- Born-Digital Scholarly Publishing: Road Maps and Resources (2021–2022)
National Endowment for the Humanities: Institutes for Advanced Topics in the Digital HumanitiesThe Center for Digital Scholarship has received a $169,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to create a training institute on digital publishing. Born-Digital Scholarly Publishing: Resources and Road Maps will support 15 scholars from different disciplines, career stages, institution type, and geographical location—scholars who wish to develop innovative born-digital scholarship intended for publication but lack the necessary resources and capacity at their home institutions.
The institute curriculum, which couples the concentrated delivery of foundational knowledge and practical resources with hands-on, individualized developmental editing workshops, consolidates the successful path to university press publication formulated by Brown’s Digital Publications Initiative. By demystifying and streamlining the digital publication process, and by making all institute materials openly accessible, this first-of-its-kind training program will expand the voices, perspectives, and visions represented in the practice and production of digital humanities scholarship.
- Brown University’s Digital Publications Initiative: Advancing Excellence and Innovation in Digital Scholarship (2019–2025)
The Andrew W. Mellon FoundationBrown University has received a $775,000 grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to support a second phase of its Digital Publications Initiative, launched in 2015 with an initial grant of $1.3 million. The Initiative has established a novel, university-based approach to the development, evaluation, and publication of born-digital scholarly monographs.
Following a successful initial phase, a second grant allows the University to consolidate its Initiative while continuing to advance the role of digital scholarship in the academy. From employing interactive simulations to nonlinear reading opportunities, these innovative publications demonstrate how the digital environment is necessary for articulating and advancing scholarly argument beyond the capabilities of print. This second phase also supports two 12-month Diversity in Digital Publishing postdoctoral fellowships, providing underrepresented individuals an opportunity to gain professional experience and a network in digital scholarly publishing.
See the news release and the Initiative website for more information.
- Brown University Archives Audio-Visual Collection: Global Perspectives from Campus Speeches (2019–2020)
Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) with support of The Andrew W. Mellon FoundationThe Brown University Library was awarded a $23,215 grant from the Council on Library and Information Resources’ (CLIR) Recordings at Risk program. The Library’s project, “Brown University Archives Audio-Visual Collection: Global Perspectives from Campus Speeches,” is digitizing and making broadly accessible a large selection of audio and video recordings of speeches by leading public figures invited to Brown between 1950 and 1995.
- Brown University Archives Audio-Visual Collection: Global Perspectives from Campus Speeches (2019–2020)
Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) with support of The Andrew W. Mellon FoundationThe Brown University Library was awarded a $23,215 grant from the Council on Library and Information Resources’ (CLIR) Recordings at Risk program. The Library’s project, “Brown University Archives Audio-Visual Collection: Global Perspectives from Campus Speeches,” is digitizing and making broadly accessible a large selection of audio and video recordings of speeches by leading public figures invited to Brown between 1950 and 1995.
- Changing Structures, Changing Cultures: The Role of the University in Scholarly Communications (2015–2019)
The Andrew W. Mellon FoundationThe Brown University Library has received a five-year grant of $1.3 million from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to launch a new Digital Publishing Initiative. Working in collaboration with the Office of the Dean of the Faculty, the University Library aims to extend the University’s mission in supporting scholarship of its humanities and humanistic social sciences faculty through engagement with new and emerging forms of digital publication. The University plans to put in place editorial and enhanced technical staff resources to guide and facilitate the development of digital publications. The process will include building and testing a prototype infrastructure that includes editorial and specialized design assistance, dissemination and preservation services, and new systems of peer review and scholarly validation for such work.
See the press release and the initiative website for more information.
- Cataloging Hidden Special Collections and Archives: The Gordon Hall and Grace Hoag Collection of Dissenting and Extremist Printed Propaganda, Part II (2012–2016)
Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) with support of The Andrew W. Mellon FoundationThe Brown University Library has received a three-year grant of $376,100 to complete the processing of The Gordon Hall and Grace Hoag Collection of Dissenting and Extremist Printed Propaganda materials. Gordon Hall began compiling the collection when he returned from World War II and encountered U.S. domestic hate groups at both ends of the political spectrum. Along with a group of volunteers, including Grace Hoag, he infiltrated and investigated radical and dissenting groups, collecting their printed propaganda as part of his efforts to preserve these irreplaceable materials for posterity. Only the 168,000 items representing 5,500 organizations found in Part I of the collection have been processed, documented, and made available to the public so far. This project will uncover the much larger, unprocessed and inaccessible Part II, comprised of 800 cartons (2,400 linear feet or ca. 700,000 items).
The materials reflect a continuum of views on issues such as the Cold War, civil and women’s rights, and the relationship of religion and the state. The focus is on printed organizational literature, often ephemeral, some for circulation among adherents and others used to proselytize. The collection consists largely of pamphlets and leaflets, with smaller numbers of photos, audio–visual items, manuscripts, and monographs.
- Revealing Brown’s Hidden Archival and Manuscript Collections (2010–2013)
National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC)The John Hay Library was awarded a two-year Basic Processing grant of $141,455 from NHPRC to make accessible 892 archival and manuscript collections. This project will reveal a number of significant collections, papers, and records held in Manuscripts and University Archives, including the papers of prominent literary figures, gay writers, poets, screenwriters, scientists, historians, Brown faculty and alumni, and the records of small presses, literary magazines, and cultural, arts, political and activist organizations. The grant will support a full-time processing archivist to survey 6,500 linear feet of “hidden” archival and manuscript collections and create catalog records and Encoded Archival Description (EAD) finding aids. In addition, the Archivists’ Toolkit will be implemented in order to manage archival and manuscript collections through a single database.
- Gorham Database Design Project
Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS)
The Brown University Library has been awarded an IMLS National Leadership planning grant for the purpose of collaborating with the RISD Library and the RISD Museum in the development of a new database architecture that will allow users to explore the complete extent of the design process used by the Gorham Manufacturing Company to create its hand-crafted consumer silver products.
- Expansion of COinS Technology to Non-structured Bibliographic Data
Andrew W. Mellon Scholarly Communications ProgramThe Brown University Library has received a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to develop a web-based citation parsing service which will improve access to campus scholarship. The award will be used to improve functionality for the Directory of Research and Researchers at Brown, a service offered through the Office of the Vice President for Research, by providing OpenURL links to the scholarly content of over 40,000 citations in the directory. The open source citation parsing service is now available at: https://freecite.library.brown.edu/ (Please note: This service is no longer available).
- Revitalization of the John Hay Reading Room
Champlin Foundations GrantThe Brown University Library has received a grant of $250,000 from the Champlin Foundations to help with ongoing improvements to the John Hay Library and to enhance the George S. Champlin Memorial Stamp Collection. A grant of $200,000 will be used to purchase new display cases that will be prominently featured in proposed renovations to the Hay’s Reading Room. The new cases will significantly increase the Library’s exhibit capacity. Cases will be customized to fit the dimensions of the Reading Room and will be made of oak, in keeping with the building’s elegant décor. In addition, the Library received $50,000 to support and improve the Champlin Stamp Collection. See the press release.
- Rhode Island Archival and Manuscript Collections Online (RIAMCO) (2008–2010)
National Endowment for the HumanitiesThe Brown University Library has received a grant of $228,454 from the National Endowment for the Humanities to create a statewide database, entitled the Rhode Island Archival and Manuscript Collections Online (RIAMCO). Through the application of Encoded Archival Description (EAD) finding aids, RIAMCO will collocate more than 300 dispersed but overlapping collections about the history of Rhode Island drawn from local public and university libraries across the state, fashioning a union web resource hosted and supported by Brown University. The material documented in RIAMCO represents the history of Rhode Island from the colonial period to the present day and provides valuable insight into a range of topics including business, the Civil War, slavery, literature, church history, politics, diplomatic history, art and architecture, military history, labor, health and medicine, state and local government, higher education, and Native Americans. The RIAMCO project has been designated by NEH as a “We the People Project” for “promoting knowledge and understanding of American history and culture.”