LEWISTON – The Advisory Board for the Franco-American Collection at the University of Southern Maine’s Lewiston-Auburn College met recently to approve recent acquisitions and to discuss the possibility of accepting significant new acquisitions and the resulting need to expand the facility.

Program plans for the next academic year were also reviewed, including outreach and collaborative efforts with other community organizations.

Board members are Chairwoman Georgette Berube, Maureen Perry, Madeleine Roy, Anne Caldwell, Roger Philippon, Collection Coordinator Donat Boisvert, Mary Rice-DeFosse, Cindy Larock, Tracey Mousseau, Dr. Barry Rodrigue, assistant professor and scholar attached to the collection, Larry Mathieu, Robert Gilbert, Lisa Clark and Marcel Gagne.

The Franco-American Collection, formerly known as the Centre d’Heritage Franco-Americain, is the largest archival collection of Franco-American history and culture in Maine. It contains material on politics, religion, language, education, business, politics and the arts.

The collection is open to the public from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays and Wednesdays and 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Thursdays.

Anyone in possession of material relating to the history and culture of Franco-Americans (photos, scrapbooks, journals, news clippings) that they might wish to donate to the collection is encouraged to visit or call 753-6545.