The Library receives a MNRPVC grant!

Last week, the library received the wonderful news that they had been awarded a grant from the Minnesota Returned Peace Corps Volunteer organization (mnrpcv.org). MNRPVC gives small grants of up to $1000 to support the projects of Peace Corps Volunteers from Minnesota. As a 20-year resident of Minneapolis, I was happy to hear of this program and eager to apply.

Alime and Nadjie from the Acquistions Department sort through the copies of Lenin Banner.

A copy of Lenin Banner showing the deteriorating condition.

Nadjie and I look at a bound copy with Elvira from the Reading Hall.

In this project funded by the MNRPVC grant, the Gasprinskiy Library will continue their work of preserving historical documents about Crimean Tatar culture. The MNRPVC grant will especially help the preservation of the originals of Crimean Tatar language newspapers in the library collection. In particular, the library is concerned with the deterioration of the newspaper, Lenin Banner (a name which allowed the newspaper to be published with minimum scrutiny by the authorities). Published in the Crimean Tatar language in Uzbekistan during the Crimean Tatar exile, Lenin Banner is one of the most important documents to give a detailed description of the daily life of Crimean Tatar people in Uzbekistan, and thus is an invaluable resource in understanding this period in Crimean Tatar history. The Gasprinskiy Library possesses one of the few complete collections of the Lenin Banner, but because of the lack of funding to properly bind and protect the newspapers, the collection is deteriorating. Funds from a MNRPCV grant will allow the library to purchase the materials necessary to bind the newspapers into volumes that will lessen their deterioration and make them more usable for library patrons.  Funds from the grant will also allow the library to purchase a small printer capable of printing the necessary labeling and annotation of the newspapers.

We are very grateful to the Board of Directors and grant review committee of the MNRPVC for recognizing the importance of the work of the Gasprinskiy Library in preserving the cultural heritage of the Crimean Tatar people and agreeing to support that work with their MNRPVC Grants Program.