Our project with Tom Davenport and friends, called Folkstreams.net, which will put some 50 documentary films on the net for viewing, was just funded by the Institute for Museum and Library Services. Tom and Lara Bailey really worked hard to make this grant happen. The write up of the awards this year from IMLS features Folkstreams.net as one of the exemplars — out of 44 grantees only 3 are mentioned in the write up. Only two North Carolina institutions were awarded Leadership grants this year and we are one of those two.

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, School of Information and Library Science – Chapel Hill, NC – $95,113

2004 National Leadership Grants for Libraries – Preservation or Digitization

The University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, School of Information and Library Science, in partnership with Folkstreams, Inc., and ibiblio.org, will digitize documentary films on American folk culture and provide global access to them on the Folkstreams.net Web site. The films will be transferred from 16 mm film to Digital Betacam and, along with the videotapes and digital copies, will be preserved in the Southern Folklife Collection. A multimedia Web site demonstration highlighting the skills required for transfers from 16 mm film to digital formats will be created.