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In December 2006, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Library received a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to create a strategy for developing and sustaining the large-scale digitization of manuscript collections. The project will be based in the Louis Round Wilson Library, home to UNC-Chapel Hill’s special collections, and will focus on the opportunities and challenges presented by the prospect of digitizing the Southern Historical Collection, the largest assemblage of material about the American South anywhere in the world.
The project will include a detailed assessment of scholarly needs and interest in the digital publication of archival materials relating to Southern studies, an analysis of current trends in the technology and use of such materials, a workshop that brings together scholars, archivists, and librarians to develop priorities for designing such large-scale projects, and the creation and testing of a decision matrix for use in setting priorities as the Library evaluates major documentary collections for digitization. The results of the assessment and analysis will be sent to participants in advance of the workshop, and at project’s completion, the Library will publish a report on the findings.
Project work began in April 2007 and will be completed in spring 2009.