feb13_b.indd


C&RL News February 2013 106

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

The University of Massachusetts-Amherst 
Libraries have received a $48,000 National 
Leadership Planning Grant from the Institute 
of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) to 
investigate the development of a disciplinary 
repository for the Ethical, Legal and Social 
Implications of nanoscience and emerging 
technologies research. The libraries will part-
ner with the Inter-University Consortium for 
Political and Social Research and the Centers 
for Nanotechnology and Society at Arizona 
State University and at the 
University of California-
Santa Barbara in a planning 
project to explore future in-
tegration of digital services 
for researchers studying 
ethical, legal, and social im-
plications associated with 
the development of these 
technologies. The central 
activity of this project in-
volves a spring 2013 work-
shop that will gather key 
researchers in the field and 
digital librarians together to 
plan the development of a 
disciplinary repository of 
data, curricula, and meth-
odological tools.

The University of Washington Libraries  
have received a $1.25 million challenge grant 
from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to 
fund a new senior conservator position in the 
Preservation Services Division. The Mellon 
Foundation grant includes $1 million as a per-
manent endowment and $250,000 to establish 
the new position while the libraries raises $1 
million over three years to match the award, 
which will generate funding to support the 
position permanently. The libraries have be-

gun a nationwide search for the individual 
who will take on the role of senior conserva-
tor early this year.

A c q u i s i t i o n s

The Ira Wolff Photographic History  
Collection has been acquired by the University 
of Colorado-Boulder Libraries. Consisting of 

approximately 7,000 origi-
nal photographs, in addi-
tion to approximately 7,000 
publications, largely from 
the 19th and early-20th cen-
turies, the collection offers 
a major scholarly resource 
for the study of the history 
of photography. The Wolff 
collection contains a wealth 
of primary source material 
offering insight into the in-
vention of photography, the 
scientific and technical com-
ponents of its development, 
the history of photome-
chanical printing, vernacular 
photographic practices, and 
the medium’s role in social 

and cultural documentation. Highlights from 
the collection of original photographs in-
clude an 1844 photograph by one of the 
inventors of photography, William Henry 
Fox Talbot. Publications in the collection 
trace the prehistory of photography in the 
18th century and continue through the de-
velopment of all stages and types of pho-
tomechanical printing in the 19th century. 
Ira Wolff acquired the collection over the 
course of several decades from bookstores 
and dealers throughout the United States 
and Europe. A former executive at NBC, 
his interest in photography stemmed from 
his involvement with the Grolier Club, the 
New York City bibliophile’s society. 

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

Hand-Painted Tintype, circa 1880. Ira 
Wolff Photographic History Collec-
tion. University of Colorado-Boulder 
Libraries