Kent State University Libraries’ May 4, 1970 Collection has been selected by the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) to benefit from a $30,561 award through the Recordings at Risk grant program, generously funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

CLIR’s Recording at Risk program supports the preservation of rare and unique audio and audiovisual content of scholarly value. The May 4 Collection, which includes more than 300 cubic feet of primary sources related to the Kent State shootings and aftermath, is currently supporting over 20 major projects related to the upcoming 50th anniversary of the shootings and is one of the most heavily used archives in the Libraries’ department of Special Collections and Archives.

The grant, Commissions, Committees and Commemorations: Preserving Audio and Audiovisual Responses to the Kent State Shootings, will allow Kent State University Libraries to preserve and provide access to hundreds of audio and audiovisual recordings generated by the historic event. The grant will support the following major projects: preparing materials for digitization by vendor; completing quality assurance; reviewing materials for copyright and privacy concerns; creating individual metadata records for each item; ingesting digitized content into the digital repository. These projects will be coordinated by Virginia Dressler, digital projects librarian, and Haley Antell, digital initiatives and outreach librarian.

Visit www.library.kent.edu/May4 to view the digitized May 4 Collection and learn more about the Kent State shootings.

For more information on plans for the 50th commemoration of May 4, visit www.kent.edu/may4kentstate50.

The Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) is an independent, nonprofit organization that forges strategies to enhance research, teaching, and learning environments in collaboration with libraries, cultural institutions, and communities of higher learning. To learn more, visit www.clir.org.