Albany, NY -- Commissioner of Education Richard P. Mills has announced that the New York State Archives awarded approximately $9.5 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 grants are used by local governments to improve records management systems to better serve the public. Documentary Heritage Program grants assist community organizations (historical societies, libraries, museums, etc.) 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 2008 – 2009 funding period, the State Archives received 540 applications for Local Government Record grants requesting approximately $19.9 million and 24 applications for Documentary Heritage Program grants requesting approximately $323,000.
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 350 (65%) of the Local Government Record grant requests with an award total of approximately $9.4 million and the funding of 10 (42%) of the Documentary Heritage Program applications with an award total of approximately $91,500.
"Over the past two years, the Archives have been able to award nearly $20 million to fund approximately 700 Local Government Records and Documentary Heritage Program grant applications. These numbers clearly demonstrate a statewide appreciation for the need to preserve records for future generations," said State Archivist Christine Ward.
Local Government Records grants averaged $25,650. Twenty-six grants were awarded to County Clerk’s offices to improve electronic records keeping systems. Twenty-seven grants were awarded to local governments to develop or enhance Geographic Information Systems, while forty-seven local governments received funding to carry out records inventories and lay the groundwork for developing sound records management programs.
Documentary Heritage Program grants averaged $9,000 and ranged from a $3,767 award to Marist College in Poughkeepsie, New York to a $12,080 grant to the State University College at Fredonia. Marist College will use the grant funds to process records related to the historic Scenic Hudson Decision, a landmark environmental legal case. SUNY Fredonia’s project involves arranging and describing the records of the Coalition on West Valley Nuclear Wastes – an environmental group formed in the early 70s to address issues of nuclear waste storage in the region.
Other Documentary Heritage Program grants will also fund projects that identify records of the Jewish population in the Greater Buffalo area and make records of the Herschell Carrousel Company of Buffalo and Tonawanda and the personal papers of two of the founders of the Adirondack Park Agency 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