ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 44 / C&RL News ■ January 2004 G r a n ts a n d A c q u i s i t i o n s Ann-Christe Galloway The F o lg e r S h a k e sp e a re L ib ra ry h as re ­ ceived a gift of $1.25 million from the Mellon Foundation to e n d o w senior fellowships. The endow m ent builds on the success of a grant that since 1996 has s u p p o rte d 16 fellowships at the Folger. These fellowships have benefited scholars from the United States, New Zealand and Canada researching a range of early m odern topics from “Renaissance Fetishisms” to “Africanism in Early Modern England and English America.” The Folger Shakespeare Library is hom e to the w orld’s largest collection of Shakespeare’s printed works and the third-largest collection of early English printed books. N ic h o ls C o lle g e 's C o n a n t L ib ra ry , in D u d le y , M a ss a c h u s e tts, h a s r e c e iv e d a $56,000 g ran t from th e D avis E d u c a tio n Foundation in su p p o rt of its inform ation lit­ eracy program. The primary goal of the three- year project is to integrate inform ation lit­ eracy instruction a n d assessm ent into the curriculum at b o th th e general educatio n and subject-specific levels through close col­ laboration b e tw e en faculty a n d instructional librarians. R u t g e r s U n iv e r s it y h a s r e c e iv e d a $10,000 grant from th e Fred J. B rotherton Foundation to upg rad e the lighting in the Special Collections’ Gallery ’50 on the first floor of A lexander Library a n d for th e com plete restoration and encapsulation of five significant New Jersey wall m aps. Each exhibition h o ste d by Special Collections features b e tw e en 100 a n d 150 items on display, m any of w hich are vulnerable to lig h t d a m a g e . W ith th e g ra n t, Special Collections will install a surface track lighting system in Gallery ’50 to better illum inate a nd preserve the items on display. The m aps to b e preserved include tw o 1819 m aps of the U nited States, an 1853 m ap of New Jersey, an 1847 m ap of Newark, and an 1874 m ap of G re e n w o o d C em etery . T h e B ro th e rto n F oundation supports initiatives in research libraries. The D iv is io n o f L ib ra rie s o f N e w Y o r k University (NYU), in partnership w ith the New-York Historical Society, has received a National Leadership Grant of $199,499 from the Institute of M useum and Library Services to create a digital resource. The centerpiece of the project will be the Richard Maass Collection of NYU’s Fales Collection, w hich consists o f o v e r 300 a u to g ra p h letters, docum ents, broadsides, and new spapers that chronicle the early history of New York from its colonization by the Dutch in the 17th century through the Revolutionary War. The collection includes such significant items as autographed letters by George W ashington, one of w hich outlines his plans for the battle of New York City; a land treaty from 1680 for the purchase of Connecticut land from the Native Americans; and a letter b y jo h n Quincy Adams from 1839 articulating his position on the freedom of the slaves. Com plem enting the Maass Collection, the New-York Historical Society will contribute its William Alexander Papers, a collection of letters and military reports relating to the American defense of New York and campaigns following the fall of the city to the British. The historical society will also contribute its 262 Erskine/DeWitt military survey maps. The G re a te r W estern L ib ra ry A llia n ce , a consortium of 30 research libraries in the Midwest and W estern United States, has b e e n aw arded a National Leadership Grant totaling $249,736 from the Institute of M useum and Library Services (IMLS) to begin constructing a digital library of w ater resources information for the w estern United States. The total am ount for the project, including m atching funds, is $452,826. The new W estern W aters Digital Library will create a freely a n d w idely accessib le in fo rm a tio n re so u rc e from a geographically dispersed consortium of major Ed. n o te : Send y o u r news to : Grants & Acquisitions, C&RL News, 50 E. H u ron St., Chicago, IL 60611-2795; e- m ail: agallow ay@ ala.org. mailto:agalloway@ala.org C&RL News ■ January 2 0 0 4 / 45 universities. W ater usage and conservation is a major policy issue in the w estern United States, as natural w ater scarcity in the region is com bined w ith the highest current growth rate in the countiy. Currently, no federal or state agency or other organization provides a com prehensive information resource about w ater to researchers, policymakers, educators, and citizens. The project will use the Western States Dublin Core Metadata Element Set, developed by the IMLS-funded W estern Trails project, and will incorporate the standards and principles of the O pen Archives Initiative. A c q u i s i t i o n s Exxon Mobil Corporation has donated its historical collection to the University of Texas- Austin’s Center for American History. Exxon Mobil has also provided the university with a $300,000 grant to catalog and preserve the collection. The collection, w hich has an estimated market value of $ 10 million, includes vast archives, including historical documents from J o h n D. R ockefeller a n d C harles Lindbergh. Exxon Mobil’s archive collection includes historical artifacts and documents dating back to Exxon and Mobil’s earliest predecessor companies from the 1870s through the creation and operation of Standard Oil Company. The archives contain one of the most com prehensive broadcast advertising collections on record, 1.5 million original photos, and an equally extensive collection of posters, graphics, and publications. Artifacts, including historical signs and gas pumps, are also part of the collection. O ne o f th e e a r lie s t k n o w n le tte rs d e ­ tailing plans for the Maryland Agricultural College has been acquired by the University of Maryland Libraries. The college was chartered in 1856 and w ould ultimately becom e the University of Maryland, College Park in 1920. Charles Benedict Calvert sent the handwritten letter on September 29,1858, to J. C. Nicholson, a Baltimore businessman. Calvert was a central figure in the founding of the college and a m em ber of the Board of Trustees, as well as a w ell-k n o w n philan th ro p ist, p lanter, a n d congressman. He served as acting president of the college from 1859 to I860. The personal country m usic collection of Eugene Earle of Nipom o, California, has b e e n d onated to the University of North Carolina (UNC)-Chapel Hill’s W ilson Library. Movie p o sters, m agazines, so n g folios, cassette tapes, soundies (precursors to music videos), a n d 60,000 78-rpm records com prise the collection. Earle, a retired electrical engineer, thought that UNC w ould be a g ood hom e for his collection because the artists in his collection w ere from or sang about Appalachia. Earle u se d his vacation time to scour the country looking for records. The c o lle ctio n , w h ic h w ill re q u ire original c a ta lo g in g , c o n ta in s h u n d r e d s if n o t thousands of artists, including com plete runs of M ainer’s M ountaineers, a North C aro lin a-b ased gro u p ; Bill a n d Charlie M onroe; Bill Cox and Cliff H obbs; and Jimmie Rogers. A vid co u n try music fa n Eugene Earle has d o n a te d his p e rs o n a l c o lle c t io n o f r e c o rd in g s t o th e U n iv e rs ity o f N o rth C arolina-C hapel H ill. C la rk K e rr's p e rso n a l co lle c tio n o f 500 books has b e e n d onated to the University of California-(UC) Berkeley Institute of Industrial Relations Library. These titles represent a lifetime of study, scholarship, and publishing in several fields associated with labor and industrial relations. Kerr, 92, received his Ph.D. in Economics from UC in 1939, served in various capacities on the War Labor Board (1942-47), and was the first director of the Institute of Industrial Relations at UC-Berkeley (1945-52), w here he still has an office. Kerr w ent on to serve as Berkeley chancellor (1952-58) and UC president (1958-67). ■