State and Regional Grants

The MBLC provides grants of $4,200 to fund preservation needs assessments.  A five-year Preservation Long Range Plan based on assessment recommendations is required as an outcome of this grant.  The Plan and a copy of the assessment report must be filed with the MBLC at the completion of the project. Prior to applying, applicants must submit a Letter of Intent form with the “Preservation Survey” option checked off.

For more information, contact:
Gregor Trinkaus-Randall
Preservation Specialist
gregor.trinkaus-randall@state.ma.us or (800) 952-7403 ext. 236

Program Overview:
This program will support the preservation of library and/or archival research materials with significant research value, including informational materials in print, non-print, manuscript, or other format or medium. 

Eligible projects include, but are not limited to, preservation microfilming of eligible materials according to ANSI standards; hybrid approaches of preservation microfilming and digitization of the film for access or digitization and creation of preservation microfilm for the scans; conservation work and digitization of the materials for access; preservation of photographic formats and the creation of prints and negatives as part of this process; the binding, matting, boxing, or other protective enclosures for preserved materials; the repair or rebinding of discrete collections of eligible materials; major conservation treatment by a qualified conservator or conservation treatment facility; and special shelving or storage furniture for special format materials or for materials that will receive conservation treatment as part of a funded project and subsequently require special storage. 

The completion of a preservation needs assessment and a Preservation Long Range Plan is required to be eligible for this program.  Applicants must submit a Letter of Intent form with the “Preservation of Library and Archival Materials” option checked off.

Match: Applicants must provide at least one fifth of the total project costs.

For more information, contact:
Gregor Trinkaus-Randall
Preservation Specialist
gregor.trinkaus-randall@state.ma.us or (800) 952-7403 ext. 236

Program Overview:
The Community Preservation Act (CPA) is the result of nearly two decades of hard work devoted to passing legislation that would give all 351 Massachusetts cities and towns a tool to preserve their most unique natural, community, and built features in the face of rapid growth and development. CPA allows communities to create a local Community Preservation Fund for open space protection, historic preservation, affordable housing and outdoor recreation. Community preservation monies are raised locally through the imposition of a surcharge of not more than 3% of the tax levy against real property, and municipalities must adopt CPA by ballot referendum. View a map of all CPA communities, or learn more about CPA adoption.

The CPA statute also creates a statewide Community Preservation Trust Fund, administered by the Department of Revenue (DOR), which provides distributions each year to communities that have adopted CPA. These annual disbursements serve as an incentive for communities to pass CPA. Learn more about the distribution amounts received to date by CPA communities.

CPA funding can be used for the conservation and preservation of documents and artifacts as "Historic Resources." Learn more about funding conservation treatment through CPA funding.

Program Overview:

Grants are available to Connecticut municipalities.  Every municipality in good standing that submits a properly completed application for an eligible project by the appropriate deadline is eligible to receive a Targeted Grant from the fund.

Funding priorities for FY 2017 include:

• Assessment of current practices in the areas of preservation, records management, disaster preparedness, environmental control, or facilities design, with recommendations for improvements.
• Increased organization and access to town records through improved physical order or indexing, updated records management software, or other information technology.
• Improved records management and/or historic preservation practices within municipal departments.
• Improved records storage, maintenance and security through the purchase of appropriate equipment.
• Preservation of historic documents (original, non‐published records) through methods such as microfilming, reformatting, or conservation. 

Grant categories include:

• Inventory and Planning
• Organization and indexing
• Program Development
• Storages and Facilities
• Preservation and Conservation.

Eligible activities for which NEDCC can offer assistance include:

• Preservation Assessments
• Disaster Preparedness Assessments
• Consultation on Development of a Preservation Program
• Conservation treatment, digitization, or a combination of both

Match: none

For more information, contact:
Kathy Makover
Historic Documents Preservation Program
kathy.makover@ct.gov or (860) 566-1100 ext. 303

The Maine Humanities Council is a statewide, private, nonprofit, organization whose mission is to engage the people of Maine with the power and pleasure of ideas. The Council’s programs, and the projects which it supports through grants, are intended to encourage a deeper understanding of ourselves and others, foster wisdom in an age of information, and provide context in a time of change.

MHC is particularly interested in supporting projects that are collaborative, that stimulate meaningful community dialogue, attract diverse audiences, are participatory and engaging, and invite discovery of the humanities in interesting and exciting ways. Projects in rural areas, and projects that reach intergenerational audiences are also of particular interest. Grants are awarded to not-for-profit organizations that serve a Maine audience.

For more information, contact:
Anne Schlitt or Lizz Sinclair
207-773-5051 or 1-866-ME-READER

Program Overview:
The primary purpose of this program is to preserve Maine’s significant historical records (archives) and make them available to the public. Projects dealing with agricultural collections and Civil War collections are especially encouraged.

In general, the Maine Historical Records Advisory Board favors the following approaches: 

• Basic preservation steps, not intensive item-level conservation work.
• Describing your archival collection should be a logical process: A basic inventory of the entire collection, followed by a basic level of organization (description at the collection or series level; housed appropriately) before doing folder or item-level description. This program does not normally fund item-level description, except for photographs, which may be described individually at a basic level.
• Preservation of original information over preservation of the object.
• Cost effective approaches to the preservation of information.
• Digitization can be an effective method for improving access to a collection, but for most media, it is not a preservation method. Any digitization projects should also insure that the originals are archivally housed and are monitored.

 Match: 1:1

Program Overview:
The primary purpose of this program is to preserve Maine’s significant historical records (archives) and make them available to the public. Projects dealing with agricultural collections and Civil War collections are especially encouraged.

In general, the Maine Historical Records Advisory Board favors the following approaches:

• Basic preservation steps, not intensive item-level conservation work.
• Describing your archival collection should be a logical process: A basic inventory of the entire collection, followed by a basic level of organization (description at the collection or series level; housed appropriately) before doing folder or item-level description. This program does not normally fund item-level description, except for photographs, which may be described individually at a basic level.
• Preservation of original information over preservation of the object.
• Cost effective approaches to the preservation of information.
• Digitization can be an effective method for improving access to a collection, but for most media, it is not a preservation method. Any digitization projects should also insure that the originals are archivally housed and are monitored.
  
  

Program Overview:
The Conservation License Plate Program is a state of New Hampshire funding source available to non-profit institutions to implement and to conduct preservation and conservation activities on publicly owned artifacts, paper based collections, microfilm, photographs and manuscripts that contribute to New Hampshire’s historic and cultural heritage. Funding is made possible through the sale of Moose License Plates.

Eligible activities include preservation and/or conservation; consultant services and/or needs assessments; and digitization of conserved documents to facilitate increased access.

Match: none

Application instructions

For more information, contact:
Janet Eklund
Adminsitrator of Library Operations
janet.eklund@dcr.nh.gov or (603) 271-2393

Program Overview:
The Conservation Treatment Grant Program, administered by the Greater Hudson Heritage Network (Greater Hudson), in association with the Museum Program of the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA), provides support for treatment procedures to aid in stabilizing and preserving objects in collections of museums, historical and cultural organizations in New York State. The work must be performed by, or under direct supervision of, a professional conservator.

Match: none

IMPORTANT UPDATE! The GHHN application process is now PAPERLESS.
For more information on the new application process, grant guidelines, and listings of past grantees, please visit our website at:
http://www.greaterhudson.org/2016-conservation-treatment-grant.html

For more information, contact:
Priscilla Brendler
director@greaterhudson.org or (914) 414-6726

Funding for History Fund grants comes from three sources: donations of Ohio income tax refunds (the "tax check-off"), sales of Ohio History Mastadon license plates and individual contributions.

In the first three years of the Ohio History Fund, it has given almost $348,000 in grants to 33 local history projects in a quarter of Ohio's 88 counties. At the same time, the History Fund received more than $2.1 million in grant requests!

The History Fund's capability to make grants is limited only by the amount donated annually to the program. The more you give, the more we can grant to local history. Donate here.

LEARN MORE HERE
View funded projects here.

QUESTIONS?
Contact:
Ohio History Connection

In a bequest to The Rhode Island Foundation in 1994, Joseph O'Neill Ott, a leader in the preservation and antiquities community in the state, established a permanent endowment dedicated to document preservation. He requested that the income generated be used to preserve historical manuscripts, documents, and municipal records dating from the 19th century and earlier for the smaller cities and towns in Rhode Island.

Grants support direct conservation efforts for paper-based documents, photographs, and other two-dimensional historical evidence (excluding artwork). This can include conservation, preservation (including the purchase of containers or housing for documents), or to defray the costs associated with the acquisition of documents. Proposals that demonstrate concern about long-term storage issues or have planned document storage will be looked upon most favorably. All historical and preservation societies from the smaller cities and towns of Rhode Island are eligible to apply for an Ott grant.

For more information, contact:
Libby Monahan
Funds Administrator
(401) 427-4017

The purpose of this program is to digitize and provide access to non-digital collections of rare or unique content in cultural heritage institutions. Its aims are to enhance the emerging global digital research environment in ways that support new kinds of scholarship for the long term and to ensure that the full wealth of resources held by memory institutions becomes integrated with the open Web.

(The application process has two phases. The initial proposal round is open, and anyone interested in applying for a grant through this program must submit an initial proposal by April. The final proposal round is by invitation only. Only those applicants whose initial proposals have been approved by the program's review panel will be able to submit a final proposal.)

Eligible Formats
The range of media that can be termed special collections or archives is not restricted. Increasingly, valuable collections are composed of many formats, from paper, moving images on film or video, all types of sound recordings, ephemera, specimens, electronic files or data sets, works of art, to myriad types of artifacts. 

What qualifies as a hidden collection?
For the purposes of this program, applicants must convincingly argue that their collections are "hidden" in the sense that they cannot be exploited for important scholarly work until they are fully digitized, discoverable and accessible.

For complete grant information and eligibility requirements:
See the Digitizing Hidden Collections application guidelines. CLIR has verified that reformatting of appropriate hidden audio collections using IRENE would be eligible under this grant.

QUESTIONS?

For questions which are not answered in the application guidelines, contact CLIR program staff at hiddencollections@clir.org. During the application period, CLIR accepts inquiries by e-mail only; no phone calls, please.