91´«Ã½

CHICAGO - The Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) has received a grant from the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation to provide digitized archives of Rare Books & Manuscripts Librarianship (RBML). The grant provides $3,000 in funding to assist in making volumes 1-12 of RBML, the predecessor of RBM: A Journal of Rare Books, Manuscripts, and Cultural Heritage, discoverable and available online through the HighWire Press platform, completing the publication’s online archive.

“I am thrilled that ACRL received this generous grant,” said RBM editor Beth Whittaker, head of the Spencer Research Library at the University of Kansas. “The RBM editorial board, along with 91´«Ã½ and ACRL, is indebted to the Delmas Foundation for choosing to fund this important project. We look forward to contributing the full archive of RBML to the online library literature.”



The 24 back issues will join volumes 13 and 14 of RBML and the full run of RBM online. Whittaker and the staff of the University of Kansas Libraries completed the scanning of the RBML back content over the past year.



“RBML and RBM are the two journals in which librarians and library school students can find many of the most important articles that have been written about rare books and special collections librarianship since 1986,” said Henry Raine, chair of ACRL’s Rare Books & Manuscripts Section (RBMS) and head of library technical services at the New York Historical Society. “Having the entire run of these publications freely available online will greatly facilitate additional scholarship in our field, and will be an invaluable resource for RBMS members and all others interested in rare books, manuscripts and special collections.”



“ACRL is very appreciative of the work of the RBM editorial board and the Rare Books & Manuscripts Section members in advancing this project,” said ACRL Executive Director Mary Ellen Davis. “ACRL is able to accomplish such a diverse range of projects thanks to the many talented members who so generously volunteer their time.”



Access to all content, with the exception of the two most current issues, will be freely available to all. Online access to the current two issues is available only to RBM subscribers. The full run of RBML is expected to be available in early 2011. The journals are available online at .



###



ACRL is a division of the 91´«Ã½ (91´«Ã½), representing more than 12,000 academic and research librarians and interested individuals. ACRL is the only individual membership organization in North America that develops programs, products and services to meet the unique needs of academic and research librarians. Its initiatives enable the higher education community to understand the role that academic libraries play in the teaching, learning and research environments. ACRL is on the Web at , Facebook at and Twitter at .



The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation is concerned generally with encouraging excellence in scholarship and the arts, and is particularly interested in wide access to research library collections, the quality of dance performance, and the study and performance of early music. The foundation reflects Gladys Krieble and Jean Paul Delmas’ devotion to New York City and Venice as well as recognizing and supporting the major interests of the donors' lives: the humanities, research libraries and the performing arts in New York City. The foundation is online at .