NEH Awards First JISC/NEH Transatlantic Digitization Collaboration Grants

http://www.neh.gov/news/archive/20080326.html

Funding supports five U.S. institutions working on shared projects with scholars in the U.K.

WASHINGTON (March 26, 2008)—Tuesday afternoon, the National Endowment for the Humanities’ (NEH) newly created Office of Digital Humanities announced the first JISC/NEH Transatlantic Digitization Collaboration Grant award recipients on behalf of the NEH and the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC). The announcement was made by NEH Chairman Bruce Cole during an event at the Folger Shakespeare Library. The Folger Shakespeare Library is one of five JISC/NEH grant recipients—it received funding for its project, “Shakespeare Quartos Archive,” in collaboration with the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. A total of five projects received over $600,000 in funding.

“The JISC/NEH grant program encourages international collaboration on humanities projects of value to scholars worldwide,” said NEH Chairman Cole. “Award recipients in the U.S. and U.K. are working together to create digital archives, centralize holdings, and develop tools to improve humanities research online. These projects embody the best of the digital humanities and advance the mission of the Endowment.”

Other JISC/NEH grant recipients include the Internet Archive in San Francisco, CA; New York University; the Thomas Jefferson Foundation in Charlottesville, VA; and Tufts University. Representatives from the Internet Archive, New York University, and Tufts University attended yesterday’s event, during which attendees were given the opportunity to look at a selection of Shakespeare quartos.