CONNECT . MOTIVATE . INSPIRE .
HARVARD UNIVERSITY INSTATES HBCU DIGITAL LIBRARY TRUST BY ASHLEIGH FIELDS
H arvard University is aiming to rectify its stark history and dark past as an innate beneficiary of the enslaved through the Harvard and the Legacy of Slave trade initiative announced by former president Larry Bacow in November of 2019. The school has pledged to support a wide range of projects that aim to research, report and repair racial injustices both past and present.
institution. The Alliance has worked to digitize archives which features the early history of school’s like Alabama State University, Meharry Medical College and Miles College among many more on their website. However, in partnership with Harvard they are working to propel the online collection through the joint project entitled the HBCU Digital Library Trust which will help fund and curate the digitization of HBCU archives across the country. “The HBCU libraries have deep connections to African American history and expertise in records that are incredibly important,” said Martha Whitehead,
Harvard Vice President for the Library and University Librarian. “This partnership will open and preserve access to many significant research collections held in HBCU libraries, while ensuring they retain ownership of the collections.
the inaugural program director of the HBCU Digital Library Trust, effective October 11, 2023. She has a distinct background as an archivist, formerly working as executive director of the Black Metropolis Research Consortium based at the University of Chicago Libraries, Head of Archives Research Center and Library Curator of Manuscripts and Archives at the Atlanta University Center Woodruff Library. As a graduate of Spelman College and member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., Gavin is ecstatic to step into this new role and help chronicle the success of HBCUs.
Students, scholars and researchers around the world will benefit from the preservation and digitization of these
materials. Harvard Library aspires to expand world knowledge and intellectual exploration, and we’re grateful that we can partner with the HBCU Library Alliance as they share and preserve their cultural resources and research.”
One of their newest programs divulges $6
million in support of the HBCU Library Alliance, a membership organization which serves a consortium of 105 HBCUs collaborating to preserve the collective legacy of each respective
Harvard recently selected Andrea Jackson Gavin as
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