University of Miami receives $2.4M to expand Cuban Heritage Collection

The University of Miami has received a $2.4 million gift from a private organization to enhance its prestigious Cuban Heritage Collection housed inside the Otto G. Richter Library at its Coral Gables campus.

The gift comes from The Goizueta Foundation and will go to expand the reach of the collection. The foundation is named after the late Roberto Goizueta, a Cuban-born businessman who served as CEO and chairman of the Coca Cola Co. in the 1980s and '90s.

Goizueta was an early benefactor of the Cuban Heritage Collection, one of the largest collections of Cuban and Cuban diaspora materials in the world.

It includes rare books, manuscripts, photographs, maps, architectural drawings, prints, broadsides, posters, audio visual materials, newspapers and journals and other materials.

Part of the grant will also establish the Richter Library'sFellowship Programs in a partnership with the College of Arts and Sciences to attract students and scholars and cultivate the use of the unique collection for research.

Housed on the second floor of the library in the Roberto C. Goizueta Pavillion, it attracts students, scholars and academics who use it for research on Cuban history, culture and politics.

The grant of $2,443,500, which will be spread over five years, will go to acquire, preserve and process documents, books and other materials. It will also support the digitization of materials, including website development and marketing efforts.

The grant will help launch a lecture series designed to showcase the collection and its relevance and establish fellowship programs within the UM libraries and the College of Arts and Sciences and launch a lecture series.

(Via Miami Herald)