Grants & Awards: DHP: Grant Application & Reference Material:Grant Project Types
Arrangement & Description
Arrangement and description are the processes used to gain physical and intellectual control over materials held in historic records repositories. Arrangement is the process of organizing materials with respect to their provenance and original order, to protect their context and to achieve physical and/or intellectual control over the materials. Description is the creation of an accurate representation of a unit of archival material by the process of capturing, collating, analyzing, and organizing information that serves to identify archival material and explain the context and records system(s) that produced it. The objective of archival description is the creation of access tools that assist users in discovering desired records.
Since it is required that all access tools created as a result of the project must meet archival standards, applicants are encouraged to work with the DHP office in developing the records access components of the grant application. See “Requirements” below for further information.
Applications are also invited for what are called informally “circuit rider” projects. “Circuit rider” projects involve hiring an experienced archivist with expertise in arrangement and description who will work with several community organizations or repositories that have high priority historical records.
Requirements
- A Cost Share of at least 50% of the Total Project Cost (total DHP grant funds requested plus Total Cost Sharing contribution) is required for Arrangement & Description projects. All cost share contributions must directly support project activities and outcomes. See the Instructions for the Cost Share Form for more information.
- The records in an Arrangement & Description project must be held in a historical records repository or be transferred to a historical records repository by the end of the project. The records should fit within the repository’s Collection Policy.
- The records in an Arrangement & Description project should be rich in content, have high research value, and be of historical significance within New York State.
- Arrangement & Description projects must result in access tools which conform to archival standards. These tools include a MARC record and a finding aid. If you have questions about these access tools, contact the DHP office. A sample MARC record and a template for a finding aid which conform to archival standards are available on this site. The Archivists’ Toolkit (AT) is an additional resource for description standards. It is an open source archival data management system available for free. Among the main goals of the AT are to support archival processing and production of access instruments, and to promote data standardization.
- Electronic versions of the MARC records created in Arrangement & Description projects must be accessible through the repository’s website, an online catalog, or the State Archives' HDI (Historic Documents Inventory).If you have questions about HDI, contact the DHP office. Finding Aids created in Arrangement & Description projects should be accessible electronically as well, providing the repository has the capacity to do this.
- Grant recipients should publicize their Arrangement & Description project and should use the DHP credit line in all publicity material relating to the project.
Complete DHP Grant Application Guidelines PDF format (Requires Adobe Reader)