Cultural Heritage Program Grant

By Emmy MacLeod

Cultural heritage is often defined through the lens of individual experiences and views. A prestigious research grant may enable School of Library and Information Science (SLIS) to clarify and refine the definition.

The Institute of Museum and Library Services recently awarded the Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program Grant to SLIS. The $857,489 grant will help advance cultural heritage research and sustainability around campus, and also provides direct funding for seven new doctoral students. The doctoral students will enter the Cultural Heritage Informatics Leadership (CHIL) Program, and each will have a chance to explore and define cultural heritage.

“We looked for students with experience or interests related to cultural institutions and their potential to bring the resources of these institutions to a wider audience, using information technology and knowledge of communication processes,” explains Dr. Jennifer Arns, chair of the SLIS doctoral program.
The incoming doctoral students who earned the fellowships were selected because of their innate interest and passion for preserving cultural heritage and their potential ability to successfully sustain and disseminate cultural heritage ideas and artifacts throughout the community.

They already are working to define cultural heritage. JK Alston defines it as “the state of being born not just with an ethnic and sexual designation and identity, but with an actual cultural identity.” He explains, “Being born African-American as I was, is not just being born as a member of the negroid race, but being born sharing a common historical struggle and certain bonds with others who identify themselves in this fashion.”
Preserving cultural heritage by rendering it in digital form, then providing the information to the public, is a crucial part of the doctoral program. The students will work with Arius3D, a $1 million digital 3D scanner, and collaborate with Jill Koverman, curator of collections for the McKissick Museum, to build a 3D Image Library for education and research. The project will begin with the museum’s existing Catawba pottery collection.

Liya Deng, another incoming Fall 2011 doctoral student, was attracted to the program variety. Deng says, “ I like that the curriculum includes courses from library science, museums and archives, mass communications and business administration. I feel that this diversity of courses will widen my skill sets in various areas of knowledge.”

Students will take a full load of classes during the first two years of the program. During their third year, they will be placed at institutions to gain full fieldwork experience related to their specific areas of focus. In the fourth year, students will have the option of completing individual dissertations while in the field, or working as SLIS teaching assistants. Only a handful of other institutions have programs directly focused on cultural heritage.

Dr. Arns says, “The fellowships are intended to prepare a cohort of scholars and leaders who can use their training to effect major changes in the learning environments that characterize American communities.” The intersection of cultural heritage artifacts and ideas exposes the doctoral students to a wide variety of experience in this unique program.