Proposed Projects

This page includes projects in various stages of conception, from formal proposals that have been submitted to funding agencies to ideas for digital projects that have been proposed by Library staff, University faculty and staff, or colleagues at other institutions and which the Library has an interest in exploring further, dependent on available funding and staffing.

Current Project Proposals

Goodspeed Manuscript Project

The Library is submitting a grant to IMLS under their Building Digital Resources track to convert the entire Goodspeed Manuscript Collection into digital form. The project's goal is to build a resource that can be used for teaching and research and which provides a model for converting and providing access to manuscripts.

CUIP/CPS Portal Project

The Library is a partner in a grant being submitted by the Chicago Public School/University of Chicago Internet Project (CUIP) to collaboratively design a program that will provide the infrastructure and resources necessary to increase the educational value of the local school library program within CPS. The project will develop an infrastructure that supports local school librarians by improving communication with all of the community members vested in improving the ability of the school library program to meet its educational goals including students, local and district-wide educators, parents, CPS administrators, and community partners, and and will improve the educational environment through the creation physical and virtual delivery mechanisms for library resources that support the educational goals of the local school library and CPS at large.

Advanced Papyrological Information System (APIS)

The Library is participating in an NEH proposal for continued funding of the APIS project (Advanced Papyrological Information System http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/projects/digital/apis/). The Oriental Institute is a subcontractor on the grant, which is managed by Michigan; funding for Library work is part of the OI request. The proposal will be submitted on July 1, 2004. The Library is scanning the 114 papyri in the its collection as part of the Goodspeed Manuscript Project; the project plan for the APIS grant is as follows: the Library will provide image scans and basic identifying metadata to the OI of its papyri; rehousing/conservation of the Library's collection costs (by an outside vendor or performed in-house, to be determined)will be included in the budget; the OI will be responsible for providing detailed descriptive information to APIS.

Under Exploration

Mezzoamerican Archive

Proposal to establish an archive of materials relating to the study of indigenous literature from communities in Mesoamerica as part of a larger Title VI grant proposal by the Center for Latin American Studies. Materials would include both print and multimedia. Potentially, a local catalog would be developed for the collection. The archive would support both research and language instruction.

Ethnomusicology Archive

Proposal by Music Department Faculty to establish an archive of ethnomusicology multimedia materials, including music, oral histories, and other products of field work.