In the Fall of 2001, Broward County Library was awarded a National Leadership Grant for Libraries by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), a federal agency in Washington, D.C. that fosters leadership, innovation, and a lifetime of learning by supporting museums and libraries.

The grant funds are being used to digitize the library's unique collection of Museum Extension Project (MEP) objects and text produced under the auspices of the WPA, the New Deal era federal agency initially known as the Works Progress Administration (after 1939 called the Work Projects Administration). The Museum Extension Project produced educational visual aids for use in public schools and children's museums.

Because of its under-representation in the scope of WPA research, as well as the collection's lack of accessibility and its historical significance, the Museum Extension Project collection was chosen to be the inaugural project in a series of digital exhibits featuring other New Deal/WPA agencies and items from other Broward County Library collections, including the African-American Research Library and Cultural Center which opened in October, 2001. 

Online exhibits and a searchable image database of MEP artifacts have been created as part of the grant. An important part of the grant will be the documentation of the digitization process including scanning specifications, work procedures, and metadata creation.

Learn more about the digitization process:

• Digitization Specifications - Technical details of the methods used to digitize objects in the Collection.
  
• Cataloging the Collection - Information and links to resources on metadata generation, a vital component of any digitization initiative.

• The Project Team - Contact information for those responsible for creating the Education by Design online exhibit and database of WPA MEP artifacts.
  
• IMLS Grant Narrative (PDF) - Details of the 2001 National Leadership Grant awarded to Broward County Library by the Institute of Museum and Library Service for the digitization of our Bienes Center's WPA MEP Collection.