Albany, NY -- Commissioner of Education Richard P. Mills has announced that the New York State Archives has awarded approximately $10.1 million in grants to hundreds of local governments and community organizations across the state. These awards are intended to help those governments and organizations care for the records in their custody.
The State Archives, part of the State Education Department, administers two types of grant programs -- Local Government Records and Documentary Heritage Program -- to fund a variety of projects related to public and community records.
These records vary tremendously. They range from judicial transcripts from the mid 1600s when New York State was a Dutch colony to sophisticated geographic information systems that maintain detailed records in electronic form on land use.
Local governments use these grants to improve records management systems to better serve the public. Community organizations (historical societies, libraries, museums, etc.) use the grants to ensure that the rich and diverse history of New York State is preserved, while still others provide a hands-on history experience for school children.
For the 2007 – 2008 funding period, the State Archives received 711 applications for Local Government Record grants requesting approximately $25.3 million and 21 applications for Documentary Heritage Program grants requesting nearly $220,000.
All of these funding requests were evaluated through an intense, competitive process using records management and archives experts from throughout the state to review the applications. This review resulted in the funding of 311 (54%) of the Local Government Record grant requests with an award total of approximately $10 million and the funding of 12 (57%) of the Documentary Heritage Program applications with an award total of $94,000.
"The intense competition for both Local Government Records and Documentary Heritage Program grants demonstrates a statewide appreciation for the need to preserve records for future generations," said State Archivist Christine Ward. "These grants also assist local governments and community organizations to continually update their records management systems to facilitate even greater public access via the internet and other technological innovations."
Local Government Records grants averaged $26,233. Twenty-six grants were awarded to County Clerk’s offices to improve electronic records keeping systems. Twenty-nine grants were awarded to local governments to develop or enhance Geographic Information Systems while fifty-two local governments received funding to carry out records inventories and lay the groundwork for developing sound records management programs.
Documentary Heritage Program grants averaged $7,834 and ranged from a $919 award to the Friends of History in Fulton, New York to a $16,604 grant to the University at Albany. The Friends of History in Fulton will use the grant funds to make accessible records of local area businesses. SUNY Albany’s will make local labor union related records available to researchers.
Other Documentary Heritage Program grants will also fund projects that identify records of the Latino/a communities in the South Bronx and Long Island, as well as those of the Afro-Latino communities in New York State. Projects also will identify records that demonstrate the impact of the Fresh Kills Landfill on Staten Island and make records of the Garden Way Company of Troy, New York accessible.
A county-by-county listing of all the grants is available at the Archives' web site at www.archives.nysed.gov.
Both the Documentary Heritage Program and the Local Government Records grants are funded from the Local Government Records Management Improvement Fund (LGRMIF) which was enacted into law by the New York State Senate and Assembly in 1989. The LGRMIF derives its revenues from a small percentage of the fees paid when people file or record documents with county clerks and the Register of the City of New York.
Local governments and/or community organizations interested in applying for a grant with the New York State Archives should contact the Grants Administration Unit at 518-474-6926, email at archgrants@mail.nysed.gov or consult the Archives website at www.archives.nysed.gov.