The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) must be rather proud of the grant it made to a consortium led by the Rutgers University Libraries and the New Jersey State Library in 2003. A report on the award-winning project, the New Jersey Digital Highway, with quotes by project leader and Libraries digital projects manager Linda Langschied, is featured on the frontpage of the IMLS website - http://www.imls.gov/index.shtm.

The New Jersey Digital Highway is an exciting collaboration between the state's cultural heritage institutions and New Jersey educators to preserve our rich historical resources and make them widely accessible, in a heavily digital environment. A key feature of the "New Jersey Digital Highway" is the active involvement of New Jersey educators in the development of lesson plans and engaging activities that build upon the digital collections around the state.

Partners in the development of the "New Jersey Digital Highway" include the American Labor Museum/Botto House National Landmark, the New Jersey State Archives, and the New Jersey Historical Society. Agencies participating in collection building include the Camden County Historical Society, Trinity Episcopal "Old Swedes" Church, Rutgers-Newark Professor Dr. Kimberly D. Holton's Ethnographic Oral History Collection of Newark's Ironbound district, the Seabrook Educational and Cultural Center, and WNET (Channel 13).

The IMLS story notes that the Rutgers University Libraries were a crucial partner in the project, due to their "national reputation as a high-tech troubleshooter," and that the project website now receives more than 10,000 visitors each month. The story also highlights the many satisfied beneficiaries of the project in libraries and cultural institutions across New Jersey, as well a few 'byproducts' of the project that have provided significant added value - beyond the project itself and beyond the state's borders.

To view the New Jersey Digital Highway, please see: http://www.njdigitalhighway.org/