[Asis-l] Grant Expands Partnership with LIU Post’s Acclaimed Palmer School LIU Post Announces $1 Million Grant from Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation to Expand Project to Preserve LI History

[Heather Ranieri]

PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | 12/04/2017
CONTACT: Jaime Franchi | Long Island University
O: 516-299-3204 | E: jaime.franchi at liu.edu
LIU Post Announces $1 Million Grant from Robert David Lion
Gardiner Foundation to Expand Project to Preserve LI History
Grant Expands Partnership with LIU Post’s Acclaimed Palmer School
BROOKVILLE, N.Y. (December 4, 2017) –LIU Post’s Palmer School of Library and
Information Science was awarded a $1 million grant from the Robert David Lion Gardiner
Foundation to expand an important project to both preserve Long Island’s history and make it
more accessible.
The $1 million grant comes on the heels of an initial $500,000 grant from the Foundation in 2016
to launch the Digitizing Long Island History project. The project has received a far greater
response than anticipated from historical societies, both in terms of the number of participants
and volume of material. Under the initial grant, the Palmer School is partnering with 28
historical societies. The additional $1 million grant will expand the project to 80 historical
societies over 4 years.
“We are proud to expand the successful partnership between the nationally-recognized Palmer
School and the Robert David Lion Gardner Foundation to help protect our region’s rich history,”
said LIU President Dr. Kimberly R. Cline. “This project to preserve vital historical documents
and make them accessible will have a lasting impact on our region, now and for future
generations.”
The following historical societies are taking part in the program this semester-- Freeport
Historical Society Museum, Southold Historical Society, Historical Society of the Massapequas,
Stirling Historical Society of Greenport, Sagtikos Manor Historical Society, Museum of the
Village of Rockville Centre, and the Three Village Historical Society.
The Palmer School works with the historical societies to do some work on location, and other
work at LIU Post. Fragile, oversized, and bound items are brought to the Palmer School’s Lab
for scanning on a large, DT Atom tabletop digitization platform. The School also has two
portable digitization units that students are able to take to the historical societies for the other
material.
The Palmer School is a national leader in library science and one of just 62 schools accredited by
the American Library Association. It offers the only Ph.D. program in Information Studies in the
New York metropolitan area and is the only library sciences school in our region to be admitted
into membership in the prestigious iSchools Consortium.
The project is led by Dr. Gregory Hunter, Professor of Library and Information Science, who
heads the doctoral program at the Palmer School. Dr. Hunter is a nationally-recognized expert
who was a key member of the team that designed and implemented the Electronic Records
Archives for the National Archives and Records Administration. A Certified Archivist and a
Certified Records Manager, Dr. Hunter is the Editor of the leading peer-reviewed journal in the
field, The American Archivist, and his award-winning book is the standard text in the field.
“The Gardiner Foundation’s grant will allow us to preserve Long Island’s history and ensure that
the next generation of archival professionals has the skills to preserve history in the digital age,”
said Dr. Hunter. “This continues the important work of the Palmer School, which is our region’s
leading information school.”
The grant includes significant scholarship support for masters and Ph.D. students at the Palmer
School, in addition to opportunities for long-term fieldwork placement that benefit both the
historical societies and Palmer School students.
“Due to the overwhelming response and success of this project, we are pleased to be able to
award this new grant to expand our partnership with the Palmer School,” said Kathryn M.
Curran, Executive Director of the Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation. “The Robert David
Lion Gardiner Foundation’s mission is to promote our regional history. The artifacts and
archives of historical societies are untapped treasure troves for researchers and scholars. It is our
hope that this award will make these collections available as vital part of local historic study. The
Palmer School is our region’s leading institution to offer the expertise and resources to
accomplish this goal.”
The funding will also allow for an annual Gardiner Symposium to begin next year, which will
showcase progress and feature historical documents.

Heather Ranieri
Director of Program Effectiveness, Marketing & Recruitment
Palmer School Of Library and Information Science
LIU Post
720 Northern Boulevard
Brookville, New York 11548
Tel.: 516.299.4110
Fax: 516.299.4168