About the Program

Northeast Historic Film Moving Images 1938-1940: Amateur Filmmakers Record the New York World's Fair and Its Period This project is a collaboration among NHF, the Queens Museum of Art, and the George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film. Collections to be cataloged relate to the New York World's Fair (1939–1940) and amateur filmmaking during that era. Materials include original 16mm and 8mm film reels produced by members of the Amateur Cinema League (ACL). Image credit: Robert Decker Collection, Hall of Communications and Fair Visitors, New York World's Fair, 1939. Frame enlargement from 16 mm. film. More funded projects WGBH Educational Foundation Exposing Unknown Boston Local TV News Collections The Boston Local TV News project is a collaboration of four institutions and their local tv news collections&mdash the Boston Public Library (BPL), Northeast Historic Film (NHF), WGBH, and Cambridge Community Television (CCTV). The project will create a shared catalog of 40 years of Boston television news from the collections of the 4 partners. Image caption: The Ten O'Clock News, circa 1978-1979, WGBH Media Library and Archives collection. More funded projects Yale University, Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History DNA to Dinosaurs: The Globalization of Science in America and the Development of a University Natural History Museum This project will catalog archival materials and special collections that document the early history of science at Yale and in North America. Image caption: O. C. Marsh and his field party of 1872. Marsh, the first Professor of Paleontology in the United States and Yale undergraduate students explore the American West in search of vertebrate fossils. More funded projects Yale University, Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History DNA to Dinosaurs: The Globalization of Science in America and the Development of a University Natural History Museum This project will catalog archival materials and special collections that document the early history of science at Yale and in North America. At left: Rudolph Zallinger, Artist–in–Residence, at the Peabody Museum of Natural History, beginning the daunting task of painting the 110–foot long Age of Reptiles mural in Peabody's Great Hall. More funded projects University of Texas at Austin, Harry Ransom Center Revealing Texas Collections of Comedias Sueltas This collaboration between the Harry Ransom Center and Texas A&M University Libraries will catalog Spanish plays from the late seventeenth through the nineteenth centuries. The Ransom Center owns 14,000 sueltas, and Texas A&M University holds approximately 600 additional titles. More funded projects Stanford University Documenting Mexican American & Latino Civil Rights: Records of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund & CA Rural Legal Assistance This project focuses on two collections: the records of The Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF), one of the most influential organizations working to protect the civil rights of Mexican Americans and Latinos in the United States; and the records of the California Rural Legal Assistance (CRLA), a legal advocacy organization for the rural poor in California, particularly Mexican American migrant workers. More funded projects Stanford University Documenting Mexican American & Latino Civil Rights: Records of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund & CA Rural Legal Assistance This project focuses on two collections: the records of The Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF), one of the most influential organizations working to protect the civil rights of Mexican Americans and Latinos in the United States; and the records of the California Rural Legal Assistance (CRLA), a legal advocacy organization for the rural poor in California, particularly Mexican American migrant workers. More funded projects University of Pennsylvania Promoting Research through Rare Book Cataloging Partnerships This project will provide online catalog records for 33,500 titles in the Penn Libraries' Rare Book & Manuscript Library Culture Class Collection. It will rely heavily on contributions from students from relevant disciplines who, together with project catalogers, will develop new techniques to create dynamic, constantly evolving bibliographic records that will serve as initial points of discovery for scholars and also present results of new research. Image caption: Medici Coat of Arms. Click image to enlarge. More funded projects University of Pennsylvania Promoting Research through Rare Book Cataloging Partnerships This project will provide online catalog records for 33,500 titles in the Penn Libraries' Rare Book & Manuscript Library Culture Class Collection. It will rely heavily on contributions from students from relevant disciplines who, together with project catalogers, will develop new techniques to create dynamic, constantly evolving bibliographic records that will serve as initial points of discovery for scholars and also present results of new research. Image caption: Portion of a leaf from the 1488 Anton Koberger edition of the Legenda Aurea used as binder's waste. Click image to enlarge. More funded projects University of Pennsylvania Promoting Research through Rare Book Cataloging Partnerships This project will provide online catalog records for 33,500 titles in the Penn Libraries' Rare Book & Manuscript Library Culture Class Collection. It will rely heavily on contributions from students from relevant disciplines who, together with project catalogers, will develop new techniques to create dynamic, constantly evolving bibliographic records that will serve as initial points of discovery for scholars and also present results of new research. Image caption: Censored edition of Aristotle, 1553. Click image to enlarge. More funded projects American Museum of Natural History Library For the People, for Education, for Science: Web Access to the American Museum of Natural History Archives This project will make accessible the Archives of the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH), which hold a wealth of historical resources that document scientific research in anthropology, astronomy, earth sciences, paleontology and zoology, as well the Museum's 141–year history as a research and educational institution. Image caption: Dinosaur eggs from the AMNH collections. More funded projects American Museum of Natural History Library For the People, for Education, for Science: Web Access to the American Museum of Natural History Archives This project will make accessible the Archives of the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH), which hold a wealth of historical resources that document scientific research in anthropology, astronomy, earth sciences, paleontology and zoology, as well the Museum's 141–year history as a research and educational institution. Image caption: Marilyn Chin (Queens College) and Jannette D'Esposito (St. John's University) gathering cataloging information in the AMNH Herpetology Archives. More funded projects American Museum of Natural History Library For the People, for Education, for Science: Web Access to the American Museum of Natural History Archives This project will make accessible the Archives of the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH), which hold a wealth of historical resources that document scientific research in anthropology, astronomy, earth sciences, paleontology and zoology, as well the Museum's 141–year history as a research and educational institution. Image caption: Schuyler Volz (Columbia University) and Hannah Begley (Pratt Institute) working on finding aids in the AMNH Research Library. More funded projects University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill The Pruitt and Shanks Photographic Collection: The Life of a Southern Region in 140,000 Images This project will make available to scholars a very large collection of photographic negatives produced by two studio/commercial photographers in Columbus (Lowndes County), Mississippi, and the surrounding area from the late 1920s to the 1970s. Image caption: O. N. Pruitt (1891-1967), his staff, and equipment. More funded projects San Diego History Center Enhancing Access to the History of San Diego and the Border Region The aim of this project is to create finding aids for 133 archival collections relating to economic, social, and cultural aspects of greater San Diego. Together, these materials constitute a comprehensive portrait of the history and evolution of America's ninth largest city and the surrounding region, including Baja California. Click image to enlarge. More funded projects University of Chicago, on behalf of the Black Metropolis Research Consortium The "Color Curtain" Processing Project: Unveiling the Archives of Chicago's Black Metropolis This collaborative project focuses on 150 Chicago-area collections that were identified as having high scholarly research value during the Black Metropolis Research Consortium's recent survey of unprocessed and inaccessible archival collections documenting African American history and culture. The included materials address political, cultural, social, spiritual and economic aspects of African Americans' lives throughout the history of Chicago. More funded projects University of Chicago, on behalf of the Black Metropolis Research Consortium The "Color Curtain" Processing Project: Unveiling the Archives of Chicago's Black Metropolis This collaborative project focuses on 150 Chicago-area collections that were identified as having high scholarly research value during the Black Metropolis Research Consortium's recent survey of unprocessed and inaccessible archival collections documenting African American history and culture. The included materials address political, cultural, social, spiritual and economic aspects of African Americans' lives throughout the history of Chicago. More funded projects J. Paul Getty Trust, on behalf of the Getty Research Institute Open Plan, Open Access: Increasing Researcher Access to Modern Architectural Records For this project, staff will process the papers of architects Ray Kappe and William Krisel, both of whom sought to achieve the Modernist goal of creating housing that is well designed yet affordable. Incorporating project files, drawings, photographs, models and ephemera, these archives reflect the development of modern open–plan residential architecture in the second half of the twentieth century, especially in Southern California. Image: Kappe residence (Pacific Palisades, Calif.), 1968. Ray Kappe, architect; Julius Shulman, photographer. The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles. (c) J. Paul Getty Trust. More funded projects Eleutherian Mill-Hagley Foundation, Inc. on behalf of the Hagley Museum and Library Z. Taylor Vinson Transportation Collection Processing Project This project will make available to scholars a wealth of materials related to the history of the automobile. International in scope, the collection includes an estimated 200,000 trade catalogues, newspapers and magazine advertisements, operators' manuals, showroom sales albums, dealer data books, corporate annual reports, periodical articles, books, and promotional toys and scale models. More funded projects Eleutherian Mill-Hagley Foundation, Inc. on behalf of the Hagley Museum and Library Z. Taylor Vinson Transportation Collection Processing Project This project will make available to scholars a wealth of materials related to the history of the automobile. International in scope, the collection includes an estimated 200,000 trade catalogues, newspapers and magazine advertisements, operators' manuals, showroom sales albums, dealer data books, corporate annual reports, periodical articles, books, and promotional toys and scale models. More funded projects Arizona State University Libraries Labor Rights are Civil Rights/Los Derechos de Trabajo Son Derechos Civiles This project will make available to scholars six bilingual collections relating to the history of Mexican Americans in the Southwest. These collections reflect how labor, race, and civil rights have shaped the experiences of Mexican and Mexican Americans in the region. At left: A Demonstration for Mexican immigrant rights in downtown Phoenix, Arizona,1977. Credit: Maricopa County Organizing Project Records. Chicana/o Research Collection. More funded projects University of California at Berkeley, University of California Museum of Paleontology Cataloging Hidden Archives of the University of California Museum of Paleontology This project will catalogue the UCMP archives which document paleontological and geologic fieldwork in more than 80 countries and the historical and sociological contexts within which this work was done. The collections to be cataloged for this project reflect the lives of prominent western pioneers, such as Annie Alexander, Joseph LeConte, J.C. Merriam, and John Muir, and have a bearing on the history of higher education, natural resources, public policy and public administration, and the establishment of many western National Parks, State Parks and National Forests. At left: A Geological Survey of California field party, 1864; from the UCMP archives. More funded projects Maine Maritime Museum Merchant Mariners Muster: Cataloging Crew Manuscripts This eighteen–month project will uncover forty–four separate manuscript collections relating to shipping, including numerous Maine sea captains' business papers, some ship owners' and customs house records, and a shipping agent's records. At left: Maine Maritime Museum's Senior Curator Nathan Lipfert scans one of the historic ship's logs from which information will be gathered regarding crewmen of Maine vessels. The yellow lighting in the Museum's library storage area helps protect the documents preserved there. More funded projects Maine Maritime Museum Merchant Mariners Muster: Cataloging Crew Manuscripts This eighteen–month project will uncover forty–four separate manuscript collections relating to shipping, including numerous Maine sea captains' business papers, some ship owners' and customs house records, and a shipping agent's records. At left: Seamen aboard the Maine six–mast schooner Wyoming, at some point in the 1909–1924 period. More funded projects Maine Maritime Museum Merchant Mariners Muster: Cataloging Crew Manuscripts This eighteen–month project will uncover forty–four separate manuscript collections relating to shipping, including numerous Maine sea captains' business papers, some ship owners' and customs house records, and a shipping agent's records. At left: Crew of the four–mast steel bark Arthur Sewall, taken at Hiogo, Japan in 1902. More funded projects Amistad Research Center, Tulane University Increasing Access to Africana Collections: The American Committee on Africa and The Africa Fund Records This three–year project focuses on two organizational collections devoted to the decolonization of Africa. The American Committee on Africa (1953–2001) and The Africa Fund (1966–2001) worked to educate the American public and American policymakers on the legitimacy of African liberation movements and to provide assistance to liberation movements and the victims of colonial oppression in Africa. More funded projects Amistad Research Center, Tulane University Increasing Access to Africana Collections: The American Committee on Africa and The Africa Fund Records This three–year project focuses on two organizational collections devoted to the decolonization of Africa. The American Committee on Africa (1953–2001) and The Africa Fund (1966–2001) worked to educate the American public and American policymakers on the legitimacy of African liberation movements and to provide assistance to liberation movements and the victims of colonial oppression in Africa. More funded projects The New York Archival Society Cataloging Artifacts and Related Records of the World Trade Center Attack on September 11, 2001 The materials that are the subject of this one–year project comprise five general categories: 1) posters, letters, photographs and other ephemera left by the families of the victims at Pier 94, the temporary family service center established after the World Trade Center attacks, and at the 9/11 memorial sites on the footprint of the towers; 2) material placed in City parks and other public places in the aftermath of the event; 3) artifacts of the World Trade Center buildings, vehicles, and other items recovered from the site, via Fresh Kills, Staten Island, where the debris had been brought for screening; 4) brochures and other printed material prepared by the Mayor's Community Assistance Unit to assist the victim families; and 5) correspondence sent to the Mayor's office and rescue workers. Photo at left: Ground Zero memorial pool, September 11, 2008. More funded projects The New York Archival Society Cataloging Artifacts and Related Records of the World Trade Center Attack on September 11, 2001 The materials that are the subject of this one–year project comprise five general categories: 1) posters, letters, photographs and other ephemera left by the families of the victims at Pier 94, the temporary family service center established after the World Trade Center attacks, and at the 9/11 memorial sites on the footprint of the towers; 2) material placed in City parks and other public places in the aftermath of the event; 3) artifacts of the World Trade Center buildings, vehicles, and other items recovered from the site, via Fresh Kills, Staten Island, where the debris had been brought for screening; 4) brochures and other printed material prepared by the Mayor's Community Assistance Unit to assist the victim families; and 5) correspondence sent to the Mayor's office and rescue workers. Photo at left: Ground Zero memorial pool, September 11, 2008. More funded projects University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, American Geographical Society Library Providing Access to the Archives of the American Geographical Society A three-year project to organize, catalog and conserve the Archives of the American Geographical Society. These archives date from the Society's founding in 1851 and include approximately 540 cubic feet of material, with documents relating to well known figures in American exploration and the larger field of geography from the mid–nineteenth century through most of the twentieth. More funded projects Smithsonian Institution, Archives of American Art Uncovering Hidden Audio Visual Media Documenting Post-Modern Art at the Archives of American Art This three–year project will increase access to media–rich archival collections documenting national movements in contemporary American art through archival processing and the creation of EAD (Encoded Archival Description) finding aids. The media in these collections document a period of contemporary American art when ephemeral and dynamic new visual art forms were emerging in studios, art communities, galleries, and art spaces across the country. At left: Les Levine takes a picture of his television sculpture 'Iris' as 'Iris' takes a picture of him, ca. 1968. From the Exhibition records of the Contemporary Wing of the Finch College Museum of Art, 1964-1975. Archives of American Art. More funded projects San Diego Museum of Man Capturing History: Cataloging the San Diego Museum of Man's Photographic Collection This two–year project will catalog a collection of 25,000 photographs taken from 1890 to the mid–1900s depicting the history of San Diego and the surrounding area. These photographs consist of assorted media, including albumen prints, glass negatives, and daguerreotypes. The images reveal a comprehensive pictorial study of life in the greater San Diego area, ranging from early contact with Native Americans up through the Panama–California Exposition and development of Balboa Park. More funded projects San Diego Museum of Man Capturing History: Cataloging the San Diego Museum of Man's Photographic Collection This two–year project will catalog a collection of 25,000 photographs taken from 1890 to the mid–1900s depicting the history of San Diego and the surrounding area. These photographs consist of assorted media, including albumen prints, glass negatives, and daguerreotypes. The images reveal a comprehensive pictorial study of life in the greater San Diego area, ranging from early contact with Native Americans up through the Panama–California Exposition and development of Balboa Park. More funded projects Fray Angélico Chávez History Library, Museum of New Mexico Foundation Mapas históricos de Nuevo México = Historic New Mexico Maps This three–year project will make one of the most important collections of the Fray Angélico Chávez History Library accessible to a wide range of researchers, historians, students and the general public. The History Library's map collection consists of nearly 6000 maps on New Mexico and the Southwest region that provide valuable historical information on topics as diverse as early Spanish exploration, American settlement in the Southwest, famous roads like the Camino Real and the Santa Fe Trail, water rights, the development of cities and counties, and more. At left: Laura Kohl, Project Cataloger and Archivist. More funded projects North Carolina State University Libraries Acting for Animals: Revealing the Records of Animal Rights and Animal Welfare Movements This two–year project will make accessible collections documenting the animal rights and animal welfare movements, including records of the Animal Rights Network (ARN), portions of the records of the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI), and the Ron Scott Videotapes. The ARN records contain files from animal welfare organizations around the world and much correspondence documenting the coordination of the animal welfare movement, as well as debates among activists from the 1970s to ca. 2000. The collection also features hundreds of subject files on topics related to animal welfare and files documenting groups opposed to the animal welfare movement. More funded projects North Carolina State University Libraries Acting for Animals: Revealing the Records of Animal Rights and Animal Welfare Movements This two–year project will make accessible collections documenting the animal rights and animal welfare movements, including records of the Animal Rights Network (ARN), portions of the records of the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI), and the Ron Scott Videotapes. The ARN records contain files from animal welfare organizations around the world and much correspondence documenting the coordination of the animal welfare movement, as well as debates among activists from the 1970s to ca. 2000. The collection also features hundreds of subject files on topics related to animal welfare and files documenting groups opposed to the animal welfare movement. More funded projects Brown University Library The Gordon Hall and Grace Hoag Collection of Dissenting and Extremist Printed Propaganda, Part II This three–year project will complete the processing of the materials Gordon Hall began compiling when he returned from World War II and encountered U.S. domestic hate groups at both ends of the political spectrum. Along with a group of volunteers, including Grace Hoag, he infiltrated and investigated radical and dissenting groups, collecting their printed propaganda as part of his efforts to preserve these irreplaceable materials for posterity. More funded projects University of California at Santa Barbara, University Art Museum Cataloguing Southern California's architectural history The Architecture and Design Collection comprehensively and uniquely documents the history of the built environment of Southern California. This three-year project will address 240 uncatalogued archives. These include the papers of individuals—architects, landscape architects, designers, and a critic—and the records of design firms. More funded projects University of California at Santa Barbara, University Art Museum Cataloguing Southern California's architectural history The Architecture and Design Collection comprehensively and uniquely documents the history of the built environment of Southern California. This three-year project will address 240 uncatalogued archives. These include the papers of individuals—architects, landscape architects, designers, and a critic—and the records of design firms. More funded projects New-York Historical Society The New-York Historical Society American Almanac Collection The New–York Historical Society's two–year project will uncover a collection of approximately 5,500 eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth century American almanacs, including an estimated 600 almanacs dating from before the year 1801. The collection is strongest in almanacs published in New York State, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Vermont, and New Hampshire, but it also includes representative examples from other states east and west of the Mississippi. At left: Title page to The American Almanack, Leeds, 1706. More funded projects New-York Historical Society The New-York Historical Society American Almanac Collection The New–York Historical Society's two–year project will uncover a collection of approximately 5,500 eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth century American almanacs, including an estimated 600 almanacs dating from before the year 1801. The collection is strongest in almanacs published in New York State, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Vermont, and New Hampshire, but it also includes representative examples from other states east and west of the Mississippi. At left: Gaines Almanac, 1776. More funded projects

The 2012 application cycle is now underway. For information about the application process and access to the relevant instructions and forms, please visit the page titled "For Applicants."

Libraries, archives, and cultural institutions hold millions of items that have never been adequately described. This represents a staggering volume of items of potentially substantive intellectual value that are unknown and inaccessible to scholars. This program seeks to address this problem by awarding grants for supporting innovative, efficient description of large volumes of material of high value to scholars.

The Council on Library and Information Resources administers this national effort with the support of generous funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Since the program began in 2008, sixty-five grants totalling nearly $16M have been made to a variety of institutions nationwide.

The primary criterion the review panel uses to evaluate projects is their potential national impact on scholarship and teaching. The second and third criteria are: innovative and/or highly efficient approaches to description that could serve as models for others, and the adoption of workflow and outreach practices that maximize connections to scholarly and other user communities. In addition, the panel requires application of description standards that would provide interoperability and long-term sustainability for project data in the online environment. Most U.S.-based not-for-profit cultural heritage institutions are eligible for the program. Applicants may nominate collections of any format and from any field worthy of national attention, but the collections in question must be truly hidden, that is, they must not currently be discoverable by scholarly users working within the subject domain, either through digital or analog means.

All nonconfidential information that applicants supply is made publicly available through CLIR's Hidden Collections Registry. Applicants are encouraged to use this Registry to find partners working with similar collections. Joint or collaborative applications are encouraged.

Although the program does not provide funds for the creation of digital surrogates of cataloged materials, CLIR hopes that many funded projects will ultimately be enhanced through the creation of publicly accessible digitized versions of the newly cataloged materials. For a more detailed description of the philosophy and mission of the Cataloging Hidden Special Collections and Archives program, please see CLIR's original proposal to the Mellon Foundation (pdf).

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For further information, contact Amy Lucko, Program Officer, at hiddencollections@clir.org.