The University Library System (ULS) at the University of Pittsburgh received a two-year grant (2003-2005) from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to catalog and preserve through microfilming 3,000 acidic and rare books from our Chinese monograph collection, which is part of the East Asian Library (EAL).

These collections included works produced in the early to middle decades of the twentieth century and publications created during the Cultural Revolution from 1966-1976 that provide insight into the political, economic, and educational conditions of China.

In addition, EAL selected 37 titles (approximately 10,500 pages) for a pilot digitization project by the Digital Research Library (DRL), a department within the ULS that creates Web-accessible digital collections. The pilot project enabled the DRL to experiment with adapting new methodologies, tools and techniques for creating, processing, and indexing digital library content for foreign language materials.

The University of Pittsburgh was the only institution in the NEH Brittle Books and Serials category to receive an award that includes a component to digitize materials for access. The pilot project was funded with in-kind costs by the University of Pittsburgh.