Digitizing Historical Records | Apply Online

Opportunity Summary:

Digitizing Historical Records is a discretionary grant opportunity from the National Archives and Records Administration, administered through the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC), that supports projects aimed at digitizing historically important archival materials and providing free online public access to the resulting digital content. The program is specifically looking for practical, cost-effective digitization efforts that can be replicated or broadly useful across archives and historical repositories, with a strong emphasis on getting significant collections online in a responsible and sustainable way.

A central requirement is that projects must digitize entire collections or complete series drawn from existing holdings in historical repositories, rather than selecting scattered items or creating new curated groupings. The records targeted for digitization must already be available to the public in the archive and must already be described well enough that applicants can reuse existing descriptive information as the basis for the online presentation. In other words, the program is not designed to fund projects that first need major processing or new description before materials can be digitized and shared; it favors collections that are already accessible and can move efficiently into digitization and publication.

Applications are expected to make a clear case in four main areas. First, they must demonstrate the national significance of the collection or records series, explaining why the materials matter beyond a local or institutional audience and how they contribute to understanding broader themes in U.S. history, governance, society, or culture. Second, proposals must outline a workflow that repurposes existing descriptive material rather than building new metadata from scratch. This is a defining feature of the program: it prioritizes using finding aids, catalog records, or other existing descriptions to support discovery and access, instead of funding extensive new descriptive work. Third, the application needs to show that costs and technical standards are reasonable and appropriate, and it must include a sustainable preservation plan for the digital files produced, addressing how the institution will manage, store, and maintain the digitized records over time. Fourth, proposals must include thoughtful evaluation plans that measure how people use the digitized materials and assess whether the digitization and online delivery methods are effective, meaning the project should not only produce digital content but also collect evidence about impact and performance.

The opportunity also sets firm boundaries on what grant funds can and cannot support. Grant funds may not be used to create descriptive metadata or to produce edited transcriptions of the digitized materials. This restriction reinforces the program's goal of encouraging scalable digitization based on existing description, rather than labor-intensive interpretive or editorial work. Applicants therefore need to plan projects where the descriptive foundation already exists and where resources are focused on digitization, online access, preservation, and evaluation rather than new cataloging or transcription.

In terms of funding, awards typically run from one to three years, with a maximum award ceiling of $150,000 per grant. The Commission anticipated making up to five awards in this category, with total program funding up to $400,000. There is no stated minimum award amount (award floor listed as $0), though competitive applications would generally propose a budget that matches the scope of work and the program's expectations.

Cost sharing is required, and NHPRC will cover up to 50 percent of total project costs. The applicant must commit the remaining share through eligible contributions that can include direct and indirect costs, in-kind support, non-federal third-party contributions, and even program income earned directly by the project. This means applicants need to document a realistic matching plan and show they have the institutional commitment or partner support needed to complete the work.

Eligible applicants include a wide range of organizations that steward historical records, including state governments, county governments, city or township governments, federally recognized Native American tribal governments, public and state-controlled institutions of higher education, private institutions of higher education, and nonprofit organizations with 501(c)(3) status (excluding higher education institutions in that nonprofit category).

Administrative details in the announcement emphasize process and points of contact. Applicants are encouraged to review the full grant announcement and the NHPRC rules governing grant administration before applying. Optional draft applications could be emailed to Lucy Barber at lucy.barber@nara.gov for feedback, while Grants.gov was reserved for submission of the final application. For help accessing the full announcement, the listed contact was David Davis, Grants Workflow Information Coordinator, at 202-357-5022. The posting information in the source indicates the opportunity was posted December 12, 2008, with a closing date of June 5, 2009, under Funding Opportunity Number DIGITIZING 10 and CFDA 89.003 (National Historical Publications and Records Grants).

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