Journal Gazette/Times Courier:
October 4, 2006
Eastern will receive $20,000 library grant in the area of
digital imaging
By KATE HENDERSON, Staff Writer
khenderson@jg-tc.com
CHARLESTON -- Secretary of State
Jesse White has awarded Library Services and Technology Act
grants totaling $3.4 million to nearly 500 libraries,
library systems and museums containing libraries in
Illinois, and Eastern Illinois University is getting a cut.
“LSTA funds encourage our libraries to be creative and
innovative,” White said via a press release. “Illinois
librarians work hard to identify specific local needs and
use these funds to address those needs. Over the years, LSTA
grants have produced hundreds of new programs in our state’s
more than 4,000 libraries, regional library systems and
museums.”
The grants are awarded in six categories: bridging the gap
between community and collection, bring in a trainer,
digital imaging, emerging technologies and methodologies,
demonstration of public library services and developing a
statewide technology toolkit.
Eastern will receive a $20,000 grant in the area of digital
imaging, which focuses on allowing libraries to create
Internet-ready electronic versions of their materials and
collections, specifically Illinois-related historical and
cultural materials.
Carl Lorber wrote the grant for
the funding and Peggy Manley, an administrative aide for
library services at EIU, said the money will be used to
digitize approximately 20 years of the Journal of the
Illinois State Historical Society.
Manley said Booth Library will manage the project and
partner with Illinois State Historical Society.
Manley said the actual digital imaging conversion work will
be outsourced to Northern Illinois University, and 12,000
pages of the journal covering issues published from 1980 to
2004 will be digitized.
“Just having this kind of data available online will be a
valuable tool,” Manley said. “A lot of people do
genealogical study and there’s bound to be useful
information in these pages.”
Manley said the information will likely be available to not
only Eastern students, but any student studying history of
Illinois.
Contact Kate Henderson at
khenderson@jg-tc.com
or 238-6858.
