Archives- Detailed Processing Projects

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The National Historical Publications and Records Commission seeks proposals for detailed processing and preservation of collections of national significance. The collections also should have high research demand or substantial preservation challenges. To apply in this category, repositories must have virtually all of their collections processed sufficiently so that researchers can find them through online searches, and they must have procedures in place to prevent the creation of new backlogs. If the applicant has not achieved these goals, it is ineligible for this category and should review the NHPRC’s Archives - Basic Projects grant announcement. In general, proposals should describe how the repository will process and create detailed descriptions at the series or file level. In the course of such processing, some selective refoldering and basic cleaning may be needed, and applicants must explain whether any item level treatment will be necessary, including removing fasteners, opening envelopes, and flattening, copying, encapsulating, de-acidifying, and mending documents. Projects should revise corresponding collection-level records and submit them to national library catalogs. In general, they should also create or revise detailed finding aids using Encoded Archival Description (EAD) and provide them to a national archival database and appropriate regional and institutional databases. If descriptive methods besides EAD are necessary for the collection, applicants should justify their selection of these methods. For collections of fragile textual materials, applicants may apply for grants in support of preservation reformatting. If parts of collections deserve item-level processing, proposals must justify this detailed work and provide estimates of the percentage of collections to be processed to the item level. When appropriate, applicants should consider hybrid microfilm/digitization (using dual head cameras, or microfilm-to-digital or digital-to-microfilm techniques). Applicants may propose limited digitization of series or items that have the most potential to benefit a broad public, or that provide illustrations of the type of records and documents found in the series and collection. Applications should detail the standards to be used in this process, itemize anticipated expenses, and estimate the percentage of the collections to be digitized. Applicants who wish only to engage in digitization of textual or visual materials, should see the Digitizing Historical Records announcement. For collections of unstable audio, film, or video materials, applicants may propose preservation reformatting or migration to appropriate analog or digital formats. Applicants should also outline their publicity and outreach plans for promoting use of collections. For a comprehensive list of Commission limitations on funding, please see What we do and do not fund (http://www.archives.gov/nhprc/apply/eligibility.html). Additional requirements and information can be found in the full version of the grant announcement, linked below.

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