BY PHILLIP LEE on MARCH 31, 2022
LIBERAL, Kan. – The Seward County Community College Library has been selected as one of 200 libraries nationwide for the American Library Association’s American Rescue Plan: Humanities Grants for Libraries opportunity, an emergency relief program to assist libraries that have been adversely affected by the pandemic.
With funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities through the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, the SCCC Library will use funds to anchor itself in the community as a strong humanities institution. The competitive award comes with a $10,000 grant that will help the library deliver excellent programs and services related to culture, history, literature, and other humanities subjects.
The grant will be used to fund the “Saints Scribes” program, which is a speaker series of authors, poets, and other experts to give presentations on humanities topics and writing workshops for students, faculty, and members of the community.
Participants in the program will receive journals to write in and the library will provide weekly for them to write about. The purpose is to encourage journaling and the participants would write about their daily activities as well as the grant presentations and current programming at SCCC.
The participating libraries, selected through a competitive, peer-reviewed application process, include public libraries, academic/college libraries, K-12 libraries, and tribal, special and prison libraries. The recipients represent 45 states and Puerto Rico and serve communities ranging in size from 642 residents in Weir, Kansas, to the city of Los Angeles. Libraries were chosen with an emphasis on reaching historically underserved and/or rural communities.
“We are so proud to be chosen for this amazing opportunity,” said Casandra Norin, director of library services. “This grant will allow our library to better serve our patrons and plan strong, enriching humanities programming as we come out of the pandemic.”
American Rescue Plan: Humanities Grants for Libraries is an initiative of the American Library Association made possible with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities through the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.”
