Abous Us - Issues

Cultural Heritage/Sustainability

Libraries and museums are keystones sustaining communities' sense of place and cultural identity.

Search the Awarded Grants database for grants to programs that strengthen cultural heritage/sustainability (issue areas have only been assigned to grants awarded since FY 2009)

Cultural heritage/sustainability content on the IMLS Web site:
Marion McGee, the assistant director, and Althemese Barnes, the founder of the John G. Riley House and Museum.
December 2012: Multiplying Multiculturalism: One Museum Plots a Course to Promote Cultural Preservation Statewide


As a small museum grew into a multi-dimensional center of historic and cultural preservation, it faced a challenge. The museum’s founder needed to expand professional capacity and put in place a leader to succeed her. Read More

 
ProfilePromoAug2012 home
August 2012: Keeping Oral History Alive in a Digital World


Recorders and preservers of oral history are benefiting from the wealth of resources offered by Michigan State University’s “Oral History in the Digital Age” project, which assists practitioners and addresses core issues influencing the field in the 21st century. Read More

 
Two girls play and learn in the Vietnamese Round Boat at Children’s Discovery Museum of San Jose.
October 2010: Attracting a Vietnamese Audience


When Children’s Discovery Museum of San Jose, California, set a goal to boost its overall attendance in a way that matched local demographics, it knew it had to attract a lot more Vietnamese visitors. That’s because San Jose has the largest urban Vietnamese population outside of Vietnam. During the museum’s three-year initiative, the staff learned a lot about the Vietnamese community and its internal divisions. Read More

 
Members of the Ziibiwing Center's Lil' Language Warriors Club
April 2010: Speaking Our Language: Preserving the Saginaw Chippewa Dialect


Only a handful of people speak the Ojibway dialect of the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe of Michigan. To preserve the language, the tribal museum embarked on a project to digitally record fluent speakers, teach children to speak the language, and produce quarterly community immersion events. Read More

 
Michelle McKinney, assistant archivist, working on her first processed collection to the storage area.
February 2010: Newly Reorganized Archives Benefits Museum, Community


The Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit, the world's largest institution dedicated to the African American experience, holds a collection of more than 30,000 artifacts and archival materials. Read More