L.A. as Subject and USC Awarded Three Major Grants

L.A. as Subject is pleased to announce the following grant-funded projects in partnership with the University of Southern California:

L.A. as Subject Digital Residency and Training Program (2018-2021)
USC, in partnership with the Gerth Archives and Special Collections at California State University, Dominguez Hills and the Oviatt Library at California State University, Northridge, has been awarded an Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) grant through the Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program to provide training and mentoring in digital collections management to 150 staff and volunteers at 30 community archives in the L.A. as Subject research alliance. The grant creates three residency positions for recent MLIS graduates to consult with and train staff and volunteers. Residents, in turn, receive mentorship and training. Gerth Archives and Special Collections, Oviatt Library, and the USC Libraries will each host one, two year residency starting May of 2019. Press release

L.A. as Subject: The Southern California Community History Access Project (2018-2019)
USC, in partnership with L.A. as Subject, has been awarded a Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) Pitch-An-Idea grant from the California State Library to create an online platform for discovery of California Community histories. Built by USC Libraries, the platform will be accessible via the L.A. as Subject website, providing visibility and access to the holdings of 250-280 Southern California community archives. Features will include the ability to link to finding aids and digital images, the ability for archives to publish information about their collections and events, and support for user-generated content such as virtual galleries and blog entries. Information will be gathered from L.A. as Subject members and a dedicated Community Archivist will be hired to shepherd the features, functionality, and imple-mentation of the new platform. Press release

L.A. as Subject Community Histories Digitization Project (2018-2020)
USC has been awarded a two-year National Endowment for the Humanities grant to digitize a photographs, video recordings, letters, documents, and other materials documenting the histories of less-visible communities throughout the greater Los Angeles area. Over 17,000 items documenting underrepresented L.A. community histories will be freely available via the USC Digital Library and the Digital Public Library of America. Six L.A. as Subject member institutions will collaborate with USC to digitize their
materials: the Filipino American Library, the First African Methodist Episcopal Church of Los Angeles, the Go for Broke National Education Center, the Pasadena Museum of History, the Southern California Library, and the Workman and Temple Family Homestead Museum. Press release