Mellon Foundation Awards $1.25 Million Grant to Penn St. University Libraries

From Penn St. U.

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded Penn State a grant of $1,250,000 to establish a new full-time senior conservator position in the University Libraries. Based in the Department of Digitization and Preservation, the conservator will help to care for the Libraries’ extensive collections at all Penn State locations.
A permanent endowment for the position will be established with $1 million of the grant, and the Libraries will raise an additional $1.25 million in matching support over three years. The remainder of the grant will support the position during the challenge period. The Libraries will launch a national search for the senior conservator in the spring.
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Highlights of Penn State’s collections include significant collections of German literature and manuscripts, Pennsylvania-German broadsides, fraktur, religious materials, maps, fragile prints by the graphic artist Lynd Ward and letters of Ernest Hemingway, among many others. The Libraries’ preservation program has been developing basic conservation services for several years, but the Mellon award will greatly strengthen these efforts.

Note: We posted on Wednesday about the U. of Michigan also receiving a $1.25 million grant from the Mellon Foundation to create a conservation librarian position.

Filed under: Awards, Digital Preservation, Funding, Libraries, Maps, News, Preservation