The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) will award grants of upto $6,000 on a non-matching basis to support the preservation of materials in collections-holding organizations. A focus of this program is to promote preservation planning and preservation training within the country’s smaller institutions. The application deadline is May 15.

Registration with Grants.gov is required and can take a couple of weeks so start this process now if you’re interested.

Eligible Activities: General preservation and conservation surveys conducted by a preservation professional; Attendance at preservation workshops and training programs, now including training in best practices for digitizing collections; Consultations with preservation professionals to develop a plan to address a specific preservation problem, including digital preservation issues

The 2008 grant application and guidelines are available at NEH’s website. Applicants will be asked to describe in detail the nature and significance of their collection. Call NEH to discuss your project and receive helpful tips for writing a successful application: 202-606-8570.

The Northeast Document Conservation Center (NEDCC) is a premier center for consultation and training on preservation and digitization of paper-based collections and photographs. NEDCC staff is available to support you in planning your grant application and in carrying out preservation surveys, on-site consultations, or preservation and digitization workshops. If you are interested in working with NEDCC to develop a proposal,please call the Center at (978) 470-1010, or email Angelina Altobellis, aaltobellis@nedcc.org.