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MIT Archives Participates In Directing National Fellowship Program

Ruth K. Seidman
Communications Coordinator, MIT Libraries
rks@mit.edu, 617-253-5686
August 31, 2001

The MIT Archives, in conjunction with Northeastern University, WGBH, the Schlesinger Library at Radcliffe Institute, and the Massachusetts Historical Society, has received a grant of $143,000 from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission to administer an archival research fellowship program.

The group administering the program will award up to five projects of $10,000 each, in June 2002 and June 2003, to enable fellows to conduct research and write about a topic of importance to the archival profession. Proposals concerning electronic records will be considered a higher priority than others. In June 2003 and June 2004, fellows will present their findings in Boston at a symposium which will be open to all who are interested in attending and will engage a broad spectrum of individuals from related disciplines in lively discussion

The project was conceived to advance both basic and applied research and to encourage broad participation in the research process, enabling archivists, curators, and information specialists who work full-time under a 12-month contract the flexibility to conduct research. As complex issues may benefit from teamwork, collaborative research projects will also be considered for funding. Candidates for the fellowships will be drawn from practitioners in the archival, manuscript, historical, library, records management, information science, and other information communities as well as from professions in related disciplines.

Megan Sniffin-Marinoff, Head of the Institute Archives and Special Collections, said: "Much of today’s research in the archives field is theoretical. Here we are looking for projects that will have a practical outcome. The diverse types of institutions represented in managing this grant will bring in expertise from multiple collections and types of material."

Project funding is to be administered by the Massachusetts Historical Society. Application materials are available at www.archivists.org or by contacting Brenda Lawson at the Massachusetts Historical Society, 1154 Boylston Street, Boston, MA, 02215 (phone: 617-646-0502/e-mail: blawson@masshist.org). The project Executive Board consists of Brenda Lawson (Massachusetts Historical Society), Megan Sniffin-Marinoff (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Joan Krizack (Northeastern University), Kathryn Jacob (Schlesinger Library/Radcliffe Institute), and Mary Ide (WGBH).