Thank you for supporting our project to digitize and make accessible all of the Maryland Men's Basketball footage in the UMD Archives! We wanted to share some exciting news with you about recognition our project recently received! The "Preserve Maryland Basketball" video here on the Launch site won a national award, an ARLie from the Association of Research Libraries in the Best of Development/Fundraising Films category. The ARLies Film Festival, hosted by the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) Member Engagement and Outreach Committee, highlights and shares videos developed by member institutions to increase knowledge and use of libraries, their spaces, services, collections, and expertise. You can read more about the ARLies and our winning submission here: https://www.arl.org/arl-film-festival-2020-the-arlies/. 

#GivingTuesday 2019 is fast approaching--only 2 days away! The UMD Libraries will be focusing their fundraising efforts that day on our efforts to preserve Maryland Basketball history, and we are looking forward to this challenge. Our goal is $10,000 by midnight on December 3! We appreciate your support in the past for this project and would be delighted if you would give an additional gift on Tuesday at https://go.umd.edu/preserveMBB_Giving_Tuesday_2019  You can also help us by spreading the word to family, friends, and fans of UMD MBB! Thank you for all you have done to help make this project a success!

Tom McMillen has pledged $20,000 and Len and Gail Elmore have pledged $10,000 in support of our digitization project.  Help us match their commitment to this critical preservation initiative by making a gift today! Our Launch campaign has been extended until April 8, so please share the word about our work!

A special thank-you as well to an anonymous donor for supporting this project through a $10,000 match! 

Last week the folks at Maryland Today gave our project a great shout-out in their story "Driesell, Digitized." You can read the whole piece and learn more about the progress of our work at: https://today.umd.edu/articles/driesell-digitized-435a566f-efde-41ed-ac1c-d3d348e28ba1.

Thank you for your continued support to Help Preserve Maryland Basketball History and for your assistance in spreading the word about our efforts.

We've had a blast this week watching the reaction to the posting of one of the videos recently digitized as part of our project to Help Preserve Maryland Basketball History. When University Archivist Anne Turkos and Athletics Archivist Amanda Hawk visited Coach Lefty Driesell in 2016, he gave them 113 pieces of film and videotape that were recently converted as part of this campaign. On Thursday, we posted the first of these pieces on our University of Maryland University Archives Facebook page, and within two days, the video has been viewed over 4,000 times! The video, entitled "House of Dreams," was prepared in 2002 to mark the closing of Cole Field House, and memories of that historic arena obviously still resonate with former players and Terrapin fans everywhere.

You can find more information about Lefty's gift and our work to save these treasures on our blog, Terrapin Tales, at https://umdarchives.wordpress.com/2018/12/13/leftys-legacy-saved-in-digital-collections and view additional pieces digitized via go.umd.edu/leftyfootage.

Thank you for your gifts to Help Preserve Maryland Basketball History, and please share information about our project with friends and family and on your social media. Our Launch campaign continues through March 8, and we need your support.