EMC Helps Preserve the World's Culture through Digitization of Historical Artifacts

HOPKINTON, Mass., Dec. 22, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC) today announced three organizations as grant recipients of the 2014 EMC Heritage Trust Project. The grants will support projects that practice and encourage the stewardship of cultural information in local communities in the UK, Canada and India.

Founded in 2007, EMC's Information Heritage Initiative program helps advance the conservation of information heritage through digitization around the world, allowing readily accessible online research and education. In conjunction with the program, the EMC Heritage Trust Project recognizes and supports local people and local projects that practice and inspire the digital stewardship of the world's information heritage. To date, EMC has recognized more than 40 projects with Heritage Trust grants and, through the broader EMC Information Heritage Initiative program, has donated more than $35 million.

To learn more about the Information Heritage Trust Project, read about past recipients and watch videos on current projects, including one of the 2014 winners – Digitizing the Christmas Lectures – visit EMC's new Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/emccorp/app_1416254715287343

2014 Grant Recipients

• Digitizing the Christmas Lectures, United Kingdom – Since 1825, the Royal Institution's Christmas Lectures have provided children and young adults engaging talks on scientific topics from leading British scientists, inspiring generations of young people on the magic of scientific discovery. In 1966, the lectures began broadcasting on national television, and are now considered a priceless part of modern Britain's heritage. The Royal Institution's Heritage Trust Grant will be used to digitize all Christmas Lecture recordings from 1966 on, making them available to audiences around the world.
• The Nikkei National Museum's Internment Project, Canada – The Nikkei National Museum is dedicated to preserving and making accessible photographs and artifacts that tell the difficult history of the Japanese Canadian internment camps during World War II. The Museum has the largest collection of artifacts, and through digitization, would be able to make the collection available to researchers around the world. Through its EMC Heritage Trust Grant, the Museum plans to add 2,000-4,000 new items to its online database.
• The Merasi Legacy Project, U.S./India – US-based non-profit, Folk Arts Rajasthan (FAR) and India-based NGO, Lok Kala Sagar Sansthan (LKSS) are two organizations working to preserve the cultural heritage of the Mesari of northwestern India as storytellers. Through educational programming, the organizations are working to perpetuate the Merasi cultural legacy while balancing the opportunities and challenges of modernization. EMC's Heritage Trust Grant will work towards adding recordings, files, and objects to a growing archive that will soon be available online.

The EMC Heritage Trust Project grant recipients were selected based on the following criteria: potential size of the audience that would benefit from access to the information they are seeking to protect; the at-risk status of the information and why it is urgent to digitize; and how beneficial the EMC grant would be to the overall success of the project.

Nominations for the 2015 Heritage Trust Project will open in May 2015. For more information on the EMC Heritage Trust Project, visit: https://www.facebook.com/emccorp/app_222471081145150

EMC Quote

Jessica Anderson, Director, Community Involvement, EMC Corporation

"Preserving cultural artifacts and making them accessible to people around the world is so important. It allows information to be seen by a much wider audience, and provides historic background for future generations to build on. Thanks to modern technology and digitization efforts, more communities around the world are sharing their stories. EMC is proud to help global communities with their efforts. Congratulations to our 2014 grant recipients."

About EMC
EMC Corporation is a global leader in enabling businesses and service providers to transform their operations and deliver IT as a service. Fundamental to this transformation is cloud computing.  Through innovative products and services, EMC accelerates the journey to cloud computing, helping IT departments to store, manage, protect and analyze their most valuable asset — information — in a more agile, trusted and cost-efficient way. Additional information about EMC can be found at www.EMC.com.

EMC is a registered trademark of EMC Corporation in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

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SOURCE EMC Corporation

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