U.S. Senators Olympia J. Snowe and Susan Collins today announced that the Maine Historical Society will has been awarded a National Leadership Grant in the amount of $852,058 from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS).
Maine Historical Society, in partnership with the Maine State Library, will coordinate local teams from each county in Maine. These 16 teams will develop a statewide Community Heritage Project that will create content-rich Web sites for the Maine Memory Network (see
www.mainememory.net). Librarians, museum professionals, teachers, and students will work together to provide local history resources for broader user access. The grant recipient is providing matching funds in the amount of $858,888.
“The Maine Memory Network has helped open the door to Maine’s past by linking smaller historical societies into a larger, online, network therefore creating a rich database of historical information that can be shared with the world,” said Senators Snowe and Collins. “We are pleased that this funding will help the Network continue its important mission.”
Institutions selected by the Institute of Museum and Library Services to receive National Leadership Grants have shown that their projects will have national impact and generate results that can be widely replicated, extending the benefit of this federal support. This year IMLS received 213 applications for National Leadership Grants seeking more than $78 million, far in excess of what was available. Forty-three projects were chosen for funding with a total of $18,661,716. Because institutions receiving grants are generally required to provide matching funds, National Leadership Grants are leveraging an additional $24 million in non-federal spending this year.
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