The Center for History of Physics of the American Institute of Physics is pleased to announce a new program of grants to archives to make accessible records and papers which document the history of modern physics and allied fields (such as astronomy, geophysics, and optics). Grants can be up to $10,000 each and can be used only to cover direct expenses connected with preserving , inventorying, arranging, describing, or cataloging appropriate collections. Expenses may include acid-free storage materials and staff salary/benefits but not overhead.

The AIP Center's mission is to help preserve and make known the history of modern physics and allied fields, and this new grant program is intended to help support significant work to make original sources accessible to researchers. Preference will accordingly be given to medium size or larger projects for which the grant will be matched from other sources or by the parent organization. To apply send a letter of no more than three pages describing the research significance of the collection(s), plan of work, and budget, along with preliminary inventory (if available) and staff vitae to: Joe Anderson, Center for History of Physics, American Institute of Physics, One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740; fax 301-209-0882; e-mail: ria@aip.org.

For grant guidelines or for more information on the Center and its programs, check our website at http://www.aip.org/history/grntgde.htm, or call 301-209-3165,

Chadwyck-Healey has announced a pricing experiment that could make one of its Web databases free to the public, K-12, and academic libraries in North America. It has set a pledge goal of $400,000 for one of its Web products and is asking for pledges from all consortia, states, and archival repositories. If the goal is met, the product, Archives USA, will be free on the web to all educational and academic institutions in the US and Canada for a year.

The offer will be repeated for two more years. The goal in the next two subsequent years will remain the same, and users will be asked to pledge according to their usage during the first year. The company already has approximately $125,000 towards the goal and verbal agreements for another $50,000 at this time. The deadline for meeting the goal is April 30, 1998.

Archives USA provides information on nearly 4,400 US repositories and over 100,000 manuscript and other special collections in a fully searchable format by linking three major resources - DAMRUS (Directory of Archives and Manuscript Repositories in the US); NUCMC (National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections); and NIDS US (National Inventory of Documentary Sources in the US).

Dr. Frank G. Burke, University of Maryland, said, "The triumvirate of DAMRUS, NUCMC and NIDS in Archives USA provides a fascinating new tool which will solve the problem that researchers have had in using three different tools to search on documentary collections."

More details about the campaign can be found on the web at: http://www.chadwyck.com or by contacting Eileen Lawrence, Vice-President of Sales, toll-free at (800) 752-0515 or (703) 683-4890, or by e-mail at archivesusa@chadwyck.com.

Page 8, Spring 1998 Newsletter