Sustaining Cultural Heritage Collections

Sustaining Cultural Heritage Collections (SCHC), offered by National Endowment for the Humanities, helps cultural institutions meet the complex challenge of preserving large and diverse holdings of humanities materials for future generations by supporting preventive conservation measures that mitigate deterioration and prolong the useful life of collections. Libraries, archives, museums, and historical organizations across the country are responsible for collections of books and manuscripts, photographs, sound recordings and moving images, archaeological and ethnographic artifacts, art, and historical objects that facilitate research, strengthen teaching, and provide opportunities for life-long learning in the humanities. To preserve and ensure continued access to such collections, institutions must implement preventive conservation measures, which encompass managing relative humidity, temperature, light, and pollutants in collection spaces; providing protective storage enclosures and systems for collections; and safeguarding collections from theft and from natural and man-made disasters. As museums, libraries, archives, and other collecting institutions strive to be effective stewards of humanities collections, they must find ways to implement preventive conservation measures that are scientifically sound and sustainable. This program therefore helps cultural repositories plan and implement preservation strategies that pragmatically balance effectiveness, cost, and environmental impact. Projects should be designed to be as cost effective, energy efficient, and environmentally sensitive as possible, and they should aim to mitigate the greatest risks to collections rather than to meet prescriptive targets. 

Deadline: December 4, 2012
Award Ceiling: $350,000

Read entire solicitation

John Cotton Dana Library Public Relations Award FY 12

Application due: 03/15/2012
Sponsor- The H.W. Wilson Foundation, American Library Association, EBSCO Publishing


The purpose of this program is to honor outstanding projects of library public relations and strategic communications. Eligible projects can include innovative ways to promote summer reading or reach a new audience, the creation of an effective awareness campaign, or an innovative partnership that has solved a problem or met a community need.


For more information, please view the full solicitation here.