ABOUT THIS PROJECT

Funding

     The University of the Virgin Islands (UVI) in partnership with Virgin Islands Division of Libraries Archives & Museums (DLAM), was awarded a National Leadership Grant for digitization from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). The award of $221,629 was given for the purpose of digitizing Virgin Islands material in areas of biography, education, history, and culture.

     National Leadership Grants for Preservation and Digitization help preserve or digitize important library materials. National Leadership Grant projects provide creative solutions to issues of national importance and provide leadership for other organizations to emulate. IMLS is a federal grant-making agency located in Washington, D.C. that fosters leadership, innovation and a lifetime of learning by supporting museums and libraries


Collection

     The digitized collection consists of funeral booklets, occasional papers, Project Introspection material, newsprint, and photographic prints. The UVI and the DLAM libraries on St. Croix and St. Thomas hold the original documents of the following items.

1. Funeral/Memorial Booklets are generally 10-20 pages in length and contain genealogical and biographical information about the deceased.

2. Project Introspection resources were developed over the years 1965-1972 by the Virgin Islands Department of Education to document social life and customs of Virgin Islanders. The goals were to discover and reproduce material for instruction in and to effectively disseminate this material to the schools.

3. Newspaper articles identified include biographies and articles on social, ecological and historical issues written by Olasee Davis, ecologist and columnist.

4. Photographs documenting Virgin Islands history and culture.

5. Research Reports and Occasional Papers are produced by UVI's Agricultural Research and Cooperative Extension components. These documents detail research findings and home economics practices suited for the Caribbean region.

Copyright

     Copyright permissions for funeral booklets were solicited through press releases, interviews and direct contact at community functions. Signed permissions are kept at the Enid M. Baa Public Library on St. Thomas. The occasional papers are published by UVI and DLAM and are either in the public domain or copyrighted by the participating agencies. These documents are in the public domain. Newsprint consists of articles written by local news Columnist, Olasee Davis. The author has granted UVI permission to digitize these documents.