This week, the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) announced grant awards through the Advancing Knowledge: The IMLS/NEH Digital Partnership grant program, a funding opportunity that encourages digital innovation by bringing humanities scholars together with museum, library, archives, and IT professionals.
The Alexandria Archive Institute, in partnership with the School of Information's ISD Clinic, led by Eric Kansa, was awarded $250,609 for the project, Enhancing Humanities Research Productivity in a Collaborative Data Sharing Environment. The I School and the Alexandria Archive Institute will create best-practice guidelines for the development of humanities data-sharing software to meet user needs, as well as continue to develop Open Context, a collaborative, free, open-access resource to facilitate online sharing of archaeological field research among excavators, scholars, and cultural heritage institutions.
The Information & Service Design (ISD) Clinic at the School of Information is a consultancy and instructional program which gives students real-world experience in the design, implementation, deployment, and evaluation of information systems. The clinic is hosted at the I School and includes students from engineering, computer science, business and other disciplines. The clinic's clients include UC Berkeley departments, industry partners, and nonprofit public interest organizations.
Created in 2006, Advancing Knowledge: The IMLS/NEH Digital Partnership facilitates collaborations between libraries, museums, archives, universities, and other cultural organizations for projects using the latest digital technologies that will aid in the discovery and dissemination of new knowledge about our past and our culture. The partnership supports projects that explore new ways to share, examine, and interpret humanities collections in a digital environment and to develop new uses and audiences for existing digital resources.
“The NEH is committed to promoting the use of advanced technology to enhance humanities scholarship,” said NEH Chairman Bruce Cole. “We recognize the opportunities available to humanities scholars in the age of Web 2.0, and through programs such as our Advancing Knowledge partnership with IMLS, we are able to encourage and support projects that develop new digital tools and take advantage of existing resources.”
“Advancing Knowledge is a great collaborative effort between IMLS and the NEH,” said Anne-Imelda M. Radice, Director of the Institute of Museum and Library Services. “The project pairs scholars with librarians and museum professionals to build resources and tools that enhance and develop innovative scholarship in the 21st century.”