Monthly Archives: June 2017

Advocacy Alert!

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The Ohio Historical Records Advisory Board (OHRAB) urgently seeks your help in contacting Congress to support the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC).  The President’s FY2018 budget, released May 23, included no funding for the NHPRC, eliminating the commission.  The process has now moved to Congress where House Appropriations Committee subcommittees will be drafting their spending bills by the end of June.

 

Since 1976, the NHPRC has awarded $1.5 million in grant funding to 50 projects across Ohio to establish archival programs, preserve documents and digitize and make accessible records (a list of projects funded by the NHPRC is available at https://www.archives.gov/nhprc/projects).   The NHPRC also funds OHRAB and its activities.  This includes an annual regrant program that preserves and provides access to Ohio’s historical records.  Since 2011, 73 projects have been funded under this program.  In addition, funding from the NHPRC provided electronic records management training to hundreds of Ohioans, helping to ensure that tomorrow’s records will also be preserved.

 

What can you do?  Please contact your representative and share how the NHPRC has benefited your district or Ohio.  You can find your representative here: http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/.

 

The National Humanities Alliance has created a legislative action center that allows you to email Congress about NHPRC funding (http://p2a.co/kLlz8Vr). The website includes a pre-written letter that you can personalize or send as is. The system uses your zip code to identify your House member and Senators automatically.

 

Legislators are interested to know what programs are important to their constituents. Please let them know how valuable NHPRC and OHRAB have been to your institution and to the public you serve.

Ohio History Fund Grant Application Now Available

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Since March 2013, the History Fund grant program of the Ohio History Connection has made $522,000 in grants to 53 organizations across Ohio. The History Fund invites you to join this distinguished group! Apply for History Fund grant at www.ohiohistory.org/historyfund.

The application deadline is September 1, 2017 (by 11:59 pm).

The History Fund application for the 2017-2018 grant cycle mirrors application forms from previous years, but contains a few tweaks in response to comments from last year’s applicants.  Example: see the website for a sample application you can print for reference.

We’ve also added a new resource: “Do This, Don’t Do That / History Fund Grant Application.”  This short list is not a substitute for reviewing the History Fund’s Application Instructions, but will help you steer clear of obstacles that have bedeviled applicants in the past.

If listening and seeing is a way you learn, check out our History Fund Help webinars at www.ohiohistory.org/historyfund. There’s two webinars.  The “History Fund Help” webinar is an introduction to the grant program and a detailed overview of the grant application.  The second webinar, “Digitization Nuts and Bolts,” will help you compile a strong application for digitization project (it’s more than buying a scanner). We originally hosted both webinars in 2016, and the information still applies in 2017.  Please note that 2017’s application deadline is September 1 (NOT September 7, 2016 as in the webinars).

The Ohio History Connection will announce grant recipients at the annual advocacy event Statehood Day, scheduled February 28, 2018.  Between the application deadline of September 1, 2017 and February 2018, History Fund grant projects undergo a rigorous review involving subject area experts at the Ohio History Connection and a panel of outside experts, who make the final grant recommendations.  Local History Services contacts applicants regarding the final status of the applications in February, in advance of the public announcement at Statehood Day.

This spring, the History Fund presented grant-writing workshops at the Region 1, 5, and 10 meetings, as well as at the Youngstown Historical Center of Industry and Labor, the Ashtabula Foundation (Region 4), and for Museums and Historic Sites of Greater Cincinnati (Region 8).  At each, we emphasized that if would be applicants have questions they should call or write.  We’re here to help!

For more information, contact Andy Verhoff, Ohio History Fund grant coordinator, 614.297.2341 or [email protected], or visit the History Fund’s website.  Good luck!