The following is a text-only press release from the federal Institute of
Museum and Library Services (IMLS). An HTML version of this release can
be read on the agency's Web site at www.imls.gov/news/2007/091707.shtm.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 17, 2007

IMLS Press Contacts
202-653-4632
Jeannine Mjoseth, [log in to unmask]
Mamie Bittner, [log in to unmask] 

NEH Press Contact
Lee Bockhorn
202-208-7133 	

The Institute of Museum and Library Services and the National Endowment
for the Humanities Award First Advancing Knowledge: The IMLS/NEH Digital
Partnership Grants

Three Institutions Awarded over $1 million in Grants for Digital
Innovation 

Washington, DC-The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and
the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) announced today the
first three grant recipients under Advancing Knowledge: The IMLS/NEH
Digital Partnership, a funding opportunity that brings together museum,
library, archive, and IT professionals with humanities scholars to spur
innovative digital projects. The Historical Society of Pennsylvania;
Tufts University, Medford; and the University of California, Berkeley
will receive a combined total of $1,047,455 for their work.

Through Advancing Knowledge: The IMLS/NEH Digital Partnership grants,
IMLS and NEH are joining together to support collaborations among
libraries, museums, archives, universities, and other cultural
organizations to develop digital tools that will aid in the discovery
and dissemination of new knowledge about our past and our culture. The
partnership encourages 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 grants announced today are:

* $347,520 to Historical Society of Pennsylvania for its project:
PhilaPlace: A Neighborhood History and Culture Project. The Historical
Society of Pennsylvania in collaboration with the Philadelphia
Department of Records and the University of Pennsylvania's School of
Design will develop PhilaPlace, an interactive Web resource chronicling
the history, culture, and architecture of Philadelphia's neighborhoods.
Complete with maps, historical records, photographs, and digital models
of select neighborhoods, PhilaPlace will serve as a prototype website
for communities wishing to digitize their cultural heritage.

* $349,939 to Tufts University, Medford for its project: Scalable Named
Entity Identification in Classical Studies. The Perseus Project and the
Collections and Archives of Tufts University will construct a testing
database of scholarly and cultural documents about the ancient world. In
the second part of the project, Tufts will develop a digital reference
tool allowing researchers and librarians to conduct context-based "smart
searches" of un-indexed words from existing databases in the Tufts
Digital Library. By developing this database, and allowing for much
shorter and complete context-based searches, Tufts hopes to lead
scholars and students to the next generation of digital tools.

* $349,996 to University of California, Berkeley for its project:
Context and Relationships: Ireland and Irish Studies. The University of
California, Berkeley in collaboration with the Queen's University,
Belfast, will develop a digital database of Irish studies materials to
test three open-source digital tools. The Context Finder, Context
Builder, and Context Provider tools will be aimed at establishing
scholarly context. Using a common word search feature in digital
collections, these tools will allow users to access the ideas that are
associated with the words, thereby creating context through maps,
primary texts and secondary works.

"We are pleased to award the first three Advancing Knowledge grants to
pioneers of the digital frontier," said Anne-Imelda M. Radice, Ph.D.,
IMLS Director. "These projects will foster new relationships among
museums, libraries, archives, IT professionals, and humanities scholars
to advance digital scholarship, education, and preservation. This
program will create a foundation for professional collaborations needed
to support the digital humanities."

"The mission of the Endowment has always been to advance excellence in
the humanities and today that must mean maximizing the use of advanced
technology," stated Dr. Bruce Cole, Chairman of the NEH. "These first
three awardees provide a great example of how humanities organizations
not only can leverage digital tools to advance their area of study, but
how the humanities can play a more active role in creating new digital
tools and resources. I'm so pleased that our partnership with the
Institute of Museum and Library Services is helping to make this
possible."

The Advancing Knowledge program is a key component of IMLS's Digital
Connections Initiative (DCI). This comprehensive program has made
possible the digitization of millions of artifacts and documents; the
annual WebWise Conference, a convening of representatives of museums,
libraries, archives, systems science, education, and other fields
interested in the future of high quality online content for inquiry and
learning; statewide digitization efforts; and research on the public use
of information technology such as social tagging, blogs, Ipod downloads,
and text messaging.

The Advancing Knowledge program is a key component of the NEH's Digital
Humanities Initiative (DHI), which supports projects that utilize or
study the impact of digital technology. The DHI program supports grants,
sponsors conferences, workshops, and other educational events to offer
humanists new methods of conducting research, conceptualizing
relationships, and presenting scholarship using digital technology.

NEH grants are awarded on a competitive basis. Throughout the year,
humanities experts outside of the Endowment and members of the National
Council on the Humanities consider all applications and advise NEH on
the quality and significance of each proposed project.

	
About the Institute of Museum and Library Services The Institute of
Museum and Library Services is the primary source of federal support for
the nation's 122,000 libraries and 17,500 museums. The Institute's
mission is to create strong libraries and museums that connect people to
information and ideas. The Institute works at the national level and in
coordination with state and local organizations to sustain heritage,
culture, and knowledge; enhance learning and innovation; and support
professional development. To learn more about the Institute, please
visit www.imls.gov.

About the National Endowment for the Humanities Created in 1965 as an
independent federal agency, the National Endowment for the Humanities
supports learning in history, literature, philosophy, and other areas of
the humanities. NEH grants enrich classroom learning, create and
preserve knowledge, and bring ideas to life through public television,
radio, new technologies, museum exhibitions, and programs in libraries
and other community places. For more information about NEH's Digital
Humanities Initiative, please see
www.neh.gov/grants/digitalhumanities.html.

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