The HBCU Library Alliance cultivates partnerships with various institutions and organizations to collaborate on programs aimed at furthering the goals of our community.
If you’re interested in partnering with us, please contact us!
The HBCU Digital Library Trust is building capacity with Historically Black Colleges and Universities to digitally preserve and provide global access to their archival collections, sustain institutional, cultural, and community memory, and ensure stories are discovered, maintained, remembered and told. With a shared goal to deepen capacity and advance open, public access to African American archives and special collections, the HBCU Library Alliance and Harvard Library began partnering in 2023. With funds provided by the Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery Initiative, they developed the HBCU Digital Library Trust to expand existing services and business models to scale up and strengthen capacity for the digitization, discovery, and preservation of more HBCU collections. In addition to hosting the digital collection platform, Celebrating the Collections of Historically Black Colleges and Universities, the AUC Woodruff Library provides robust services for contributing HBCUs as a Digitization Hub.
The “Empowering HBCU Libraries with Civil Rights Preservation, Digital Innovation, and Transformative Professional Development” program will enable the HBCU Library Alliance to enhance the capabilities of HBCUs in preserving civil rights history and promoting digital literacy.
This initiative aims to empower HBCU libraries to serve as vital resources for their communities by focusing on three key areas:
In 2022, the HBCU Library Alliance was awarded a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to support new business model development through change capital funding. The grant was made possible through the Mellon Foundation’s Building Financial Resilience project led by the Nonprofit Finance Fund and months of training with a digital humanities cohort that analyzed their respective organization’s financial capacity. This five-year grant affords the HBCU Library Alliance an unprecedented opportunity to focus on infrastructure to benefit member libraries. Primary investments include the addition of staff, the contributions of technical consultants and the financial stability of a first-time reserve fund.
This project was funded by an 18-month grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The goal of the project was to assess and strengthen library services in support of faculty research at HBCUs. An article on the project, Expanding Library Support for Faculty Research in HBCUs, authored by former HBCU Library Alliance Executive Director, Sandra Phoenix, and former Board Chair, Mantra Henderson, Mississippi Valley State University, was published in the Journal of Library Administration. The Journal of Library Administration informs readers on research, current developments, and trends related to library leadership.
Click here to view the abstract and for purchase information.
Building Capacity – Year 2 offered a menu of preservation planning documents, collection surveys, treatment and rehousing services, and educational programs to member libraries. Click here for the Program descriptions.
Through this outreach, the HBCU Library Alliance assisted member libraries in building capacity for fundraising for special collection initiatives, documenting cultural heritage materials, increasing accessibility of special collection items, and promoting the humanities significance of their broad collections of rare materials and their irreplaceable cultural heritage artifacts. The Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts (CCAHA) provided professional services to support this component of the project.
The Building Capacity – Year 2 virtual series began the week of November 6, 2022. This program was open to all library employees, work study students, and interns.
Libraries applied for funding and assumed responsibility for the implementation of their projects.
The following twelve institutions were awarded Round 2 subgrants. Our project partner, the Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts (PA), delivered preservation planning services and training. Congrats to these institutions!
Alabama State University (ASU) is known as the “University at the heart of the Civil Rights Movement.” Their archives reflect the activities of ASU faculty, staff, and students who participated in all the major Civil Rights episodes. Notable alumni include Ralph Abernathy and Fred Gray. Significant ASU archival collections include the E.D. Nixon Collection, Montgomery’s Civil Rights organizer who led before the arrival of Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. and who bailed Rosa Parks out of jail.
Thurgood Marshall Library at Bowie State University, the first HBCU in the state of Maryland, holds historical documents that share the history of preparing teachers/educators of color in the state of Maryland. The Special Collections include materials about the education and history of African Americans in Maryland and Prince George’s County, books on Maryland history, rare books, and photographs documenting Bowie State University’s history.
Clinton College (SC) was one of many schools established by the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church during the Reconstruction years to help eradicate illiteracy among freedmen. The institution was named for Bishop Caleb Isom Clinton, who was the Palmetto Conference Presiding Bishop in 1894. The Clinton College Library archives hold historic items such as photos of past Bishops and Presiding Elders. The archives also contain church publications documenting the history of the AME Zion Church.
Denmark Technical College (SC) began operation on March 1, 1948 as the Denmark Branch of the South Carolina Trade School System. At its inception, the institution was mandated to educate black citizens in various trades. Denmark Technical College is the only two-year HBCU that has dormitories in South Carolina. The archive collection includes materials to inform historians about the rich legacy of the college.
The historical significance of the Elizabeth City State University’s (NC) Archives and Special Collections begins with the inception of the school in 1891 as a State (Colored) Normal School to Elizabeth City State University (ECSU) in 1969. The collection of archival material supports further study of the community’s cultural heritage with books used in every phase of the school’s history, including books from the Rosenwald School which was a campus building in use from 1921-1942 and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994.
Fayetteville State University’s (NC) archives hold items from the 1770s to 2020 and feature materials of notable figures who have made a historical mark nationally and internationally. For example, Charles W. Chesnutt, principal of the school from 1877-1883, is considered the first noted African American novelist. Dr. Ezekiel Ezra Smith served as the institution’s first president from 1883-1933. He was appointed Consul General (Ambassador) to Liberia from 1888 to 1890 and served in the Spanish-American War in 1898. The archives and Special Collections include many artifacts relating to the history of these two pillars of the college.
The Miles College (AL) Learning Resource Center was erected in 1977. In 2021, the facility underwent a multi-million-dollar renovation per the vision of college president Bobbie Knight. Most of the literature housed in the archives were items used to support the studies of African American students during an era where people of color were not welcome to receive a free education. A strategic goal of the library is to establish a special collection that captures past presidents, civil rights leaders, and the history of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church.
The Special Collections at Texas Southern University include the Traditional African Art Gallery, the Charles F. Heartman Collection, and the official records of Texas Southern University. The Traditional African Art collection was established in the 1970s and now contains 247 pieces of art from West Africa, Central Africa, and East Africa. The Heartman Collection is considered the largest African American collection in the Southwest. It contains over 11,000 books, pamphlets, slave narratives, journals, musical scores, and other documents relating to the black experience in the United States and the world.
Tougaloo College (MS) was founded in 1869 by the American Missionary Association of New York for the training of young people. The college was at the forefront of the Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi in the 1960s. It served as a safe haven for those who fought for freedom, justice, and equality. The Special Collections contain yearbooks, course catalogs, and historical pictures from the Civil Rights era, prominent African American Harlem Renaissance legends, and notable alumni.
The Archives & Special Collections at Virginia Union University hold rare books, photographs, manuscripts, and sheet music. The rare book collection contains over 1,200 volumes emphasizing African American children’s books of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The L. Douglas Wilder Collection memorializes the life and career of Virginia’s 66th Governor (1990-1994), the first elected African American Governor in U.S. history, and Virginia Union’s most celebrated alumnus.
The Special Collections of West Virginia State University (WVSU) include holdings that directly reflect the educational, instructional, research, and social mission of WVSU throughout its storied 131-year history. WVSU is one of only three HBCUs in West Virginia. The institution’s importance and centrality are vital elements of the role and impact of Black history and culture in both West Virginia and eastern Appalachia.
The Special Collections at Wiley College (TX) contain historical documents, ephemera, and memorabilia related to the 149-year history of the college. Wiley College was founded in 1873 and was one of the first black colleges created west of the Mississippi River. The Special Collections hold theses on topics of education in HBCUs and personal papers of past professors who taught at Wiley College.
The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) awarded the HBCU Library Alliance a one-to-one challenge grant for “The Building Capacity for Humanities Special Collections at Historically Black Colleges and Universities” project.
Building Capacity was a seven-year program designed to build capacity for the long-term preservation and conservation of collections at each of the member libraries. Building Capacity offered a menu of preservation planning documents, collection surveys, treatment and rehousing services, and educational programs to the member libraries. Through that outreach, the HBCU Library Alliance assisted the libraries in building capacity for fundraising for special collection initiatives, documenting cultural heritage materials, increasing accessibility of special collection items, and promoting the humanities significance of their broad collections of rare materials and their irreplaceable cultural heritage artifacts.
In Year 1, the HBCU Library Alliance received a one-year grant for the Building Capacity—Year One program. Awarded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the program developed the infrastructure to support the NEH-funded “Building Capacity for Humanities Special Collections at Historically Black Colleges and Universities”, a seven-year HBCU Library Alliance program that received partial support from a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Challenge Grant. Building Capacity—Year One tasks focused on four areas: 1) Raising the matching funds required by the NEH Challenge Grant to fully fund the seven-year program “Building Capacity—HBCU,” 2) building long-term fundraising capacity at the HBCU Library Alliance, 3) implementing educational and promotional activities needed for the successful launch of the regrant component of “Building Capacity—HBCU,” and 4) selecting the first round of regrant awardees through the convening of an Advisory Committee.
The humanities special collections of the HBCU Library Alliance’s member libraries contain the unique stories of the development and evolution of HBCUs dating back to the early 1800s. The manuscript, book, photograph, and audiovisual material in these special collections provide vital perspectives on local and regional history in 19 states, as well as the District of Columbia and the Virgin Islands. Perhaps even more importantly, they offer irreplaceable documentation on the African American experience in the 19th and 20th centuries, reflecting the monumental themes of slavery, Civil War, Restoration, the Great Migration, the Harlem Renaissance, the Civil Rights Movement, the recent Black Lives Matter, and so much more.
The Benedict College (SC) Historical Collection depicts the College’s transformation over 150 years in providing a quality education for the once emancipated African-Americans to presently educating students of all races and nationalities. The collection depicts decades of students’ campus life and College culture and events, but also shows how Benedict College through economic growth, development and a stable student population served to enhance the greater Columbia community.
Significant to Clinton College (SC) is its connection to the African Methodist Episcopal Church, with collections of yearbooks, circulars and other materials that show the progress of Clinton College. The institution has a proud heritage as a Christian College, striving to prepare men and women to be lifelong learners, active participants and good stewards of society.
The Delaware State University Archives and Special Collections contain records dating from the first-ever trustee meeting in 1891 through current day and student newspaper publications from 1912 through 2015. The Delaware State University Archives and Special Collections is the only repository dedicated to the education of African-Americans in the state of Delaware.
The collections of Fisk University (TN) draw scholars from around the world and contain some of the oldest and most definitive collections of African-American history and culture. Since the school’s opening in 1868, it has collected and preserved materials by and about African Americans. Fisk’s collections are a major source for the study of the African-American experience.
The George Peabody Collection at Hampton University (VA) is recognized as one of the oldest and finest African-American Collections in the country. It encompasses all subjects relevant to the study of African-American history and culture and contains monographs, anti-slavery pamphlets, journals, clippings and materials relating to Hampton University.
The Johnson C. Smith University (NC) Charlotte Urban Renewal Collection consists of maps and manuscripts that detail government-sponsored urban renewal policies of the 1950’s and 1960’s. These policies resulted in the destruction of traditional African-American ring villages around Charlotte, the erasure of a vibrant self-made black cultural climate and the displacement of hundreds of black families.
Morehouse School of Medicine was founded in 1976 to recruit, train and educate minorities and other students to become physicians, biomedical scientists and public professionals committed to the primary healthcare needs of the underserved. Although small in size, the Morehouse School of Medicine is a leader among medical schools in the number of African-American MD recipients. Its photographic collection includes forty-four years of pictorial history.
South Carolina State University’s Historical Collection and Archives holdings are strongest in twentieth century materials relating to South Carolina State University and the Orangeburg Massacre, a 1968 event in which twenty-eight African-American students were shot (three killed) on the campus of South Carolina State by the South Carolina National Guards while protesting against racial segregation. The event represents one of the earliest involving the shooting of student protesters on a college campus in the U.S.
The archives at Southern University and A&M College in Baton Rouge, Louisiana contain popular collections that include an original set of Slave Narratives (1935), the 1960 Baton Rouge Sit-Ins, and the 1953 Baton Rouge Bus Boycott, which was the model that inspired the Montgomery Bus Boycott that took place two years later. From these vast stories, scholars get a true sense of Southern University’s unique culture, history, arts and where this institution fits in Louisiana’s history.
Texas College was founded by a group of Christian Methodist Episcopal (CME) ministers in 1894.The CME church was founded in 1870 by forty-one former slave members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Texas College’s collections contain materials related to the CME church and its impact on community, students and scholars.
Tougaloo College (MS) is presently celebrating its Sesquicentennial. Its archives function as a repository and research center for the Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi. Its Lawyers Commission Collection contains records of cases including school desegregation, public accommodations and voting rights.
Tuskegee University (AL) Special Collections consists of volumes on Africa and the African Diaspora dating from the 18th century to the present. Among the most significant portions of this collection are the more than 2,158 pamphlets pertaining to Civil Rights and Black issues during the period from 1900 to 1960.
The Conservation Center for Art & Historic Artifacts (CCAHA) provided professional services to support the Building Capacity for Humanities Special Collections at HBCUs project.
Established in 1977 in Philadelphia, the Conservation Center for Art & Historic Artifacts is a nonprofit organization delivering a wide range of conservation and preservation services. Their mission is to provide expertise and leadership in the preservation of cultural heritage. CCAHA’s conservators repair and stabilize books, photographs, and documents. CCAHA’s preservation services staff works in the field providing education programs and helping institutions plan for the future of their collections. They also offer a range of digitization and reproduction services, as well as fundraising assistance, housing and framing, and more.
The Authenticity Project, hosted jointly by the HBCU Library Alliance and CLIR/Digital Library Federation (DLF), was an IMLS-funded mentoring and professional development program for early- to mid-career HBCU library staff. The goal of the program was to build a more diverse, inclusive, collaborative, and cohesive next-generation digital library workforce, ready to work across different types of institutions in building infrastructure of various kinds, including social and technological, in service to a wide array of communities.
In season 3, the Material Memory podcast took an audio road trip to explore the libraries, archives, and museums at six Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).
The Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) signed partnership agreements with three international organizations to develop a new program to advance visibility and access to rare and unique cultural materials held in Africa. The program, Hidden Collections Africa, seeks to digitally preserve collections held in Africa to promote knowledge and understanding of the African continent, the African diaspora, and their histories.
The HBCU Library Alliance and the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) are dedicated to addressing the unique needs of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) libraries and archives. To support these institutions, a subaward program to empower HBCU libraries was introduced.
The following institutions received a subaward:
HBCU libraries’ collections contain rare and unique materials with the potential to enrich current narratives about the history of American education; the scholarship, activism, and public service of HBCU presidents, faculty, and alumni; slavery, World War II, and the civil rights movement; the activities of African American religious organizations and leaders; African and African diaspora studies; and more. Despite their unparalleled significance, substantial proportions of special collections and archives at HBCU libraries are not easily accessible to campus communities and the public. Significant talent and funds are required to assess, house, describe, and digitize these materials so that they are widely discoverable and useful. One of the goals of the HBCU Library Alliance is to bring long-deserved attention to this need and to make the case for large-scale investments in this critical work.
The Library of Congress contracted with the HBCU Library Alliance to coordinate two fully-funded six-week 2023 summer internships in library conservation and preservation. That was the sixth summer contract with the Library of Congress where interns gained exposure at the largest library in the world. Site supervisors and mentors were Amelia Parks, Preservation Education Specialist for the Preservation Directorate and Ken Grant, Head of Collections Conservation Section, Conservation Division.
The Library of Congress is the largest library in the world, with millions of books, films and video, audio recordings, photographs, newspapers, maps and manuscripts in its collections. The Library is the main research arm of the U.S. Congress and the home of the U.S. Copyright Office. The Library preserves and provides access to a rich, diverse and enduring source of knowledge to inform, inspire and engage intellectual and creative endeavors.
Mikayla is a freshman Biology major. She has been a student assistant in the Asa H. Gordon Library since Fall 2022 working in the Circulation, Reference, InterLibrary Loan and Outreach departments. Mikayla is looking forward to receiving hands-on training in preservation and conservation during her internship with the Library of Congress.
Alexandria is a senior History major with a minor in Africana studies. Her curiosity about conservation and preservation was piqued during an eight-week Pipeline to PhD program at UCLA studying Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphs. During that internship, Alexandria was introduced to preservation services and activities for medieval Ethiopian bibles, satchels and scrolls. She will use this internship opportunity to learn how to preserve artifacts, and more importantly, the history and the legacies behind them.
The HBCU Library Alliance and its inaugural non-HBCU member, Brown University (RI), partnered on the pilot Leadership project: Stronger Together: Excellence in Library Leadership. Funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services through its Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program, the one-year intensive, nurturing project aimed to develop core leadership competencies such as change management, fundraising, and collection stewardship. The leadership pilot emphasized that all institutions are strengthened when HBCUs flourish.
The John Hope and Aurelia E. Franklin Library at Fisk University (TN) was the host site for the June 15-17, 2022 Kick-Off session. Thanks to Dr. Brandon Owens, former Dean of the Library, and DeLisa Minor Harris, current Director of Library Services, for welcoming the cohort to Fisk!
A Cross-Organizational Training & Support Program for Library Professionals
In order to enhance the training and professional development of the library and archival workforce to meet the needs of their communities, Brown University Library, with the encouragement of the HBCU Library Alliance, established a multi-pronged, cross-organizational training and support program for HBCU library professionals seeking to gain or expand expertise in developing born-digital interactive scholarship. Equipped with an expanded professional network among university presses and library publishers, the cohort will grow a portfolio of born-digital publications. Editorial assistantships for HBCU students will serve as a pipeline to careers in academic publishing.
