[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 36, Number 12 (Monday, March 27, 2000)]
[Pages 614-615]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Message to the Congress Transmitting the Report of the National 
Endowment for the Humanities

March 22, 2000

To the Congress of the United States:

    I am pleased to transmit the 1998 annual report of the National 
Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), the Federal agency charged with 
advancing knowledge and public education in the humanities. Throughout 
1998, the agency provided crucial support to hundreds of research and 
educational projects throughout the United States and its territories. 
The Endowment also provided grants to innovative educational projects 
employing the latest computer technologies, as well as to efforts to 
preserve library and archival resources and make such resources 
available to schools, scholars, and citizens.
    In 1998, the NEH continued to exercise leadership in applying 
technology to the humanities. The Endowment launched Schools for a New 
Millennium, a program that provides funding to schools to further 
humanities education through the creative use of new technologies. In 
Lawrence, Kansas, one Schools for a New Millennium project is digitizing 
photographs and historical documents for use in junior high classrooms. 
The Endowment also extended its Internet strategy by expanding its 
EDSITEment project in partnership with the Council of Great City Schools 
and MCI WorldCom, more than doubling the number of high quality 
humanities sites available to students and teachers.
    I am especially pleased by another of the agency's partnerships 
employing both the Internet and traditional broadcasting. The Endowment 
is partnering with the White House Millennium Council on the 
presentation of ``Millennium Evenings at the White House,'' a series of 
showcase events that explore the ideas and creativity of the American 
people on the eve of a new millennium. These programs feature prominent 
scholars and creative thinkers and are accessible to the public by 
satellite and cable broadcasts, and many State humanities councils are 
coordinating local downlink sites. With support from SUN Microsystems, 
these lectures and discussions are cybercast live from the East Room in 
the White House. Viewers can submit questions via the Internet to the 
guest speaker or to the First Lady and me.
    The NEH is well-known for its support of documentary films based on 
a collaboration between filmmakers and humanities scholars. In 1998, the 
Endowment maintained this tradition of excellence with its support of 
Eleanor Roosevelt, which drew upon outstanding new historical 
scholarship, archival films, photographs, and first-hand testimonies to 
paint a vivid portrait of one of America's most outstanding women.
    The Endowment's grants also addressed the long-term needs of the 
Nation's cultural and academic institutions. In 1998, the NEH created a 
special program designed to aid the Nation's public libraries in serving 
the public with humanities programming. Among the institutions aided in 
1998 by Challenge Grants was the African American Research

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Library and Cultural Center, a new facility created by the Broward 
County Public Library to serve Broward County's growing and diverse 
population.
    Through its Preservation Programs, the NEH is preserving the content 
of hundreds of thousands of brittle books, periodicals, and American 
newspapers--priceless sources for present and future historians and 
scholars. The Endowment's initiative to save much materials is now 
entering its tenth year, and will preserve nearly a million books and 
periodicals by the time it is completed. The U.S. Newspaper Project, an 
equally important effort to microfilm historic newspapers, is creating a 
comprehensive national database for scholars, students, and citizens who 
wish to research their community's history.
    In November 1998, the First lady and I joined the Endowment in 
honoring at the White House nine distinguished Americans with the 
National Medal of the Humanities. Through these awards and its grants 
programs, the National Endowment for the Humanities recognizes and 
promotes outstanding efforts to deepen public awareness and 
understanding of the humanities.
                                            William J. Clinton
The White House,
March 22, 2000.