Eight projects receive Library Collections Enhancement Initiative awards

The Library Collections Enhancement Initiative, funded by nearly $100,000 from the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Education, strengthens campus research capacities by providing University of Wisconsin–Madison libraries with flexibility to address critical and emerging collections needs.

The second round of funded projects range from South Asian film and media to Chinese local gazetteers, critical editions of major French and Italian works from the Middle Ages through the 20th century, and German-language works published by or about the Pennsylvania Dutch.

Awardees are chosen by the OVCRGE and are funded for one-time purchases of library titles focused on a specific research area. This initiative is also supported by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation.

“Proposals funded this year build on strengths in our staff, faculty and library collections and, in several cases, reflect recent campus investments in faculty hires and research support for graduate students and faculty,” says Florence Hsia, associate vice chancellor for research in the arts and humanities. “This is precisely the kind of strategic approach to building research capacity that the Library Collections Enhancement Initiative was meant to foster.”

Each proposal in the Library Collections Enhancement Initiative must be led by at least one faculty member in partnership with at least one librarian with relevant subject expertise.

“This initiative recognizes and encourages partnerships between faculty and librarians to identify distinctive resources that are needed for innovative and emerging research now and into the future,” says Lisa Carter, vice provost for libraries and university librarian. “These additions to our amazing research collections enhance the libraries’ goals to advance discovery, empower scholarship, and increase  knowledge-sharing in support of all that happens at this world-class university.”

Twelve projects were funded in the pilot round of the initiative, bringing to 20 the total funded projects to enhance library collections in the past two years.

The eight new projects are:

• “South Asian Non-Violence and Religion Collections,” Mou Banerjee, Principal Investigator and Assistant Professor of History; and Todd Michelson-Ambelang, Co-Principal Investigator and Senior Librarian for South Asian Studies, Memorial Library
• “Early Modern Resources at UW–Madison,” Elizabeth Bearden, Principal Investigator and Professor of English; and Nina Clements, Co-Principal Investigator and English Humanities Librarian, Memorial Library
• “Collection Development of Digitized Chinese Local Gazetteers,” Joseph Dennis, Principal Investigator and Associate Professor of History; and Anlin Yang, Co-Principal Investigator and East Asian Studies Librarian, Memorial Library
• “Social Justice in Southeast Asia: Primary and Secondary Source Collection Development,” Tyrell Haberkorn, Principal Investigator and Professor of Asian Languages and Cultures; and Larry Ashmun, Co-Principal Investigator and Southeast Asian and Hmong Studies Librarian, Memorial Library
• “North American Print Culture in the German Language: Growing the Collections of the Max Kade Institute at UW–Madison,” Mark Louden, Principal Investigator, Professor of Germanic Linguistics, and Director of the Max Kade Institute for German-American Studies; and Kevin Kurdylo, Co-Principal Investigator and German Language Humanities Librarian, Memorial Library
• “South Asian Film and Media Collection,” Darshana Sreedhar Mini, Principal Investigator and Assistant Professor of Communication Arts; and Todd Michelson-Ambelang, Co-Principal Investigator and Senior Librarian for South Asian Studies, Memorial Library
• “Strengthening Psychedelic Collections: From Classic to Underrepresented Resources,” Lucas Richert, Principal Investigator and Associate Professor of Pharmacy; and Micaela Sullivan-Fowler, Co-Principal Investigator and Curator/History of Health Sciences Librarian, Ebling Library for the Health Sciences
• “Critical Editions/Additions for the French and Italian Collections, 12th to 20th Centuries,” Anne Vila, Principal Investigator and Professor of French; and Laura Martin, Co-Principal Investigator and Ibero-American Studies and Romance Languages Librarian, Memorial Library

Learn more about the projects