CALS receives $500,000 grant from Mellon Foundation

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by Talk Business & Politics staff ([email protected]) April 10, 2024 9:02 am 216 views 

The Central Arkansas Library System (CALS) Foundation announced Wednesday (April 9) it received a grant of $500,000 from the Mellon Foundation’s Public Knowledge program.

The grant – one of the largest in CALS’s history – will build capacity for the library’s Memory Lab, which was established at CALS’s Roberts Library of Arkansas History & Art in May 2022 to give patrons the resources to digitize their family memories, including photographs, personal VHS/Beta video cassettes, and audio cassettes.

“I’m thrilled about this grant, which will allow us to expand our Memory Lab services and help more people organize and digitize their family photos, documents, and home movies,” said Heather Zbinden, Programs & Website Coordinator for the Roberts Library, who has led personal archiving programs at CALS since the launch of the library’s DIY Memory Lab. “Making personal archiving resources more accessible is an important part of preserving family history and Arkansas history.”

The grant will enable CALS to significantly expand the library’s personal archiving and digitization services. CALS will:

  • Hire a full-time Memory Lab Coordinator;
  • Expand the hours of the DIY Memory Lab at Roberts Library to include Saturday hours;
  • Expand the formats of media that can be digitized at the DIY Memory Lab;
  • Create micro memory labs at nine of CALS’s neighborhood branches; and
  • Extend outreach into Central Arkansas neighborhoods to share training and resources with community members so they may organize and digitize their own archives.

The grant will also fund the salary of the staff historian of the Encyclopedia of Arkansas and pay for website upgrades for digital collections from the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies.

In 2023, the Mellon Foundation launched an initiative to provide support for memory labs at public libraries. In addition to CALS, grantees include the Jacksonville Public Library (FL), the King County Library System (WA), the San Diego Public Library, and others.

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation is the nation’s largest supporter of the arts and humanities.