WSU will play a role in advancing cultural preservation with the help of the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS).

IMLS, a federal granting agency, announced new funds totaling $1,373,405 for three projects at WSU on Oct. 16.

Among the three projects, $698,605 of the agreement will go directly to WSU to increase the capacity of tribal archives, libraries and museums.

Kimberly Christen Withey, the project director of the Mukurtu CMS and principal investigator on the project, said one area of culture preservation IMLS supports is native languages.

“At this point many native communities have important audio material on formats such as reel to reel tapes or audio cassette,” Alex Merrill, head of systems and technical operations for the project, said.

Merrill said it’s imperative that they take action now in digitizing these materials because they are quickly aging and becoming of little use.

“This project will build on the innovative software platform Murkutu CMS, that was built and designed with IMLS grant,” Withey said.

Murkutu is a project designed to help communities manage, share, and exchange their digital heritage.

This will be a three-year project called the Tribal Stewardship Cohort Program: Digital Heritage Management, Archiving, and Mukurtu CMS Training.

The Tribal Stewardship Cohort Program is a branch off of a joint effort of WSU Libraries and the College of Arts and Sciences, which builds from the ongoing IMLS project called Sustainable Heritage Network (SHN).

“The general goal of the three-year project is to provide digital preservation and archival training of two tribal cohorts from across the nation,” Withey said.

Both cohorts will be comprised of members from six tribes, Withey said, each sending two individuals to the training.

“They will be trained to set up, use and manage their digital content in the Mukurtu CMS,” said Public Affairs Specialist Giuliana Bullard.

The cohorts will meet four times over the 15-month program at WSU, where they will be part of the monthly virtual trainings. Also, each tribe will have local training at their home institution.

During the local training the team working on Murkutu will provide a two-day content analysis, survey, and template for a digital management plan, Bullard said.

“The training will be focused on, but not limited to, two areas,” Merrill said. “The first area of focus is current standards and best practices for the handling and digitization of different types of physical materials.”

The second part of the training will be the actual preservation, he said. This will provide differential access to the digital pieces that are provided as a result.

Positive feedback about the SHN site has been received recently, he said, thanking them for the digital resources from a librarian in New Zealand.