars, and meetings, NJCAR works to empower New Jersey’s libraries, archives, museums, historical sites, performing arts venues, botanical gardens, and other organizations to preserve their valuable assets and sustain operations before, during, and after a disaster strike.
NEH awarded 78 Preservation Assistance Grants in December 2016 which will help small and mid-sized institutions across the United States improve their ability to preserve and care for their humanities collections. The National Endowment for the Humanities was created in 1965 as an independent federal agency, the National Endowment for the Humanities supports research and learning in history, literature, philosophy, and other areas of the humanities by funding selected, peer-reviewed proposals from around the nation. Additional information about the National Endowment for the Humanities and its grant programs is available at: www.neh.gov.