METRO is pleased to announce the recipients of funding from our 2021-2022 Equity in Action Grant Program. Each project focuses on themes of addressing systemic issues of racism and equity within the library system, uncovering histories of racialized communities, and providing access to previously unreported data. The grant period for this year’s projects spans from February through November 2022.

The METRO Equity in Action Grant program aims to support member institutions by providing funding that assists with new and ongoing efforts to preserve our cultural history. We endeavor to fund digital projects that focus on anti-racist practices and marginalized communities. Rooted in community and collaboration, this program encourages partnerships between organizations in order to cultivate a mutual knowledge exchange that empowers both parties and creates a pipeline for access.

Find out more about the program here: https://metro.org/grants/equity-in-action

"At METRO, we strive to address diversity, equity, and inclusion issues with all of our work. The many exciting proposals we received for the Equity in Action program indicate that this will be an important annual funding opportunity for our members for years to come," said Nate Hill, METRO’s Executive Director.

Find the grant recipients and project descriptions below:

The Asian American Arts Centre & Pratt Institute’s Semantic Lab

The Asian American Arts Centre in New York City (AAAC) and Pratt Institute’s Semantic Lab will work together to ensure continued online access to resources documenting AAAC’s work. The project team will digitize, describe through Wikidata records, and contribute AAAC’s full collection of approximately one hundred exhibition flyers to the open repository Wikimedia Commons. 

"Pratt Semantic Lab is thrilled to receive funding from METRO to partner with The Asian American Arts Centre and help preserve the digital archive of this important cultural grassroots organization. As we work to ensure the public access of this data for the future, we’re honored to help provide more visibility to Asian Americans and Asian American artists, especially in a time of increased discrimination and violence," said Cristina Pattueli, director of the Semantic Lab. 

CUNY Graduate Center & NYU Libraries

CUNY Graduate Center and NYU Libraries will join forces to create an oral history collection that documents the stories of individuals and groups who are engaged in developing and implementing alternative library classification schemes or controlled vocabularies. In addition to creating a fully transcribed and cataloged oral history collection, the project team will produce an audio piece that synthesizes their work and that can be shared with wider audiences through broadcast, exhibits, and conferences.

"I am humbled and honored by the opportunity to speak with the individuals and groups involved with this important work and to help create the collection. I hope our efforts will inspire new ways of collectively challenging oppressive systems in libraries and to cultivate greater support for groups who are engaged in this work," said Amanda Belantara, Instruction and Outreach Librarian at NYU.

Lesbian Herstory Archives & The LGBT Community Center National History Archives

The Lesbian Herstory Archives and the LGBT Community Center National History Archive will partner on a project to create a research guide to materials about Black Lesbians in each collection. The archive researcher entrusted with this task will survey, create metadata for, and digitize on an as-needed basis both organizations’ collections, which encompass a wide range of materials spanning the 1950s to the early 2000s. Materials to be processed include manuscripts, personal papers, correspondence, graphics, photographs, and ephemera from
both individuals and relevant organizations.

"This project will create a comprehensive online guide to materials by and about Black lesbians, collected by the Lesbian Herstory Archives and the LGBT Community Center National History Archives. The contents of these rich collections will reach a substantially broader audience by way of this information portal which will be linked to by the websites of both institutions," said Désirée Yael Vester (M.L.S), Caretaker, Librarian, and Archivist at Lesbian Herstory Archives. 

New York Public Radio

New York Public Radio will implement a Field Recording Cataloging Project to describe approximately 1,278 MiniDiscs. This cataloging project will assist in the preservation of field recordings made by WNYC reporters whose ‘beats’ focused on underserved communities, communities of color, the homeless, health, the environment, social services, the police, and the courts. 

"This funding for cataloging will be an enormous help to our overall digitization project, providing the public with important highlights from our field recordings while making our assets more readily discoverable to producers in this critical area of news coverage and storytelling," said Andy Lanset, Director of Archives at New York Public Radio.

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Contact:
Traci Mark, Program Manager - Equity, Archives & Media Preservation
Metropolitan New York Library Council (METRO)
tmark@metro.org