A Preservation Assistance Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities offers promise for the future of the Library’s archives. The $6,000 award will underwrite a preservation survey of our Special Collections, which include the College archives and rare books collection, along with the archives of the West Michigan Conference of the United Methodist Church.

Archivist and special collections librarian Jennie Thomas explained that the grant will be applied towards a preservation consultant from the Northeast Document Conservation Center in Andover, Massachusetts, who will evaluate current environmental and storage conditions and any potential risks to the collections. “This is great timing,” said Thomas, “as we look towards renovating the library buildings.”