Manhattanville College Selected to Participate in New Consortium on Digital Resources for Teaching and Research

MANHATTANVILLE COLLEGE SELECTED TO PARTICIPATE IN NEW CONSORTIUM ON DIGITAL RESOURCES FOR TEACHING AND RESEARCH

42 Campuses Will Digitize and Catalog Important, Formerly Out-of-View Collections for Public Access

Purchase, NY, July __, 2015 – Manhattanville College is pleased to announce that it is one of a select group of 42 institutions nationwide chosen by the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC) to participate in a Consortium on Digital Resources for Teaching and Research. The Consortium intends to improve teaching and learning, enhance faculty and student/faculty research, and streamline administrative capabilities through a uniform digital system of cataloging important research material collections.

At Manhattanville College, the “Old Manhattanville” Photographic Collection will be digitized. The collection consists of over 500 photographic prints dating from 1875 to 1950. Cabinet cards, cartes de visite, and scrapbook pages also are part of the collection that captures the landscape, architecture, and people who populated the old campus between West 131st Street and West 135th Street in Manhattan.

A $2.2 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation will support three years of workshops for librarians and faculty and staff members and will subsidize use of Shared Shelf, Artstor’s digital asset management service already used by institutions such as Harvard and Cornell. With this grant, digital documentation of collections held by Manhattanville College and 41 other institutions will now be maintained‎ and made publicly accessible via the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) through Artstor, the nonprofit organization that provides Shared Shelf and serves as one of DPLA’s content-providing “hubs.”

CIC President Richard Ekman said, “As digitization allows hidden collections to be shared, teachers and scholars all over the country will benefit. These 42 institutions—some of which are in remote locations—are known for their dedication to teaching and for providing life-changing liberal arts education to students from all backgrounds. Through the Consortium, they will be able to gain access to an important national digital resource. Their one-of-a-kind collections will be more visible and more widely used.”

“We are thrilled that Manhattanville’s Old Manhattanville Photographic Collection will be digitized and become part of a larger pool of important historical images of colleges from across the nation,” said Dr. Lisa M. Dolling, Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs at Manhattanville. “Being part of this large consortium enriches our knowledge and enhances our research and teaching capabilities enormously.”

Artstor President James Shulman said, “The Mellon Foundation’s support will enable important collections—oral histories of the Ottawa people, the Civil Rights movement in Greensboro, 17th century maps—to be managed and cared for. But the collaboration among these CIC colleges also will provide an on-ramp for these collections to flow into an emerging national digital platform. We are delighted to partner with CIC in supporting these projects.”

The first meeting of the Consortium will take place in Washington, DC, September 10–12, 2015.

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About Manhattanville College:

Manhattanville College (www.manhattanville.edu) is an independent, co-educational liberal arts institution dedicated to academic excellence and social and civic action. Manhattanville prepares students to be ethical and socially responsible leaders in a global community. Located just 30 minutes from New York City, Manhattanville serves 1,700 undergraduate students and 1,000 graduate students from more than 50 countries and 30 states. Founded in 1841, the College offers more than 50 undergraduate areas of study in the arts and sciences, and offers graduate programs in Education, Business, Creative Writing, as well as Continuing and Executive Education programs.

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The Council of Independent Colleges is an association of 755 nonprofit independent colleges and universities and higher education affiliates and organizations that has worked since 1956 to support college and university leadership, advance institutional excellence, and enhance public understanding of private higher education’s contributions to society. CIC is the major national organization that focuses on providing services to leaders of independent colleges and universities as well as conferences, seminars, and other programs that help institutions improve educational quality, administrative and financial performance, and institutional visibility. CIC conducts the largest annual conference of college and university presidents. CIC also provides support to state fundraising associations that organize programs and generate contributions for private colleges and universities. The Council is headquartered at One Dupont Circle in Washington, DC.