Iowa Wesleyan University Chadwick Library receives grant

The Iowa Wesleyan University J. Raymond Chadwick Library was selected for a Federal Humanities Grant of $10,000. The Chadwick Library has been selected as one of 200 libraries nationwide for the American Library Association’s American Rescue Plan: Humanities Grants for Libraries opportunity, an emergency relief program to assist libraries that have been adversely affected by the pandemic.

With funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) through the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, Chadwick Library will use funds to anchor itself in the community as a strong humanities institution. The competitive award comes with a $10,000 grant to help the library deliver excellent programs and services related to culture, history, literature, and other humanities subjects.

The participating libraries, selected through a competitive, peer-reviewed application process, include public libraries, academic/college libraries, K-12 libraries, and tribal, special, and prison libraries. The recipients represent 45 states and Puerto Rico and serve communities ranging in size from 642 residents in Weir, Kansas, to Los Angeles, California. Libraries were chosen with an emphasis on reaching historically underserved and/or rural communities.

“The grant is supposed to assist libraries with their humanities programming,” said Library Director Paula Wiley. “The university is creating a new Humanities major and minor starting the next academic year. And one of the focuses of the change is to shift away from submitted papers and writing assignments and to go into more project based themes.”

Chadwick Library will use the grant funds to create a digital Humanities Lab, which will have cameras, sound equipment, computers, and software to help create digital blogs, vlogs, videos, podcasts, and other forms of media. This Humanities Lab will support students in the updated Humanities major and minor, the recently launched Honors Program, Digital Media Design, and many other programs across the IW campus.

“The problem was that we did not have enough of the equipment for the students to be able to do that,” said Wiley. “So, the grant seemed like a really good fit for where we were headed. We were one of 200 libraries to receive the grant, we were one of only 33 colleges or universities that were recipients of the grant. It’s a really big honor to have been chosen for the grant. It will benefit the entire campus.”

“Libraries have faced significant hardships throughout the pandemic — from budget cuts to staff furloughs to building closures — especially in our communities of the greatest need,” said American Library Association President Patty Wong. “This crucial support from NEH will enable our beloved institutions and the dedicated people who run them to rebuild and emerge from the pandemic stronger than ever.”