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The Dole Institute of Politics, 2350 Petefish Drive, at the University of Kansas is pictured March 12, 2020.

The Dole Institute of Politics at the University of Kansas soon will become a center that helps people from across the world find and access the notes of past senators and members of Congress.

The Dole Institute is part of a group that has received a $60,000 grant to establish an online portal to search the private notes and papers of members of Congress. Senators and representatives often donate their private notes and papers to various institutions, but the variety of locations in which they are housed can make it difficult for researchers to access those papers.

The National Endowment for the Humanities awarded the grant to the Dole Institute, the Association for Centers for the Study of Congress and West Virginia University Libraries.

“This is really the first phase of a larger goal,” said Sarah D’Antonio Gard, senior archivist of the Robert and Elizabeth Dole archive and special collections. “This grant will allow us to develop and test the portal itself using a smaller set of items. Once we have it built, the hard work of expanding the portal to include materials from around the country will start.”

The National Archive maintains the official documents of Congress, but the many notes and other documents accumulated by members of Congress are not part of the National Archive. However, scholars and researchers often find those documents important in studying Congress and other issues.

The Dole Institute, located on KU’s West Campus, houses the papers of former Kansas Sen. Bob Dole, who was a longtime majority leader in the Senate and former GOP presidential nominee.

“This project will pave the way for increased use of congressional collections like the Dole Archives and lead to a deeper understanding of how Congress actually works,” Audrey Coleman, an associate director at the Dole Institute said.