EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC) announced that three local organizations have been named as grant recipients of the 2013 EMC Heritage Trust Project. The grants will support projects that practice and encourage the stewardship of cultural information in local communities in Chile, the United Kingdom and the United States.  

To date, EMC® has recognized more than 40 projects with Heritage Trust grants and, through the broader EMC Information Heritage Initiative program, has donated more than $35 million. Founded in 2007, EMC's Information Heritage Initiative program helps advance the conservation of information heritage through digitization around the world, allowing readily accessible online research and education. In conjunction with the program, the EMC Heritage Trust Project recognizes and supports local people and local projects that practice and inspire the digital stewardship of the world's information heritage.

The EMC Heritage Trust Project grant recipients were selected based on the following criteria: potential size of the audience that would benefit from access to the information they are seeking to protect; the at-risk status of the information and why it is urgent to digitize; and how beneficial the EMC grant would be to the overall success of the project.

In August, 2013, EMC also awarded grants to Kresy-Siberia Virtual Museum, United Kingdom, Acervo Digital Chiquinha Gonzaga, Brazil, and Guernsey Evacuee Community Group, United Kingdom.

Nominations for the 2014 Heritage Trust Project will open in May 2014. For more information on the EMC Heritage Trust Project, visit:  https://www.facebook.com/emccorp/app_222471081145150

EMC Heritage Trust Project Grantees:
  • Meseo de la Memoria y los Derechos Humanos, Chile - The Museum of Memory and Human Rights gathers valuable documentary material from the Chilean dictatorship period. The photographic collection contains more than 27,000 items and is comprised of professional photographers', as well as individuals' collections, documenting the serious and systematic violations of human rights in Chile during the dictatorship, as well as effort to help the country get its freedom and democracy back. Funding will support the digitization of this vulnerable collection.
  • Kresy-Siberia, Great Britain - The Kresy-Siberia Virtual Museum (KSVM) was established in 2009 to research, remember and recognize the more than 1.5 million Polish citizens who fought for freedom and survival under enemy occupation and exile during World War II. The KSVM is being developed by volunteers from around the world, and includes more than 10,000 photographs, documents, and interviews. The EMC grant will enable the creation of a multi-media Special Exhibition called "The Polish Navy: 1939-1948" containing personal and historical documents, photographs and survivor testimonies focusing on approximately 840 recruits in the Polish Navy from Kresy via forced labor in USSR.
  • Brooklyn Eagle Visual History Project, United States - As an independent system, Brooklyn Public Library (BPL) serves the borough's 2.5 million residents, offering thousands of public programs, millions of books and use of more than 1,100 free Internet-accessible computers. The Brooklyn Public Library is the sole custodian of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, a local Brooklyn paper which once rivaled the New York Times in circulation. The library has recently scanned the entire run of the Eagle from the early 1800s to 1955. The Eagle archives also include 250,000 photos. This collection is highly vulnerable. Grant funding will support the digitization of these 250,000 photos which will provide a vital link between Brooklyn's current residents and their historic past.
Executive Quote

Jessica Anderson, Director, Community Involvement, EMC Corporation

"EMC is proud to enable our global communities to preserve their historical information through the Heritage Trust Project. Thanks to the digitization efforts of the 2013 Heritage Trust Grant recipients, people around the world will have access to pieces of history that will breed understanding and innovation. Congratulat our latest grant recipients."

Christine Carosella
508-249-1855
christine.carosella@emc.com

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