BLOOMINGTON, Ill.— The Ames Library at Illinois Wesleyan University has been awarded two grants to further resources for digital collections.
Assessment Grant
A $3,000 Library Services and Technology Act grant from the state of Illinois will help develop an assessment tool to measure the effectiveness of digital collections.
Stephanie Davis-Kahl, digital and media initiatives librarian for The Ames Library, will use funds from the grant to research, create and implement surveys to help measure how much students use and learn from the Swahili Expressive Arts Collection, gathered by Rebecca Gearhart, IWU associate professor of anthropology. Davis-Kahl will then use the survey as a model to assess the value of other digital collections to IWU academic departments and patrons.
Sharing Resources
Eight libraries across the state, including Illinois Wesleyan, will use a grant from the Consortium of Academic & Research Libraries in Illinois to expand and share collections.
The libraries, which include The Ames Library, received a total of $27,500 to help build and maintain monographs, DVDs and other materials that speak about the needs of the planet, and human impact in the natural world. Individual libraries will concentrate on areas such as urban ecology, nanotechnology and molecular microbiology. The libraries will make the materials available to students and faculty across the state. The Ames Library will receive $3,000 to expand collections on neurobiology.