Eastern Illinois’ Booth Library was selected as one out of 20 locations for the “Benjamin Franklin: In Search of a Better World” exhibit.

The exhibit is part of the National Endowment for the Humanities program “We are the People.” A program that according to neh.gov “aims to inspire the best of citizenship through the reinvigoration of the teaching, study and understanding of American history and culture.”

The 1,000-square-foot exhibit will run for six weeks at Booth Library, but Dean of Library Services Allen Lanham says the details of when the exhibit may exactly be on campus is still up in the air.

“Right now, we don’t even know when we’re going to get it,” Lanham said. “It could be anywhere from the next 4 to 5 years.”

Lanham said when they submitted their grant proposal to NEH, they asked for specific times when the exhibit would come, but he is still unaware of when it may actually arrive.

However, they also gave dates of when EIU would not accept the exhibit such as times during Eastern winter break and other times when students are not on campus. He said that it would be important to know ahead of time when the exhibit would arrive so Booth Library would have a proper amount of time to get ready for the exhibit.

“We have to prepare a variety of activities for the six weeks the exhibit is here,” Lanham said.

Up to 50 activities can be used while the exhibit is here including professor lectures, student activities, films and many more. With preparation times, Lanham said the “Frankenstein” exhibit had 3 years to prepare and the “Farm Life” and “Elizabeth the First” exhibits both had a year.

“Since we know the exhibit is coming here, we will start planning on how it can infiltrate the lives of everyone on campus,” Lanham said.

Lanham said he is happy that Eastern was selected and that he feels it’s a prestigious honor because out of the 20 sites selected, the libraries can be both public and academic.

“It’s an honor to be chosen because it is highly competitive,” Lanham said.

But he admitted the way he discovered the information was unusual.

“Yesterday we received a certificate from the National Endowment for the Humanities, so that alerted us to the fact that we might have been chosen,” Lanham said.

His confirmation came from reading newspapers and looking at NEH’s web site.

Eastern, since being chosen as one of the sites, will receive a variety of promotional and educational material that will coordinate with the theme of the “Benjamin Franklin” exhibit. Eastern will also receive a $1,000 grant from NEH that could take away from the cost of travel or other programs associate with the exhibit.

The exhibit traveling program will begin in November. The program “We are the People” have donated $51 million throughout the United States according to neh.gov.