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[padg] NEH Budget News
See below for news from NEH, including their FY09 budget allocation. $16
million for Preservation and Access, a decrease of $2.4 million from
FY08.
Jacob Nadal
Preservation Officer, UCLA Library
jnadal@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx | (310) 794-9352
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NEH RECEIVES $10 MILLION INCREASE IN FY09 HOUSE OMNIBUS
House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey (D/WI) introduced a
Fiscal Year 2009 omnibus spending package (HR 1105) yesterday afternoon
that would complete work on nine appropriations bills left unfinished by
the last Congress over threats of a veto by President Bush. The Omnibus
bill sets overall FY09 funding for the National Endowment for the
Humanities (NEH) at $155 million. This constitutes about a $10 million
increase over the previous fiscal year and the Bush administration's
budget request.
If enacted, the omnibus package will finalize spending levels for the
current fiscal year that began on October 1, 2008. Most federal
programs have been operating at the previous year's levels under a
continuing resolution that will end on March 6, 2009. The Omnibus
would provide an 8% increase (about $31 billion) over FY08 levels for
the nine spending bills. President Obama is expected to send Congress a
preliminary budget outline for Fiscal Year 2010 this Thursday. A
breakout of FY09 NEH funds by program is provided below.
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HOUSE OMNIBUS BILL (H.R. 1105)
FY09 NEH Funding by Program (omnibus vs. FY08 enacted) In Millions
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$35.0 - Federal/State partnership (+3.3)
$16.0 - Preservation and access (-2.4)
$14.5 - Public programs (+1.8)
$14.5 - Research programs (+1.5)
$14.5 - Education programs (+1.9)
$0.4 - Program development (+0.04)
$15.8 - We The People Initiative grants (+0.8)
$4.0 - Digital Humanities Initiatives (+2.0)
$5.0 - Treasury funds (+0.05)
$9.3 - Challenge grants (-0.03)
$129.0 - Subtotal, Program Funds (+9.0)
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$26.0 - Administration (+1.3)
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$155.0 - Total, Humanities (+10.3)
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CAROLE WATSON APPOINTED NEH ACTING CHAIR
Shortly following the Inauguration, President Barack Obama appointed
Carole M. Watson, Assistant Chairman for Partnership and National
Affairs, as the Acting Chairman of the National Endowment for the
Humanities (NEH). Watson will serve as acting chairman until the
presidential nomination and Senate confirmation of the agency's next
chairman.
According to the agency announcement released on February 10, Watson has
served the Endowment in a number of leadership roles. As Assistant
Chairman for Partnership and National Affairs at NEH, Watson oversaw the
Endowment's liaison with the National Council on the Humanities, the
Federal/State Partnership, the President's Committee on the Arts and the
Humanities (PCAH), the National Trust for the Humanities, and other
institutions and organizations important to NEH.
She served as NEH Deputy Chairman and as Interim Executive Director of
the PCAH from February to December 2001. Before joining the NEH
Chairman's staff in 1995, she directed the Endowment's Division of State
Programs (now the Office of Federal/State Partnership) and the Office of
Outreach.
Prior to her tenure at NEH, Watson directed Inter-cultural programs at
the Lindenwood Colleges in Saint Charles, Mo., and was founding English
department chairman of the Abraham Lincoln Opportunity School in St.
Louis, Mo.
Watson is a recipient of Blewett and Ford Foundation fellowships and in
1991 became a fellow of the Council for Excellence in Government.
She received her M.A. degree in English and American literature from St.
Louis University, St. Louis, Mo., and her doctoral degree in American
cultural history from George Washington University in Washington, D.C.
Watson is the author of Prologue (Greenwood Press, l985), a study of the
novels written by African American women between
l859 and 1965.
REP. THOMAS PETRI TO CO-CHAIR CONGRESSIONAL HUMANITIES CAUCUS
Congressman Thomas Petri (R/WI/6) has agreed to serve as the Republican
co-chair of the Congressional Humanities Caucus in the 111th Congress.
The Caucus is chaired by Democrat David Price (D/NC/ 4), who has served
as co-chair of the Caucus since it was founded in 2004 by former
Congressman James Leach (R/IA). The Caucus is a bipartisan organization
in the House of Representatives dedicated to increasing support for and
understanding of the humanities within Congress. The immediate past
co-chair is former Congressman Phil English (R/PA), who was defeated in
the 2008 elections.
Upon taking his new leadership role on the caucus, Congressman Petri
commented on the value of the humanities. He said, "To preserve and
build on America's traditions and principles, policy makers, economists,
teachers and citizens in all walks of life simply must have a firm
understanding of our unique history, culture and heritage. I look
forward to working with Congressman David Price in the 111th Congress to
raise the profile and garner support for federal humanities programs."
Congressman Petri has represented Wisconsin's 6th district since 1979.
Petri is a member of the House Committee on Education and Labor, and a
former Vice Chairman of the (formerly named) House Committee on
Education and the Workforce. He is the Ranking Republican on the
Aviation Subcommittee of the House Transportation and Infrastructure
Committee. Petri received undergraduate and law degrees from Harvard.
He served in the Peace Corps and in the White House focusing on
anti-drug efforts.
NHA 2009 CONFERENCE & HUMANITIES ADVOCACY DAY UPDATE
The National Humanities Alliance's 2009 Conference and Humanities
Advocacy Day on March 10-11 is fast approaching! Humanities Advocacy
Day will take place over two days at The George Washington University's
Marvin Center and on Capitol Hill. The events provide an opportunity for
the entire humanities community to convene, meet with their elected
officials, and express the importance of federal support for the
humanities. The National Humanities Alliance, the only organization that
represents the US humanities community as a whole, organizes this event
for higher education leaders, college and university faculty, teachers,
students, librarians, archivists, curators, and independent scholars.
They advocate for federal support of humanities research, education,
preservation, and public programs through the National Endowment for the
Humanities and other federal agencies.
Highlights of this year's event include a luncheon keynote address by
Steven Knapp, President of The George Washington University, and a
Congressional Reception sponsored by History. Special guests invited to
give remarks at the reception include: Rep. David Price (Chair,
Congressional Humanities Caucus), Rep. Thomas Petri (Co- Chair,
Congressional Humanities Caucus), Carole Watson (Acting Chair, National
Endowment for the Humanities), and Bob Berdahl (President, Association
of American Universities).
Updated program information on all conference and advocacy day
activities is available at:
http://www.nhalliance.org/events/2009-conference/index.shtml
The 2009 Sourcebook for participants is now online at:
http://www.nhalliance.org/events/2009-conference/sourcebook/humanities-a
dvocacy-day-2008-sourcebook-2.shtml
MUSEUMS & STATE HUMANITIES COUNCILS TO HOST UPCOMING ADVOCACY EVENTS
MUSEUMS ADVOCACY DAY - This week (February 23-24), the American
Association of Museums is hosting its first-ever "Museums Advocacy Day",
an event organized for the museum community to convey the value of
museums to Capitol Hill, and to advocate for policy issues that affect
the museum field. Advocates will be briefed on a variety of issues
including: federal funding for agencies that support museums,
reauthorization of the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS),
education policy (including the impact of No Child Left Behind on
museums), nonprofit tax-exempt status, intellectual property, charitable
giving, historical preservation and repatriation among
others. Additional information is available at:
http://www.speakupformuseums.org/MuseumAdvocacyDay.htm
HUMANITIES ON THE HILL - On March 2-3, the Federation of State
Humanities Councils will host "Humanities on the Hill," and annual event
begun more than twenty years ago to promote understanding of the work of
the 56 state humanities councils. Humanities on the Hill brings
representatives from each state council to Washington to share their
successes with each other and to visit their elected officials to remind
them of the impact of the NEH at the state and local levels and to thank
them for their support. Additional information is available at:
http://www.statehumanities.org/programs/hoh.htm.
IMLS ANNOUNCES AWARD OF 23 CONNECTING TO COLLECTIONS: STATEWIDE PLANNING
GRANTS
The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) recently awarded
23 Connecting to Collections: Statewide Planning Grants that will be
used to create statewide conservation plans for collections held in
libraries, museums, and archives. This is the second year IMLS has
awarded Statewide Planning Grants, an important component of the IMLS
initiative, Connecting to Collections: A Call to Action. IMLS launched
the initiative in response to the 2005 Heritage Health Index report on
the dire state of the nation's collections. According to the report by
Heritage Preservation, approximately 190 million objects could be lost
in just a few years without immediate attention. The report also found
that 65 percent of collecting institutions report damage to collections
due to improper storage and 80 percent did not have an emergency plan
for their collections or trained staff to carry it out. A complete list
of the 23 grantees is available at:
http://www.imls.gov/news/2009/021909_list.shtm
NEH DIGITAL HUMANITIES PROJECTS - MARCH/APRIL APPLICATION DEADLINES
JISC/NEH Digitization Grants - the deadline to apply is March 26, 2009.
This program, a partnership with the Joint Information Systems Committee
in the U.K., supports collaborations between U.S. and English
institutions who are working to digitize or enable scholarly access to
important humanities collections. This program is co- sponsored by the
NEH's Division of Preservation & Access and the Office of Digital
Humanities.
Digital Humanities Start-Up Grants - the deadline to apply is April 8,
2009. This program, which is a partnership with the Institute of Museum
and Library Services, supports the early research and planning stages
for innovative digital projects in all areas of the humanities.
Deadline for the Digging into Data Challenge - letters of intent are due
March 15, 2009. Final applications are due July 15, 2009. This program
is an international grant competition sponsored jointly by the Joint
Information Systems Committee (JISC) from the United Kingdom, the
National Endowment for the Humanities
(NEH) from the United States, the National Science Foundation (NSF) from
the United States, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research
Council (SSHRC) from Canada. "The idea behind the Digging into Data
Challenge is to answer the question "what do you do with a million
books?" Or a million pages of newspaper? Or a million photographs of
artwork? That is, how does the notion of scale affect humanities and
social science research? Now that scholars have access to huge
repositories of digitized data -- far more than they could read in a
lifetime -- what does that mean for research?"
For more information, go to the NEH Office of Digital Humanities web
site, http://www.neh.gov/odh/.
NEH SUMMER PROGRAMS - MARCH APPLICATION DEADLINES
American colleges, universities, associations, libraries, museums, and
other non-profit organizations are encouraged to apply to the National
Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to conduct summer programs for school
teachers and higher education faculty.
Each year the NEH supports a series of rigorous, national, and
residential Summer Seminars and Institutes and Landmarks of American
History and Culture Workshops located in the United States and abroad.
Program participants receive stipends to help defray travel and living
expenses.
NEH summer programs are directed by outstanding humanities scholars,
experts in their academic fields who develop the intellectual and
teaching content of the projects. Host institutions administer the
projects, provide meeting facilities and library resources, and make
housing arrangements for the participants. Many projects, particularly
among the Landmarks Workshops, involve collaborations between academic
institutions and historic and cultural sites.
Grants range from $60,000 to $140,000 for Seminars, $80,000 to
$200,000 for Institutes, and up to $160,000 for Landmarks Workshops.
Project directors receive a percentage of their academic year salary
based on the length of the summer program.
Application Deadlines for Summer Seminars and Institutes:
o March 3, 2009 (for summer 2010)
o March 2, 2010 (for summer 2011)
Application deadlines for Landmarks of American History and Culture
Workshops:
o March 17, 2009 (for summer 2010)
o March 16, 2010 (for summer 2011)
For the application instructions and to view samples of successful
proposals see:
o Seminars and Institutes:
http://www.neh.gov/grants/guidelines/seminars.html
o School Teacher Landmarks:
http://www.neh.gov/grants/guidelines/landmarks.html
o Community College Landmarks:
http://www.neh.gov/grants/guidelines/landmarkscc.html