Grants & Awards: DHP: FAQs:

Documentary Heritage Program FAQs

Developing/Assembling the Application

1. Does the seven-page maximum for the Application Narrative include attachments?
   
2. I plan to hire someone to work on the project at an hourly rate and plan to pay their
   medical insurance benefits. Which Budget Category Form should I use to list the
   wages?
   
3. Is food an eligible expense?
   
4. Is a consultant's travel an additional expense, or is it included in the consultant daily
   rate?
   
5. What is MARC? Will we need to budget for training or equipment to do this?

Developing/Assembling the Application

1. Does the seven-page maximum for the Application Narrative include
   attachments?

No, attachments such as letters of support and/or justification, job descriptions, resumes, and sample pages from current finding aids are not counted towards the seven-page maximum.

2. I plan to hire someone to work on the project at an hourly rate and plan to pay their medical insurance benefits. Which Budget Category Form should I use to list the wages; the Salaries Form (Code 15) or the Purchased Services Form (Code 40)?

The wages should be listed on the Salaries Form (Code 15). Anyone who receives benefits should be listed under salaries, and their benefits should be listed on the Employee Benefits Form (Code 80). It does not matter whether they are salaried or hourly employees. If a staff position is funded using grant funds, then funding for that position should be requested under Salaries (Code 15).

3. Is food an eligible expense?

Lunch for advisory committees and focus groups is an eligible expense; however food for
receptions at the end of projects, or lunch for consultants is not. Eligible food expenses
for meetings should be listed and justified on the Supplies and Materials Form (Code 20).
Food and lodging expenses for staff or consultants should be listed and justified on the
Travel Form (Code 46).

4. Is a consultant's travel an additional expense, or is it included in the consultant’s
   daily rate?

The consultant's travel is an additional expense and should be listed and justified on the
Travel Form (Code 46).

5. What is MARC? Will we need to budget for training or equipment to do this?

• In the context of archival collections, a MARC (machine-readable) record is a catalog record which is designed to make information about a specific collection accessible online or from within a repository's networked catalog. For a DHP grant, the information in a MARC record must be written at what is called the "collection-level". That is, the information should describe the whole collection, not individual items in the collection. The DHP office can supply you with a sample MARC record.
• MARC records are not difficult to write and do not require special software. A project archivist should easily be able to create them. A text file of each MARC record can be created in Word and then uploaded into an electronic catalog.
• If an institution does not have an electronic catalog, records may be uploaded to the Historical Documents Inventory (HDI) catalog, an online catalog administered by the State Archives. The HDI catalog aggregates MARC records for collections from historical repositories throughout the state. The HDI catalog can be viewed by clicking the “library” drop-down menu on the Excelsior page of the NYSA website.