Opportunities for Museums, Libraries, Teachers

Exhibit on the African American Baseball Experience - For Libraries - April 4 Deadline

"Pride and Passion: The African American Baseball Experience" is a traveling exhibition telling the story of black baseball players in the U.S. over the past century and a half. It requires 1,000 square feet of display area. If you have that kind of space, read on!

Successful applicants will host the exhibit for six weeks and receive a $2,500 grant from NEH for attendance at an exhibit planning workshop and other exhibit-related expenses. The exhibit will tour the U.S. from November 2008 through November 2012. Participating libraries are expected to present at least two free public programs featuring a lecture or discussion by a qualified scholar on exhibition themes. All showings of the exhibition must be free and open to the public."Pride and Passion" is based upon a permanent exhibition of the same name on display at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, Cooperstown, N.Y. The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) provided major funding to the American Library Association for the traveling exhibition.

Baseball is one of America's central institutions, and it has long reflected the complicated and painful history of race in the United States. The story of African Americans in baseball is a remarkable and fascinating slice of American history, displaying the failures of the greater American society in solving the racial problems resulting from slavery, the Civil War and the confusion of Reconstruction. Through a cultural timeline of American history embedded in the exhibit, visitors will be able to place the African American baseball story into the larger context of American history.Librarians applying to host "Pride and Passion" in their public, academic or special library must register their institution at Grants.gov. Prospective applicants are advised to register with Grants.gov as soon as possible, as the process can take up to two weeks to complete. The application and guidelines for "Pride and Passion" and complete instructions for registering and applying through Grants.gov may be found at NEH. Online applications must be completed by April 4, 2008. This is an NEH grant program; applications may not be submitted through ALA.

Exhibit on John Adams's Personal Library - For Libraries - April 4 Deadline

"John Adams Unbound" is a traveling exhibition based upon a larger exhibition of the same name recently on display at the Boston Public Library. It requires 1,000 square feet of display space.

The exhibit explores Adams' personal library - a collection of 3,500 books willed by Adams to the people of Massachusetts and deposited in the Boston Public Library in 1894. This remarkable collection of books provides first-hand insight into how John Adams shaped American history, and how he was shaped through his lifelong dedication to reading and books. Through photo-reproductions of these annotated volumes, viewers will witness one of our Founding Fathers wrestling with intellectual and political ideas at every stage in his long life - as a boy, university student, Boston lawyer, revolutionary, diplomat, President and citizen of the early American republic.

Successful applicants will host the 1,000 square foot exhibit for six weeks and receive a $2,500 grant from NEH for attendance at an exhibit planning workshop and other exhibit-related expenses. The exhibit will tour from November 2008 through November 2012. Participating libraries are expected to present at least two free public programs featuring a lecture or discussion by a qualified scholar on exhibition themes. All showings of the exhibition must be free and open to the public.Librarians applying to host "John Adams Unbound" in their public, academic or special library must register their institution at www.grants.gov. Prospective applicants are advised to register with www.grants.gov as soon as possible, as the process can take up to two weeks to complete. The application and guidelines for "John Adams Unbound" and complete instructions for registering and applying through Grants.gov may be found at NEH. online applications must be completed by April 4, 2008. This is an NEH grant program; applications may not be submitted through ALA.

Interactive Distance Learning at the National Archives in K.C.

The National Archives is demonstrating a very creative outreach technique in a new interactive Distance Learning program. What they're doing can be adapted as a technique by certain Libraries and Historical Societies, I am sure.

How Museums Use Media

More and more large museums are developing multiple "portals" for audiences to participate. Web sites have evolved from passive experiences to active ones. They used to be like brochures. Now they are like communities. There is a fascinating "gallery" of such museums at MuseumPods.com. You can click a link to the home page of numerous places around the world and see how they use media. These techniques are trickling down to county and local museums in Missouri. The Border War Network keeps adding content to its gallery of Civil War podcasts. This is what needs to happen more widely. You can't make a great podcast until you've learned how to make a good one. That's what is happening in western Missouri and eastern Kansas right now.

Conferences can be podcast, too. Here is a note from our friend, Liz Sinclair, at the Maine Humanities Council about program content on Literature and Medicine. She wrote,

Great News! As you know, we recently gathered many leaders in the Literature & Medicine movement together at the Maine Humanities Council’s national Literature & Medicine conference, Caring for the Caregiver: Perspectives on Literature and Medicine. Now you can now listen to some of the keynote talks and workshops at your leisure! All you need to so is go to our website ( http://mainehumanities.org/index.php ) and click on the link for podcasts. Podcasts are easy to access and can be listened to on your computer or through an Ipod or MP3 player. We have instructions on how to do this that make it very easy! http://mainehumanities.org/podcasts/faq.html.Once you have listened to Rita Charon, Veneta Masson, Rafael Campo, and Judy Schaeffer, you can browse through the other, non-Lit & Med podcasts- you’ll find talks by Maine authors, talks from other MHC programs, and MUCH MORE!

Enjoy!
Lizz