CLIR Receives NEH Grant for Openlab Workshop | PressReleasePoint

"The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has awarded the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) $49,962 in a cooperative agreement to support a two-day workshop in October dedicated to a promising new venture, Openlab. Openlab is envisioned as a solutions lab, convener, and consultancy designed to accelerate the speed and impact of transformational change in the gallery, library, archives, and museum (GLAM) sector. The workshop will be run in partnership with the American Alliance of Museums, American Library Association, Digital Public Library of America, and NEH Office of Digital Humanities and Division of Public Programs. Additional support will be forthcoming from the Digital Library Federation and other partners. Digital strategist and CLIR Distinguished Fellow Michael Peter Edson will lead and facilitate the workshop. Openlab is based on the premise that GLAMs have profound and important missions in society: to increase and disseminate knowledge, to encourage civic dialog and engagement, and to support individuals in their right to access and participate in culture. GLAMs are the conduits that enable the humanities to have an impact on millions of scholars, teachers, and the broader public every day.  But the relationship between GLAMs, the public, and the humanities has changed in the digital age. Technology provides GLAMs with new ways to dramatically increase the scale and impact of their work in the humanities. While some cutting-edge GLAMs are using technology to bring the humanities to large and diverse public audiences in highly engaging ways, many others do not possess the expertise, confidence, or capacity to fully leverage digital technologies. The Openlab concept is designed to address these challenges and spread the ideas and methods of large-scale public engagement with the humanities to as many institutions and individuals as possible ..."