March is turning out to be a heckuva month for the Special Collections here at McArthur.

First of all, we found out we’d received a $1200.00 grant from the state of Maine’s New Century Community Program “Historical Records Collections Grants for Cataloging Software and Training”. We’ll be using this money to purchase specialized software for cataloging archival, history, artifact and media collections. I am especially excited to have the resources to begin to professionally catalog our image collections.

Then, today, I found out we’d been awarded a $1500.00 Institute for Museum and Library Services/Bank of America Foundation “American Heritage Preservation Program” grant. This grant is going to pay for the conservation of an 1848 map of the downtown and mill areas of Biddeford and Saco, and is the oldest map our library owns. It will also pay for remote environmental monitoring equipment, which will help us better care for our collections.

What is so neat about this map is that it is our library’s oldest view of the downtown area and the footprint of the mills and downtown buildings. The library is going to pay out of its own pocket to have a digital copy created as well as a surrogate use copy to hang up for the public to enjoy. It will take some time for the work to be done, but we will all look forward to it.

Thank you state of Maine, Institute for Museum and Library Services, and Bank of America Foundation!!!!