EMC Corporation, the world leader in information infrastructure solutions, today announced that seven organisations will receive EMC Heritage Trust Project awards totalling $100,000 to protect and improve access to information in communities around the world.  EMC received 325 applications from 34 countries since announcing the inaugural awards program last May.

"Over the last decade, we've donated more than $20 million to information heritage preservation across the globe, including large-scale projects with the Smithsonian Institution and the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum," said Joe Tucci, EMC's Chairman, President and CEO.  "The EMC Heritage Trust Project extends this initiative to local communities around the world."

The EMC Information Heritage Initiative was formalised in 2007 to help preserve and protect humanity's information heritage and make important historical documents and cultural artifacts readily accessible via the Internet for research and education purposes.  In conjunction with this initiative, the EMC Heritage Trust Project was created to recognise and support any public or private local organisation, institution or individual projects around the world that are designed to protect and improve access to invaluable information. 

The EMC Heritage Trust Project's distinguished judging committee reviewed the 325 applications and narrowed them down to 48 finalists.  Award recipients were chosen based on the potential size of the audience that would benefit from access to this information; the at-risk status of the information and why it is so urgent to digitise the information; and how beneficial EMC's grant would be for the overall success of the project.  This year's seven winners include:

- The Music Library of the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra - The EMC grant will pay for the hardware and software required for the preservation and cataloging of one of the oldest and significant music collections in Russia, making it widely available globally via the Web.

- Flimmer Film AS - The EMC grant will allow the Norwegian organisation to translate and share over the Web "My Days," an oral history project in which senior citizens share short, personal narratives from their everyday lives.

- Center for the Study of Peace and Reconciliation (CsPR) - The EMC grant will allow the CsPR at Hitotsubashi University's Graduate School of Social Sciences in Japan to digitise its research materials on peace and reconciliation and the related issues of conflict, violence, memory and representation, including audio and video interview tapes, films, research cards and manuscripts.

- Chiang Mai University Library - The EMC grant will help Chiang Mai University Library in Thailand to digitise traditional temple manuscripts dating back to the 16th century, many on palm-leaf material, tree bark paper and mulberry paper, as well as 350 microfilms from the 1980s containing the collections of 100 Buddhist temples.

- Villa Ocampo - The EMC grant will restore, protect and digitise Victoria Ocampo's extensive library collection in Argentina, which includes more than 12,000 books and 1,000 periodicals, as well as letters, photographs and other personal papers.  Victoria Ocampo was a well-known 20th century Latin American cultural figure who founded and published Sur, the most important literary magazine of its time in Latin America.

- U'mista Cultural Society - The EMC grant will be used for staff and expenses necessary to digitise, document and archive the largest and oldest collection of Kwakwaka'wakw  culture in Europe, held by the Ethnological Museum in Berlin.  The Kwakwaka'wakw  (also Kwakiutl) is an indigenous nation of 5,500 people who live in British Columbia on Vancouver Island.

- The Edgar Allan Poe Museum - The EMC grant will fund staffing, equipment and post-digitisation, acid-free storage of materials, to preserve the Richmond, Virginia, museum's collections of Poe artifacts, manuscripts, family ephemera and memorabilia.

"Although Poe always identified himself as a Virginian, his life and works truly belong to the world," says Katarina Spears, Executive Director at The Edgar Allan Poe Museum.  "The EMC Heritage Trust Project has given the Poe Museum the opportunity to make this extremely rare and valuable historic collection available for research and enjoyment on a global scale while preserving it for the generations to come. We are thrilled by this opportunity."

Below is a complete list of EMC Heritage Trust Project finalists.  The EMC Heritage Trust Project will begin accepting nominations for next year's awards on July 1, 2008.  Winners will be announced in May 2009. Program details are available at www.EMC.com/heritage_trust.

EMC Heritage Trust Project Finalists 2007

Argentina

School of Natural Sciences, State University of Tucumán

Australia

Australian Country Hospitals Heritage Association Inc.

National Gallery of Australia (NGA)/Ballet Russes Digitisation Project

Sydney Maritime Museum Ltd (Trading as Sydney Heritage Fleet)

Burkina Faso

Burkina Faso National Museum

Canada

AlouetteCanada

Calgary Public Library

Glenbow Museum

Joggins Fossil Institute

King Township Public Library

The Bertrand Russell Archives, William Ready Division of Archives and Research Collections, McMaster University Library

The Celtic Music Interpretive Centre Society

The University of Prince Edward Island project "A Living Archives"

The Wolfville Historical Society

Trinity Historical Society Inc.

China

Beijing Cultural Heritage Protection Center

Denmark

Karlebo Lokalhistoriske Arkiv (Karlebo Archives for Local History)

Kulturhistorisk Museum Randers (Cultural History Museum in Randers)

Germany

Universitätsbibliothek (University Library) Johann Christian Senckenberg

Greece

Foundation of the Hellenic World

India

Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts

Israel

Yad Tabenkin Archives

Norway

Blaker and Sørum historical society

Halden Public Library

Timbuktu Manuscripts Project: Catalogue Database

Peru

Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos/Biblioteca Central Pedro Zulen

Poland

KARTA Center Foundation/Archival Emergency Service

Spain

Kutxa

United Kingdom

The Freud Museum London

United States

Brigham Young University Library

Framingham Historical Society and Museum

Georgetown University, Joseph Mark Lauinger Library

Gunn Memorial Library

Hopkinton Public Library

Library Foundation of Los Angeles

Rochester Museum & Science Center

Simon Wiesenthal Center Library and Archives

The Historical Society of Newburgh Bay and the Highlands, NY

The Institute for Arts and Media, Journalism Department, The Mike Curb College of Arts, Media, and Communication, California State University

Virginia Historical Society

Webster Family Library of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University

About EMC

EMC Corporation is the world's leading developer and provider of information infrastructure technology and solutions that enable organisations of all sizes to transform the way they compete and create value from their information. Information about EMC's products and services can be found at www.EMC.co.uk.

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