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Library seeks grant to preserve cultural heritage collections
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Posted on Jan 26 2012
By Clarissa David
Reporter
Reporter
The Commonwealth’s state library, Joeten-Kiyu Public Library, is poised to apply for up to $250,000 in federal funds to implement the recent findings of a study commissioned to develop a plan for the maintenance and preservation of the CNMI’s cultural heritage collections and resources.
JKPL executive director John Oliver Gonzales said yesterday that they will submit the 2012 CNMI Statewide Implementation Grant application to the Institute of Museum and Library Services “for and on behalf of our cultural heritage-related institutions” on or before the Feb. 1 deadline.
Among these institutions are the NMI Museum, NMI Archives, Historic Preservation Office, Division of Lands & Registration under the Department of Lands and Natural Resources, Diocese of Chalan Kanoa, NMI Recorder, and the Judicial Law Library of the Law Revision Commission.
The grant aims to put into action the findings and recommendations of the study funded by the $40,000 Statewide Planning Grant awarded to JKPL in fiscal year 2010. The study called for professional development and training, acquisition of specialized software and equipment to organize cultural heritage materials, and development of an emergency disaster preparedness plan and a central repository for these heritage collections.
IMLS will award the grant to the successful applicant in September, with the funded project to begin the following month.
While the grant is highly competitive, Gonzales said that JKPL deserves the grant due to its “compelling need” to preserve its “perilously fragile” cultural heritage collections that are “at risk of being irreversibly lost.”
“We expect that the grant funds will be maximized toward direct public benefit as intended end user beneficiaries so that they can fully access our rich cultural heritage records and resources on island or online,” he added.
