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New York Catholic Worker breadline on Mott St., ca. 1938. Photo from Raynor Memorial Libraries Special Collections and University Archives

November 2009--The Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) has announced a grant of $149,000 to a collaborative project led by the Marquette Libraries. Members of the collaborative effort, titled "The Catholic Social Action Project," include Marquette University, Catholic University of America, St. Catherine University, and the Catholic Research Resources Alliance. With funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, CLIR's "Cataloging Hidden Special Collections and Archives" initiative supports improved cataloging of special collections at each institution. The award-winning project was one of only 14 selected from a total of 91 applications.



Archivists and catalogers will create Encoded Archival Description (EAD) and/or MAchine Readable Cataloging (MARC) records to expose three previously "hidden" collections with similar themes--U.S. Catholic social action in the 20th century. St. Catherine's Ade Bethune Collection includes the archives of the liturgical artist and social activist; Catholic University holds the Catholic Charities, DC records; and Marquette's more than 700 audio recordings within the vast Dorothy Day-Catholic Worker Collection document the faith-based movement of Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin. Marquette Libraries' Head of Special Collections and Archives, Matt Blessing, and Associate Dean of Libraries Jean Zanoni are co-principal investigators for the grant. According to Blessing, "The grant project will result in unparalleled access to a major audio resource, one of the cornerstones of Marquette's Catholic social action collecting program. The grant project will also establish the foundation for future digitization of the collection."

The three collaborating institutions are members of the Catholic Research Resources Alliance, which maintains the "Catholic Portal" and provides easy, effective, and global discovery to rare and unique Catholic research resources in libraries, seminaries, special collections, and archives. The products of the grant-funded project will be collocated within the Catholic Portal and will provide access to local resources far beyond the participating institutions. Project activities will begin in January 2010 and will be completed by December 2011.