Use this space to get answers about the C/P grant program and application process. For full details, please review the grant application and guidelines by logging in to the online grants system.
No questions received to date.
For first time applicants, it is usually best to start with a general preservation survey. You may apply for funds to hire a qualified preservation consultant to conduct this survey. DLD encourages potential applicants to get in touch to discuss their project before submitting a proposal.
The Program has moved to an online application process. In order to have access to this online grants system, institutions must first register for a user name and password. All applications must be submitted through the Online Grant System. Faxed applications will not be accepted.
Only one application is accepted per institution each grant cycle. There is no limit to the number of years that an applicant may apply.
On the application, you should briefly describe your organization, institution, or agency and then provide more detailed information your specific department. You should also submit résumés for all staff and consultants who will be working on the project.
You must get at least two bids and attach them to your grant application. Any exam fee must be covered by the applicant. There is no restriction on the number of bids you can attach.
You should choose the most qualified vendor and state your reasons for choosing that vendor. You do not need to get a new bid if the prices still hold.
Eligible institutions include public libraries, academic libraries, historical societies, archives, museum libraries, municipalities and other not for profit organizations.
The 11 designated comprehensive research libraries are not eligible. These institutions are: Columbia University Libraries, Cornell University Libraries, New York State Library, New York University Libraries, University of Rochester Libraries, Syracuse University Libraries, the Research Libraries of The New York Public Library, and the libraries of the State University of New York centers at Albany, Binghamton, Buffalo, and Stony Brook.
Institutions wholly or in part under the control of any religious denominations in which any denominational tenet or doctrine is taught are constitutionally ineligible to receive State financial assistance.
Materials of research value are eligible for grant monies. This can include monographs, serials, manuscripts, archival materials, maps, architectural drawings, sound recordings, photographs, moving images, and newspapers.
This program only covers the actual preservation activities. Contact the New York State Archives for grants to organize or arrange and describe archival collections.
Eligible materials include: general preservation surveys, environmental surveys, photograph surveys, rehousing, repair, reformatting to microfilm or the reformatting of photographs to more stable photographic media, improvement to environmental controls, and training activities.
Funding for staff to survey and rehouse would be eligible as long as they were temporary staff or part-time staff who are going to increase their hours for the duration of the project. Inventory projects are not fundable. Transfer of video to film is the only type of reformatting currently fundable under the program guidelines.
Works of art on paper, paintings, sculpture and other objects are not eligible.
We do not fund the digital conversion of materials. You could try the State Archives and see if they would fund it under the Local Government Record Improvement Grants. Some public libraries are eligible to apply for these funds.
Digitization of newspaper microfilm to be hosted on the web would not be eligible, that would be an access project. You can check with the 3R’s library system for your region. They have been funding the digitization of some newspaper microfilm for the NYS Historic Newspapers project.
We do not fund the purchase of file cabinets. We generally only fund the purchase of map cases and oversized shelving as part of a rehousing/treatment proposal.