Digitization grants awarded for Washington Rural Heritage, 2015-2016

From the desk of Evan Robb Congratulations to the latest group of public libraries and heritage organizations recently awarded digitization grant through the Washington Rural Heritage program! Over the next year Washington State Library staff will be working with these organizations to digitize unique, historically significant materials held in their collections. Awardees will be trained in all aspects of digitization, and their collections will be publicly hosted and digitally preserved through the Washington Rural Heritage website and digital repository. The statewide digital collection currently provides access to photographs, documents, audio and video recordings, and digitized cultural objects from more than 100 Washington institutions. In addition, the project includes more than 300 family photo collections, making these previously inaccessible materials available freely to the public. Below are this year's grant recipients. To read about the details of each project, go to: http://www.sos.wa.gov/q/2015WRHAwards.

• $5,000 - Asotin County Library in partnership with the Asotin County Museum.
• $2,141 - Ellensburg Public Library.
• $4,259 - Kettle Falls Public Library, Libraries of Stevens County.
• $5,000 - La Conner Regional Library District, in partnership with the Museum of Northwest Art (MoNA) and Western Washington University Libraries, Special Collections.
• $5,000 - Port Angeles Public Library, North Olympic Library System, in partnership with the Clallam County Genealogical Society.
• $3,600 - Whitman County Library, in partnership with the Colfax Fire Department, Town of Farmington, and Washington State University Manuscripts, Archives & Special Collections.

To learn more about participating in Washington Rural Heritage, contact Evan Robb, Digital Repository Librarian at [email protected].

Washington Rural Heritage is supported with Library Services and Technology Act funding provided by the federal Institute for Museum and Library Services.