Greetings Colleagues, I trust you're well. Today I'm celebrating Percival Prattis, who in 1947 became the first African American news correspondent admitted to the Washington, DC House and Senate press galleries. Sustainability issues As you are aware, Alliance programs have been funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The current Expanding Library Support for Faculty Research grant was directly funded to the HBCU Library Alliance in October 2013. The goal of the project is to assess and strengthen library services in support of faculty research. An extension request for this project will be forwarded to Mellon later this month; there are remaining funds for project activities/personnel expenses until August. With previous grants, during the interim report stage Mellon indicated interest in a new round of funding. Mellon has informed us that insights, results from the final grant report will determine their interest in new funding. This creates a gap unless new funding is in place. My priority, and the Board's priority, is to identify/secure new sources of funding to support Alliance activities. The Board is meeting face-to-face in Atlanta on Thursday, March 12th; fund development/strategic planning is the focus of the meeting. As you receive our requests for information, please respond as soon as possible. Please contact me directly if you have questions or an interest in fund development. Respectfully, Sandra SANDRA M. PHOENIX Executive Director HBCU Library Alliance sphoenix@hbculibraries.org<mailto:sphoenix@hbculibraries.org> www.hbculibraries.org<http://www.hbculibraries.org/> 800-999-8558, ext. 4820 404-702-5854 Skype: sandra.phoenix1 1438 West Peachtree NW Suite 200 Atlanta,GA 30309 Toll Free: 1.800.999.8558 (LYRASIS) Fax: 404.892.7879 www.lyrasis.org<http://www.lyrasis.org/> Honor the ancestors, honor the children.