feb09c.indd


Ann-Christe Galloway G r a n t s  a n d  A c q u i s i t i o n s  

T h e  U n i ve r s i t y  o f  I l l i n o i s  a t  U r b a n a ­
Champaign Library has received a Laura Bush 
21st Century Librarian Program Grant for 
$499,582 from the U.S. Institute of Museum 
and Library Services (IMLS). The agreement 
is one component of the new Partnership for 
Cultural Exchange established by IMLS and 
the Ministry of Culture of the People’s Repub­
lic of China. The Ministry of Culture provides 
additional funding for 
the program. The “Think 
Globally, Act Globally” 
agreement establishes 
a cooperative and cul­
tural exchange between 
American and Chinese 
librarians. Under the 
agreement, the Asian 
Library and the Morten­
son Center from the 
University of Illinois will 
partner with the Chinese 
American Librarians As­
sociation and the Library 
Society of China. These 
organizations will work 
together on implement­
ing a two­year pilot proj­
ect to enhance commu­
nication and relations 
between American and Chinese librarians 
and to enrich the variety of information and 
services that U.S. librarians can offer their 
users. Activities will include training in the 
United States and the People’s Republic of 
China, and the development of a Web site 
for publically available Chinese information 
resources for use in U.S. libraries. 

The Carnegie Institution has been awarded 
a $9,400 grant from the Center for History 
of Physics, American Institute of Physics, to 

Ed. note: Send your news to: Grants & Acquisitions, 
C&RL News, 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611-2795; 
e-mail: agalloway@ala.org. 

A DTM “Universal magnetometer” in use dur­
ing the Second Byrd Antarctic Expedition, 
1933­1935. E. H. Bramhall is shown observ­
ing in a room cut in the ice at Little America 
base station. 

preserve and enhance access to a collection 
of historic photographs of scientifi c instru­
ments and apparatus in the archives of the 
Department of Terrestrial Magnetism (DTM). 
The collection spans five decades from 1904 
to the 1950s and includes thousands of im­
ages important to the history of geophysics, 
atomic physics, and astronomy. During the 
first two decades of the 20th century, DTM 

played a world­lead­
ing role in developing 
geomagnetic survey 
instrumentation, includ­
ing specialized instru­
ments for geomagnetic 
observations at sea. In 
a second burst of inno­
vation in the 1920s and 
1930s, DTM’s scientists 
built a path­breaking 
atomic physics program 
based on particle ac­
celerators. A series of 
high­voltage apparatus 
beginning with Tesla 
coils and progressing 
to increasingly pow­
erful Van de Graaff 
generators culminated 
in a 3­million volt pres­

sure­tank machine that was used in 1939 for 
the confirmation of the fission of uranium. 
During this time, DTM was also home to 
key investigations of radio propagation and 
the ionosphere, auroras, and atmospheric 
physics. In the post­War era, these studies 
shifted to seismology, isotope geochemistry, 
and radio and optical astronomy. 

The G. William Jones Film and Video Col­
lection at Southern Methodist University’s 
Hamon Arts Library has been awarded a 
National Film Preservation Foundation grant 
for $27,270 in cash and lab services to be 
used in the preservation of Spencer Williams’ 
1941 fi lm, The Blood of Jesus, the popular 

C&RL News February 2009  130 

mailto:agalloway@ala.org


African American salvation drama. These 
funds will allow the library to use the 35mm 
print of the fi lm to create a new negative, 
prints, and videos. These new materials will 
be available for teaching and research, and 
the library will make them available to the 
public through a number of screenings. The 
debut screening of the new print is planned 
for February 2009 in conjunction with an 
Oscar Micheaux conference at Columbia 
University. “The Blood of Jesus, shot in 
Texas on a shoestring budget, is probably 
the most popular movie made for African 
American audiences before World War II,” 
said Jacqueline Stewart, professor of fi lm at 
Northwestern University and National Film 
Preservation Board member. “It is the fi rst 
feature by writer­director Spencer Williams, 
later a star of TV’s Amos ‘n’ Andy, whose 
fi lms have been vastly underappreciated 
despite his unique ability to capture Black 
religious and cultural practices while experi­
menting with fi lm style.” The Blood of Jesus 

was named by the Library of Congress to 
the National Film Registry in 1991. 

Acquisitions 

The collection and papers of Don Etherington, 
president of Etherington Conservation Ser­
vices have been acquired by the University 
of North Carolina­Greensboro. Etherington, 
who has served as a consultant to the 
National Archives on the display of the 
Declaration of Independence, among other 
projects, is internationally recognized for 
his binding design and the implementation 
of state­of­the­art conservation procedures, 
including phased preservation programs for 
libraries and institutions. In the aggregate, 
the Etherington Collection provides a pre­
mier reference collection in the subjects of 
conservation, bookbinding, and the book 
arts. 

February 2009  131 C&RL News