Washington, DC-Dr. Anne-Imelda Radice, Director of the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), announced today that 33 institutions with living collections will receive the IMLS Connecting to Collections Bookshelf. Institutions with living collections of plants and animals include aquaria, arboreta, botanical gardens, nature centers, historical houses with gardens, living history farms, and zoos.
"From aquaria to zoos, living collections cultivate in all of us an appreciation for the natural world and an understanding of the need to protect it," Radice said. "We trust that the IMLS Bookshelf will provide these institutions valuable resources to help care for their plant and animal collections."
The institutions are located in 19 states, with the Midwest and Southeast states representing the largest number of applications. More than half (19) of the awardee institutions are zoos. Other types of institutions receiving the Bookshelf include four arboreta/botanical gardens, one aquarium, and two nature centers.
This special round of awards completes the competitive process for U.S.
institutions to apply for the Bookshelf, which consists of a core set of
12 resources, including several items developed especially for the Bookshelf. In addition to the core resources, institutions with living collections will receive six texts specifically designed to address collections care issues related to plants and animals. The contents of the bookshelf were selected by a blue ribbon panel of conservation experts with valuable curation and selection advice provided by Heritage Preservation.
The IMLS Bookshelf is a component of Connecting to Collections: A Call to Action, a strategic initiative by IMLS to address the challenges described in A Public Trust at Risk: The Heritage Health Index Report on the State of America's Collections, an IMLS-funded study conducted by Heritage Preservation.
Distribution of the IMLS Bookshelf was made possible through a cooperative agreement with the American Association for State and Local History (AASLH), IMLS's cooperating partner. IMLS also received support from the Getty Foundation, the Henry Luce Foundation, and the Samuel H. Kress Foundation.
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