NCSU Libraries receives LSTA grant to continue digitization of agricultural documents

The NCSU Libraries has been awarded a $94,794 grant for the second year of the two-year digitization project “Better Living in North Carolina: Bringing Science and Technology to the People,” a collaboration with North Carolina A&T State University's library in Greensboro.

The “Better Living in North Carolina” project digitizes and provides online access to an important body of primary agricultural extension documents and media that reach back to the early 1900s. Ranging from reports and correspondence to photographs and scrapbooks, this wealth of source material reveals the scientific and technological transformation of North Carolina's agricultural economy during the twentieth century and the ways this transformation improved the lives of its citizens. Students, faculty, researchers, businesses, and the general public will now have access to these digitized resources.

NCSU Libraries’ Digital Program Librarian for Special Collections Brian Dietz and University Archivist Todd Kosmerick are the principal investigators for the “Better Living in North Carolina” project. James Stewart serves as Digital Project Librarian.

This 2016-2017 Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) Project Access and Digitization Grant award follows last year’s $98,997 award. The grant is made possible through funding from the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by the State Library of North Carolina--a division of the Department of Cultural Resources.

During the first year of the “Better Living in North Carolina” project, the NCSU Libraries digitized over 350,000 pages of Cooperative Extension annual reports from 1909 to 1983. NCA&T’s Bluford Library scanned roughly 3,500 pages of correspondence, pamphlets, and scrapbooks, as well as photographs, from collections of two prominent African American extension agents. This content will become accessible online gradually, beginning this summer.

In the second year of the collaborative project, approximately 375,000 pages will be digitized from microfilm, in addition to some 24,000 pages from physical reports. The two project libraries will also contact all agricultural extension offices in the state to make them aware of the project and the digital availability of these resources.

Overall, the project documents the development of modern agricultural practices in North Carolina and their economic impact across the state. Driven in part by work done at NC State University and NC A&T State University, farming in North Carolina moved from subsistence levels to the production of global commodities over the course of the twentieth century.

As this shift occurred, Cooperative Extension programs--based at NC State and NCA&T--helped North Carolina farmers and agricultural businesses learn and apply new research in the agricultural and life sciences. Specific programs have included 4-H, Family and Consumer Sciences (originally called Home Demonstration and Home Economics), various farm animal programs (such as poultry extension, swine extension, etc.), boll weevil eradication, soil conservation, rural electrification, plant disease clinics, rural development, and food and nutrition education. During the world wars, there was an emphasis on food production and preservation.

The LSTA grant program funds projects that help libraries deliver lifelong learning opportunities, support libraries in providing cost-effective access to the Internet and to information expertise, and make library resources more accessible to all users.

NCSU Libraries has received multiple LSTA digitization project grants—“Cultivating a Revolution: Science, Technology, and Change in North Carolina Agriculture, 1950-1979,” digitized 41,299 pages of archival documents, 2,741 photographs, and 161 videos and films and “Green ‘N' Growing,” documents the history of 4-H and home demonstration in North Carolina from the 1900s to the 1970s.

The IMLS is the primary source of federal support for the nation's 122,000 libraries and 17,500 museums. The Institute's mission is to create strong libraries and museums that connect people to information and ideas.

For a listing of all 2016-2017 LSTA grant awards, visit http://statelibrary.ncdcr.gov/ld/lsta-grants/previously-awarded-grants.