Cornell College receives grant for archive preservation

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) recently awarded Cornell College $8,100 to help preserve the college’s nearly 170 years of history.

This Preservation Assistance Grant for Smaller Institutions will be used to support the work of the Cornell Archives. 

“The Cole Library Archives has materials dating back to the founding of the college that are used every week by Cornell staff, students, and alumni as well as outside researchers,” said Consulting Librarian for Social Sciences Meghan Yamanishi, who wrote the grant proposal. “This grant allows us to bring in experts to evaluate our preservation needs, so that those artifacts–and documentation about life at Cornell now, most of which is born digital–will be around for researchers for the next century and a half.”

In early December, consultants examined the physical archive collection to see if anything was damaged by the derecho. The consultants are also providing recommendations for general collections care, policies and practices, storage and handling, environmental conditions, and disaster planning.

In addition, the consultant will work with Yamanishi as the college archivist to develop a roadmap for the digital collection, which will outline digital collection development, metadata issues, digital preservation issues, and other plans for the college’s digital program. 

Yamanishi says Cornell plans to seek future funding for equipment and training, based on recommendations from the consultant.