University of Maryland: 3 iSchool Professors Awarded $1.4M to Develop Library and Archival Services

From Maryland Today:

Three College of Information Studies faculty members have been awarded a total of $1.4 million from the Institute of Museum and Library Services’ Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program to train and support a diverse network of library and archives professionals.

Professor Richard Marciano was awarded $400,000 with Anne Gilliland at the University of California, Los Angeles to launch the TALENT (Training of Archival & Library Educators with iNnovative Technologies) Network. Experts including archivists, librarians, educators, historians, computer scientists and software engineers will work together to create a multidisciplinary national community focused on developing digital expertise and leadership skills in the field.

The network will focus on doubling an existing Piloting Network of iSchools by adding several library science schools with a focus on “adjacent” fields (e.g., computer science, engineering, data science and education), starting a pilot program with the HBCUs Spelman College and Clark Atlanta University.

Assistant Professor Diana E. Marsh was awarded $496,000 to fund her research partnering with an Indigenous advisory board, tribal project archivists and Indigenous focus groups to investigate whether social networks and archival context can be used as a platform to locate and reconnect communities with their archival materials.

The goal is to create a model for other genres and communities now marginalized in archival collections, contribute to a shift toward reparative description across the archival field, and increase the visibility of Indigenous histories and figures.

Assistant Professor Victoria Van Hyning was awarded $458,000 to investigate the challenges and barriers that libraries, archives and museums face when they try to integrate crowdsourced transcriptions of cultural heritage material into their content management systems.

The results of this investigation will help all three adapt their crowdsourcing workflows, and support people who use screen readers by improving their accessibility to cultural heritage.

Source

See Also: Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) Announces $21 Million Investment in U.S. Library and Archive Initiatives (July 28, 2022)

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