The National Endowment for the Humanities’ Bridging Cultures Bookshelf/Muslim Journeys project is nearing its official launch, with Mason’s Ali Vural Ak Center for Global Islamic Studies and Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media collaborating on the content and design of its website to be made public in January 2013.
The Bridging Cultures Bookshelf/Muslim Journeys is a set of over 25 books and documentaries, as well as other resources including access to Oxford Islamic Studies Online, that have been selected for distribution to up to 1,000 competing public libraries, academic libraries, and state humanities councils at the start of next year in an effort to familiarize the public with the diverse people, places, history, faith and cultures of Muslims in America and around the globe.
The project’s website will act as a comprehensive guide to the Bookshelf, including thematic grouping of the books, profiles of the books and authors, additional primary sources related to the texts, and bibliographies for further reading on its diverse subject matter.
In addition to developing the website’s content, the Ali Vural Ak Center has been involved in other aspects of the project as well. The Center’s Director, Peter Mandaville, is the project’s Principal Investigator, and Susan Douglass, the Center’s Grants Project Manager, served as a consultant to the national group of scholars, humanities educators, librarians, and program experts who were tasked with selecting the titles to be included in the Bookshelf.
The American Library Association is partnering with NEH to conduct the online application process for public libraries, among other institutions, to compete for the Bookshelf and its accompanying resources, as well as to provide support the libraries’ public programs. The Bookshelf project was formally announced along with the final selections at ALA’s annual conference in Anaheim, California on June 15.
NEH, in coordination with ALA, is currently accepting applications through September 25, 2012 and will announce the institutions that were selected to receive the Bookshelf in January 2013. For more details on the Bookshelf project and how to apply, follow the link above.
July 20, 2012
