Fire Protection for Special Collections at the University of North Carolina

FAIN: PF-50017-10

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Chapel Hill, NC 27599-1350)
Richard V. Szary (Project Director: December 2009 to August 2013)

An implementation project to install a fire suppression system in the University's Louis Round Wilson Special Collections Library, a repository concentrating especially on Southern history and culture.

The collections in the Louis Round Wilson Special Collections Library are among the most significant research resources at the University of North Carolina and serve a wide range of educational and research purposes for humanities scholars in Chapel Hill and beyond. Developed over more than a century and a half, the special collections in Wilson Library reflect a tremendous investment of thought, dedication, and resources in building one of the nation's preeminent research collections. The Library has a long-standing commitment to the preservation of its special collections and has provided many of the resources needed to fulfill this goal. One of the most critical unmet needs, however, is the installation of a building-wide sprinkler system. In the current challenging economic climate, funds for capital expenditures are very limited. Funding from the NEH to install sprinklers for the special collections stack areas will be a major first step towards meeting this critical need.