The Kentucky Geological Survey (KGS) has received a $151,125 grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) to digitize and preserve a valuable collection of geoscience publications. This project will safeguard nearly 200 years of geological, geographical and textual data about Kentucky, ensuring its accessibility for future generations.

Based on preliminary feedback from academic researchers, industry users and public patrons, KGS identified collection gaps, quality issues and discoverability problems with its geoscience publication collection. With the IMLS grant, KGS anticipates digitizing at least 30% of the collection, stabilizing and labeling 95% of the collection, sending more than 40 fragile items to a third-party vendor for repair or rebinding and adding items to external online repositories.

The project, Connecting Geoscience Collections: Expanding Research Potential through Metadata at the Kentucky Geological Survey, is led by co-principal investigators Liz Adams, research administrative coordinator at KGS, and Cheyenne Hohman, publication resources curator.

“By putting forth these efforts today, we are ensuring the availability of our collection and data for future use by students, researchers, educators and the public,” Adams said. “The geoscience publication collection is the result of projects funded by the survey and federal and state agencies. The time and financial costs of preserving and digitizing this collection would be insurmountable.” 

As a part of the IMLS project, KGS will also include errata and disclosures noting biased and harmful content in its historical documents. Further analysis of the collection will focus on identifying popular publications and topics, providing a better understanding of its user base, and shaping the development of new KGS publications. Additionally, the project will generate and distribute curated bibliographies and reading lists focused on perennial general interest topics in geoscience. 

“KGS holds its collection in trust for the public and the research community. The IMLS grant represents a strategic investment in the management of our permanent geoscience publications collection,” Hohman said. “Our long-term vision includes increased community and research engagement with these geoscience publications.” 

For more information and updates about this project, follow KGS on social media, visit the KGS website or review the KGS Annual Report. 

This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services Award Number MA-255499-OMS-24.