FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE
November 20, 2006
Press Contacts
202-653-4628
Kevin O'Connell, koconnell@imls.gov
Mamie Bittner, mbittner@imls.gov
IMLS Launches New Conservation Initiative
Washington, DC--Anne-Imelda
M. Radice, Director of the Institute of Museum and Library
Services (IMLS), today launched Connecting to Collections:
The IMLS Conservation Initiative. In her keynote
address to the annual meeting of Heritage Preservation,
Dr. Radice described key components of the initiative,
which will be the centerpiece of the Institute’s
tenth anniversary year.
“Our nation’s collections are
an essential part of the American story, and I feel a
profound responsibility to make care of collections as
much a part of the nation's consciousness as the care
of our natural environment,” said Dr. Radice. “With
this new initiative, we will raise public awareness about
the value of these collections and provide momentum that
can be leveraged in leadership activities by other federal
agencies, state and local officials, and private funders.
If we work together, the next time we take the temperature
of our heritage's health we will find the patient much
improved.”
The launch of Connecting to Collections
follows the release earlier this year of “A Public
Trust at Risk: A Report of the Heritage Health Index,”
a study conducted by Heritage Preservation in partnership
with IMLS that identified severe inadequacies in current
collections care practices and outlined steps to help
remedy the problem.
Dr. Radice outlined three components of
the new IMLS initiative:
- A national conservation summit to be held in Washington,
DC June 2007 followed by regional summits which will
begin in the fall of 2007 and continue through the fall
of 2008.
- A “conservation bookshelf” that will comprise
core texts in collections care and be made available
to all summit participants and, through a streamlined
competitive process, be distributed annually.
- $500,000 in grants to create statewide plans to address
the issues raised in the Heritage Health Index.
Click
here to view the full text of Dr. Radice’s keynote
address.
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