Award program will run three competitions between 2023 and 2025

The Mellon Foundation has awarded the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) $4,000,000 to continue its regranting program to digitize “at-risk” audio and audiovisual materials. The program will run three competitions between 2023 and 2025, awarding a total of $2.25 million.

Audio and audiovisual recordings document vital, irreplaceable aspects of twentieth and twenty-first century life, but if the current generation of professionals fails to act, vast amounts of this history will be lost. Digital reformatting is currently the best available solution for ensuring the survival and utility of recorded content stored on fragile or obsolete media such as magnetic tape, grooved discs, cylinders, or film.

Launched in 2016, Recordings at Risk has awarded more than $4.5 million over nine grant cycles. “Through Recordings at Risk, CLIR empowers nonprofit organizations to preserve and create access to information recorded on fragile and obsolete media,” said CLIR president Charles Henry. “Participants in the program are able to digitally capture and ethically share rare and unique historical recordings for the benefit of research and learning in the twenty-first century and beyond.”

“We are excited about the opportunity to introduce this program to organizations that may be new to the implementation of audiovisual reformatting. We are eager to expand our outreach to diverse audiences and organizations that may be new to hearing about CLIR,” said program officer Sharon Burney.

CLIR will open its next competition on January 17, 2023. Subsequent calls for proposals will be issued in January 2024 and January 2025. Awards will range from $10,000 to $50,000 and will cover direct costs of preservation reformatting for audio and audiovisual time-based media by eligible organizations working with experienced external service providers. To make their determinations, CLIR’s independent review panel will assess the potential scholarly or public impact of proposed projects, the urgency of undertaking those projects, the viability of applicants’ plans for long-term preservation, and the overall cost-effectiveness of the proposals.

For more information on the program, visit https://www.clir.org/recordings-at-risk/.

The Council on Library and Information Resources is an independent, nonprofit organization that forges strategies to enhance research, teaching, and learning environments in collaboration with libraries, cultural institutions, and communities of higher learning.