The Institute of Museum and Library Services recently awarded UF’s George A. Smathers Libraries a $477,312 National Leadership grant.
UF and the libraries jointly matched the contribution with $541,976, according to a press release.
“You could apply for up to $500,000,” said Rachel Schipper, associate dean of Technology & Support Services for the libraries and co-principal investigator of the grant. “Our award of the $477,312 is pretty much one of the top awards that we could have been given.”
The grants will be used for three years toward the Panama Canal collection the libraries received from the Panama Canal Museum in Seminole, Fla., after it closed in March.
The museum transferred 20,000 objects to the UF libraries.
Some of the objects are currently being housed on campus, and others are stored in a climate-controlled facility.
“We have a very large Latin American collection,” Schipper said. “That is one of the reasons the museum chose to have the objects here permanently.”
Schipper said the grant will be used for processing the collection, which includes some digitization, creating exhibits and educational materials centered around the Panama Canal, hiring employees to process the collection and managing volunteers.
Lauren Wright, a 25-year-old political science graduate student, said she thought the Panama Canal was a huge accomplishment for Americans.
The 100th anniversary of the Panama Canal’s completion will take place in 2014.
As part of the anniversary, the libraries and collaborators will host a centennial celebration of the canal in August 2014 that will run through Spring 2015.
The yearlong celebration will include local exhibits, educational seminars and conferences.
Non-UF institutions participating in the collaboration include Tampa’s Museum of Science and Industry, the Natural History Museum of San Diego, Museo del Canal Interoceánico de Panamá and the Association of Southeast Research Libraries, according to the release.
