 Since 1976, the Council has distributed over $4 million in grants to Maine libraries, museums, historical societies, colleges, schools, literacy groups, adult education programs, towns, and other organizations.In 2002, the Council's Literature & Medicine program was named as a Patient Quality Initiative by the Maine Hospital Association.The program then received the 2003 Helen & Martin Schwartz Prize for Excellence in Public Programming from the Federation of State Humanities Councils.