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2007 Community Heritage Grants

Vicki Ledo, city librarian, Whyalla Public Library, receives her grant certificate from the Hon. Rod Kemp, Minister for Arts and Sport

In March, the National Library of Australia will call for applications for the 2007 round of Community Heritage Grants (CHG).

Now in its 14th year, the CHG program has provided over $2 million in grant funding to assist in preserving locally held, nationally significant cultural heritage collections. Many community organisations such as historical societies, public libraries, museums, and Indigenous and migrant community groups have already benefited from the program, which offers up to $15 000 in support of preservation projects. In addition to a cash grant, those organisations receiving their first CHG will be invited to Canberra to participate in intensive preservation workshops at the National Library and its CHG partners.

Last year 80 projects were funded, including the Whyalla Public Library, which received $3200 for a significance assessment of the Whyalla shipyards and steelworks archive collection of newspapers, research materials, scrapbooks, movies, slides and photographs from 1899 to the 1970s. The Chinese Australian Historical Society Inc. received $5500 for a collection management and preservation training project. The focus of the two-and-a-half day workshop is to increase the awareness of the older Chinese community organisations in the Sydney region of the importance of collecting, maintaining and preserving their records. Since most of the pre-1960 records will be in Chinese, it is planned to have Chinese archivists present the workshop.

Projects funded have included preservation and collection management training, preservation surveys, significance assessments, re-housing of collection items in quality archival storage containers, digitisation, conservation treatment, and environmental control. Cultural heritage items which have benefited through the program include toys, machinery, textiles, business records, journals, letters, photographs, drawings, maps, sound recordings and films.

Community groups and organisations which hold a nationally significant collection of cultural heritage material, and which require financial assistance to conduct preservation activities, are encouraged to apply. Applications open on 9 March and close on 8 June.

The program is funded by the Australian Government and managed by the National Library of Australia with support provided by the program partners: the Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts; the National Archives of Australia; the Australian Film Commission; and the National Museum of Australia.

For further information on how a Community Heritage Grant could assist to preserve your collection, or to obtain the 2007 Guidelines and Application Form when they are released, please contact:

Elizabeth Watt
Coordinator
Community Heritage Grants
National Library of Australia