New York State Librarian and Assistant Commissioner for Libraries Janet M. Welch recently announced three grants totaling more than $390,000 to Cornell University Library for cooperation in preserving endangered research materials.

These competitive grants are part of the Coordinated Preservation Program, enacted in 1984. They provide funds for cooperative activities among 11 comprehensive research libraries designated in education law: Columbia University; Cornell University; the Research Libraries of the New York Public Library; the SUNY centers at Albany, Binghamton, Buffalo and Stony Brook; New York State Library; New York University; Syracuse University; and the University of Rochester.

This program enables libraries to preserve important research materials for the benefit of scholars and citizens of New York state. In addition to helping libraries preserve irreplaceable books, maps, photographs, architectural drawings and archives, the program has supported internships, workshops, consultations and seminars that have expanded the preservation knowledge base throughout the state.

"Whether they are used to preserve historic materials or to support training and other programs, these grants open windows to our past by helping to conserve important materials that would otherwise be lost to researchers," Welch said.

Over the past five years, Cornell University Library has sponsored 11 such grant-funded projects to preserve material in New York's libraries. The current three projects, described below, are to be conducted over the next three years under the leadership of staff in Cornell Library's Department of Preservation and Conservation:

Central New York Technician Training Program -- $93,676 for a three-year program, John Dean, project director. This grant provides funds for conservation staff in the Cornell Library to collaborate with Syracuse University, the University of Rochester and SUNY Binghamton to provide eight libraries in the Central New York region with training in standard preservation techniques. Eight individuals will receive a total of six weeks of conservation training at Cornell, followed up by site visits by Cornell staff to each of the participating libraries.

Microfilming of Medical Archives in New York state -- $135,405 for a two-year project, Barbara Berger , project director. Cornell Library, Columbia University Library and New York University will preserve 200,000 pages of scholarly materials from the medical archives at each institution through preservation microfilming. Topics covered in these materials include medical history casebooks, the anti-vivisection movement at the turn of the century and medicine during World War I.

Preserving the Heritage of New York/Northeast Agriculture, Natural History and Natural Resources -- $161,156 for a three-year project, Joy Paulson, project director. Brittle materials on agriculture and rural life in New York state and the natural history, environment, and natural resources of the Northeast bio-region (New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New England, Quebec, and Ontario) will be reformatted onto preservation microfilm. A total of 1,750 volumes and 1,500 titles from the collections of Cornell's Albert R. Mann Library, The New York Public Library and the New York State Library will be preserved.

For more information about these projects, contact John Dean, director of Cornell University Library's Department of Preservation and Conservation, (607) 255-9687, jfd5@cornell.edu.