The Endangered Archives Programme is now accepting applications for the next round of funding. Please share this information and consider applying if you know of any collection of records that needs assistance in conservation and digitisation.
You may be interested to see that the majority of grants from the last funding round have now been awarded. Details of the successful projects are available on the EAP website http://eap.bl.uk/database/awards.a4d?award=2012 The digital collections from 17 projects are also now available for access through the EAP website http://eap.bl.uk/index.a4d#coll
CALL FOR APPLICATIONS
The Endangered Archives Programme at the British Library is now accepting grant applications for the next round of funding. Detailed information on the timetable, criteria, eligibility and procedures for applying for a grant is available on the Programme’s website. Applications will be accepted in English or in French. The deadline for receipt of preliminary grant applications is 2 November 2012.
Since it was established eight years ago, the Programme has so far funded 190 projects worldwide with grants totalling £4.9 million. The Programme is funded by Arcadia, in pursuit of one of its charitable aims to preserve and disseminate cultural knowledge and to promote education and research. The aim of the Programme is to contribute to the preservation of archival material worldwide that is in danger of destruction, neglect or physical deterioration. The endangered archival material will normally be located in countries where resources and opportunities to preserve such material are lacking or limited.
The Programme’s objectives are achieved principally by awarding grants to applicants to locate relevant endangered archival collections, where possible to arrange their transfer to a suitable local archival home, and to deposit copies with local institutions and the British Library. Pilot projects are particularly welcomed, to investigate the survival of archival collections on a particular subject, in a discrete region, or in a specific format, and the feasibility of their recovery.
To be considered for funding under the Programme, the archival material should relate to a ‘pre-modern' period of a society's history. There is no prescriptive definition of this, but it may typically mean, for instance, any period before industrialisation. The relevant time period will therefore vary according to the society.
For the purposes of the Programme, the term ‘archival material’ is interpreted widely to include rare printed books, newspapers and periodicals, audio and audio-visual materials, photographs and manuscripts.
The Programme is keen to enhance local capabilities to manage and preserve archival collections in the future and it is essential that all projects include local archival partners in the country where the project is based. Professional training for local staff is one of the criteria for grant application assessment, whether it is in the area of archival collection management or technical training in digitisation.
The Programme is administered by the British Library and applications are considered in an annual competition by an international panel of historians and archivists.
For further details of application procedures and documentation as well as EAP projects and collections, please visit the Programme’s website: http://eap.bl.uk/
Email: endangeredarchives@bl.uk
Showing posts with label Endangered Archives Programme. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Endangered Archives Programme. Show all posts
Friday, 14 September 2012
Monday, 19 September 2011
The Endangered Archives Programme - new round of grants open and an example of recent project
The Endangered Archives Programme is funded by Arcadia and managed by the British Library, and offers a number of grants every year to individual researchers world-wide to locate vulnerable archival collections, to arrange their transfer wherever possible to a suitable local archival home, and to deliver copies into the international research domain via the British Library.
NB The specific focus of this Programme is upon archives relating to the pre-industrial stages of a society's development, whether in Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, or even Europe.
These grants will be the primary means by which Arcadia will contribute to the urgent task of identifying, preserving and making accessible such archival collections before they are lost to international scholarship forever.
How to Apply
Applications are now invited for the Pilot Project Grant and Major Research Project Grant schemes. All applicants must initially submit a preliminary application.
The deadline for submission of preliminary applications is 4 November 2011.
After assessment of the preliminary applications has taken place, only those subsequently invited to do so may submit a detailed application.
The deadline for submission of detailed applications is 24 February 2012.
Applicants will be informed of the outcome of their applications by the end of May 2012.
All the application documentation can be found here.
Applicants must read carefully the Guidelines for Applicants (PDF format 52KB) and Terms and Conditions of Award (PDF format 49KB) and refer to these documents for details on how to submit an application.
An August Accession
During August material was received from a number of projects including:
EAP279: A rescue programme for the Matsieng Royal Archives, Lesotho
Mrs Celina Qobo, National University of Lesotho
2009 award - Major project
£13,956 for 12 months
The Royal Family of Lesotho has been based in Matsieng since just after the 1858 war, when Matsieng was established by the second Lesotho king, Mohato (Letsie 1). Matsieng is near Morija, the original missionary settlement in Lesotho dating from 1843, where King Letsie 111 was born. The royal family has been based at Matsieng continuously since the founding of Matsieng, which has been a 'royal hub' of the Basotho kingship and chieftainship. The documents that have accumulated at Matsieng cover material dating from the early 19th century. The collection includes records of historical, political, legal and economic significance:
•records on chieftainship and succession to high office
•court proceedings and judgements
•boundary disputes and resolutions
•traditional marriage systems and records
•inheritance documentation and disputes
•official speeches
•correspondence (of national and international significance, as it includes official communications between Lesotho and the UK, and diplomatic contacts with many other countries)
•books and serials
•official administrative records covering the colonial period
•records of public works
•financial records of governmental divisions
Most of this material is unique. Repatriation of the Royal Archives material will allow a much more comprehensive, complete and coherent record to be established, documenting the national history of Lesotho from the early 19th century.
The material was in poor storage at the Royal residence in Matsieng, Lesotho. The ceiling then collapsed leaving the materials exposed to rain. The University Archives arranged 'emergency repatriation' in December 2007 and January 2008. The material is all paper, though in a range of physical formats: papers in folders, paper assembled with treasury tags, ledgers and other bound record books, and many stacks of individual papers.
The University has fumigated the material and re-boxed it, with box-level content listing. About 20% of the material may be too damaged to scan; about 40% is damaged but copying should be possible. This project will scan all the documents from Matsieng that can be scanned. The files will be organised by a database, with detailed cataloguing in the archive's existing system. Additionally, each document will exist as a PDF of one or more scans, accessible from a digital library using the Greenstone (open source) software. The University will host one copy of the digital library, the Internet Archive will also host the collection, and the full data will be available to the British Library.
NB The specific focus of this Programme is upon archives relating to the pre-industrial stages of a society's development, whether in Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, or even Europe.
These grants will be the primary means by which Arcadia will contribute to the urgent task of identifying, preserving and making accessible such archival collections before they are lost to international scholarship forever.
How to Apply
Applications are now invited for the Pilot Project Grant and Major Research Project Grant schemes. All applicants must initially submit a preliminary application.
The deadline for submission of preliminary applications is 4 November 2011.
After assessment of the preliminary applications has taken place, only those subsequently invited to do so may submit a detailed application.
The deadline for submission of detailed applications is 24 February 2012.
Applicants will be informed of the outcome of their applications by the end of May 2012.
All the application documentation can be found here.
Applicants must read carefully the Guidelines for Applicants (PDF format 52KB) and Terms and Conditions of Award (PDF format 49KB) and refer to these documents for details on how to submit an application.
An August Accession
During August material was received from a number of projects including:
EAP279: A rescue programme for the Matsieng Royal Archives, Lesotho
Mrs Celina Qobo, National University of Lesotho
2009 award - Major project
£13,956 for 12 months
The Royal Family of Lesotho has been based in Matsieng since just after the 1858 war, when Matsieng was established by the second Lesotho king, Mohato (Letsie 1). Matsieng is near Morija, the original missionary settlement in Lesotho dating from 1843, where King Letsie 111 was born. The royal family has been based at Matsieng continuously since the founding of Matsieng, which has been a 'royal hub' of the Basotho kingship and chieftainship. The documents that have accumulated at Matsieng cover material dating from the early 19th century. The collection includes records of historical, political, legal and economic significance:
•records on chieftainship and succession to high office
•court proceedings and judgements
•boundary disputes and resolutions
•traditional marriage systems and records
•inheritance documentation and disputes
•official speeches
•correspondence (of national and international significance, as it includes official communications between Lesotho and the UK, and diplomatic contacts with many other countries)
•books and serials
•official administrative records covering the colonial period
•records of public works
•financial records of governmental divisions
Most of this material is unique. Repatriation of the Royal Archives material will allow a much more comprehensive, complete and coherent record to be established, documenting the national history of Lesotho from the early 19th century.
The material was in poor storage at the Royal residence in Matsieng, Lesotho. The ceiling then collapsed leaving the materials exposed to rain. The University Archives arranged 'emergency repatriation' in December 2007 and January 2008. The material is all paper, though in a range of physical formats: papers in folders, paper assembled with treasury tags, ledgers and other bound record books, and many stacks of individual papers.
The University has fumigated the material and re-boxed it, with box-level content listing. About 20% of the material may be too damaged to scan; about 40% is damaged but copying should be possible. This project will scan all the documents from Matsieng that can be scanned. The files will be organised by a database, with detailed cataloguing in the archive's existing system. Additionally, each document will exist as a PDF of one or more scans, accessible from a digital library using the Greenstone (open source) software. The University will host one copy of the digital library, the Internet Archive will also host the collection, and the full data will be available to the British Library.
Wednesday, 6 April 2011
Endangered Archives Programme updates
Two new additions to the Endangered Archives Programme are noted relevant to "Commonwealth Studies" and described in the British Library's Endangered Archives blog. The comments below are largely taken from this blog and the Endangered Archives Programme website.
The first is a pilot project which will investigate the possibility of rescuing endangered archival materials within the Public Records and Archives Administration's (PRAAD) regional branch in Tamale, Northern Ghana. This project will conduct a survey of the endangered archival materials which are threatened due to inadequate facilities for conservation, overuse and deterioration from humidity and other hazards of the tropical climate. Some of the documents most urgently in need of preservation will be digitised, in order to preserve their content and also as a mechanism for training the Archive's staff.
Many of the documents date back to the pre-colonial and colonial periods of Ghanaian history. They are important not only in terms of preserving the history and culture of northern Ghana but also for their potential impact on historical scholarship, legal matters and public policy.
Located 400 miles north of the Atlantic coast in West Africa, Tamale was founded in early 1907 by the British as an administrative centre for the Northern Territories of the Gold Coast. British Direct Commissioners were stationed there, reporting to the governor in Accra on colonial and administrative matters. PRAAD's holdings in Tamale now include these reports, recording colonial disputes, administrative tasks, boundary discussions, court proceedings, land tenure and chieftancy affairs, as well as correspondence with the missionary church in the Northern Territories. The archives also contain historical manuscripts on diverse subjects including slavery and the history and culture of northern Ghana. The extent of the archives is quite large, containing over 30,000 boxes and approximately 2,100,000 individual records.
The second project, entitled, "Before the war, after the war: preserving history in Sierra Leone" aims to relocate, survey and list the endangered collections of the Sierra Leone Archives, and to digitise a selection of the Liberated African Letter Books. These registers record slave ships captured by navy patrols, and list those men, women and children released at the Vice-Admiralty Court at Freetown.The collections also include treaties between local chiefs and the new settlement from 1788 to the 20th century, documents on land disputes; legislative council minutes; Aborigines Department letter books; birth and death records for the colony; and the 1790s journal of John Clarkson, brother of abolitionist Thomas Clarkson.
The rationale for this project arises both from the importance of the Sierra Leone archives to the study of trans-Atlantic slavery, and the terrible conditions of surviving documents following the Sierra Leone civil war. The intention is to put into place a plan to digitise the Sierra Leone archives as part of a wider plan to assist Sierra Leone in the recovery and preservation of documents and materials both in Sierra Leone and abroad, that relate to the history of the country and the African diaspora origins of its population.
Both projects offer exciting opportunities for records not only to be preserved but also allowing these documents to be made use of. The Endangered Archives Programme continues to accept applications and should be consulted by anyone keen to ensure documentary records are not allowed to be lost due to physical deterioration.
The first is a pilot project which will investigate the possibility of rescuing endangered archival materials within the Public Records and Archives Administration's (PRAAD) regional branch in Tamale, Northern Ghana. This project will conduct a survey of the endangered archival materials which are threatened due to inadequate facilities for conservation, overuse and deterioration from humidity and other hazards of the tropical climate. Some of the documents most urgently in need of preservation will be digitised, in order to preserve their content and also as a mechanism for training the Archive's staff.
Many of the documents date back to the pre-colonial and colonial periods of Ghanaian history. They are important not only in terms of preserving the history and culture of northern Ghana but also for their potential impact on historical scholarship, legal matters and public policy.
Located 400 miles north of the Atlantic coast in West Africa, Tamale was founded in early 1907 by the British as an administrative centre for the Northern Territories of the Gold Coast. British Direct Commissioners were stationed there, reporting to the governor in Accra on colonial and administrative matters. PRAAD's holdings in Tamale now include these reports, recording colonial disputes, administrative tasks, boundary discussions, court proceedings, land tenure and chieftancy affairs, as well as correspondence with the missionary church in the Northern Territories. The archives also contain historical manuscripts on diverse subjects including slavery and the history and culture of northern Ghana. The extent of the archives is quite large, containing over 30,000 boxes and approximately 2,100,000 individual records.
The second project, entitled, "Before the war, after the war: preserving history in Sierra Leone" aims to relocate, survey and list the endangered collections of the Sierra Leone Archives, and to digitise a selection of the Liberated African Letter Books. These registers record slave ships captured by navy patrols, and list those men, women and children released at the Vice-Admiralty Court at Freetown.The collections also include treaties between local chiefs and the new settlement from 1788 to the 20th century, documents on land disputes; legislative council minutes; Aborigines Department letter books; birth and death records for the colony; and the 1790s journal of John Clarkson, brother of abolitionist Thomas Clarkson.
The rationale for this project arises both from the importance of the Sierra Leone archives to the study of trans-Atlantic slavery, and the terrible conditions of surviving documents following the Sierra Leone civil war. The intention is to put into place a plan to digitise the Sierra Leone archives as part of a wider plan to assist Sierra Leone in the recovery and preservation of documents and materials both in Sierra Leone and abroad, that relate to the history of the country and the African diaspora origins of its population.
Both projects offer exciting opportunities for records not only to be preserved but also allowing these documents to be made use of. The Endangered Archives Programme continues to accept applications and should be consulted by anyone keen to ensure documentary records are not allowed to be lost due to physical deterioration.
Wednesday, 15 September 2010
British Library’s Endangered Archives Programme
The British Library’s Endangered Archives Programme
Call for applications
The Endangered Archives Programme at the British Library is now accepting applications for the next round of funding. Detailed information on the timetable, criteria, eligibility and procedures for applying for a grant is available on the Programme’s website. Applications will be accepted in English or in French. The deadline for receipt of preliminary grant applications is 5 November 2010.
Since it was established six years ago, the Programme has so far funded 137 projects in 57 countries in grants totalling £3.7 million. The Programme is funded by Arcadia, in pursuit of one of its charitable aims to preserve and disseminate cultural knowledge and to promote education and research. The aim of the Programme is to contribute to the preservation of archival material worldwide that is in danger of destruction, neglect or physical deterioration.
The Programme’s objectives are achieved principally by awarding grants to applicants to locate relevant endangered archival collections, where possible to arrange their transfer to a suitable local archival home, and to deposit copies with local institutions and the British Library. Pilot projects are particularly welcomed, to investigate the survival of archival collections on a particular subject, in a discrete region, or in a specific format, and the feasibility of their recovery.
To be considered for funding under the Programme, the archival material should relate to a ‘pre-modern' period of a society's history. There is no prescriptive definition of this, but it may typically mean, for instance, any period before industrialisation. The relevant time period will therefore vary according to the society. The endangered archival material will normally be located in countries where resources and opportunities to preserve such material are lacking or limited.
For the purposes of the Programme, the term ‘archival material’ is interpreted widely to include rare printed books, newspapers and periodicals, audio and audio-visual materials, photographs and manuscripts.
The Programme is keen to enhance local capabilities to manage and preserve archival collections in the future and it is essential that all projects include local archival partners in the country where the project is based. Professional training for local staff is one of the criteria for grant application assessment, whether it is in the area of archival collection management or technical training in digitisation.
The Programme is administered by the British Library and applications are considered in an annual competition by an international panel of historians and archivists.
For further details of EAP projects and collections as well as application procedures and documentation, please visit the Programme’s new website: eap.bl.uk
Web: eap.bl.uk
Email: endangeredarchives@bl.uk
Call for applications
The Endangered Archives Programme at the British Library is now accepting applications for the next round of funding. Detailed information on the timetable, criteria, eligibility and procedures for applying for a grant is available on the Programme’s website. Applications will be accepted in English or in French. The deadline for receipt of preliminary grant applications is 5 November 2010.
Since it was established six years ago, the Programme has so far funded 137 projects in 57 countries in grants totalling £3.7 million. The Programme is funded by Arcadia, in pursuit of one of its charitable aims to preserve and disseminate cultural knowledge and to promote education and research. The aim of the Programme is to contribute to the preservation of archival material worldwide that is in danger of destruction, neglect or physical deterioration.
The Programme’s objectives are achieved principally by awarding grants to applicants to locate relevant endangered archival collections, where possible to arrange their transfer to a suitable local archival home, and to deposit copies with local institutions and the British Library. Pilot projects are particularly welcomed, to investigate the survival of archival collections on a particular subject, in a discrete region, or in a specific format, and the feasibility of their recovery.
To be considered for funding under the Programme, the archival material should relate to a ‘pre-modern' period of a society's history. There is no prescriptive definition of this, but it may typically mean, for instance, any period before industrialisation. The relevant time period will therefore vary according to the society. The endangered archival material will normally be located in countries where resources and opportunities to preserve such material are lacking or limited.
For the purposes of the Programme, the term ‘archival material’ is interpreted widely to include rare printed books, newspapers and periodicals, audio and audio-visual materials, photographs and manuscripts.
The Programme is keen to enhance local capabilities to manage and preserve archival collections in the future and it is essential that all projects include local archival partners in the country where the project is based. Professional training for local staff is one of the criteria for grant application assessment, whether it is in the area of archival collection management or technical training in digitisation.
The Programme is administered by the British Library and applications are considered in an annual competition by an international panel of historians and archivists.
For further details of EAP projects and collections as well as application procedures and documentation, please visit the Programme’s new website: eap.bl.uk
Web: eap.bl.uk
Email: endangeredarchives@bl.uk
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)