Alexandria, VA, August 4, 2025: The Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) has awarded $814,332 in grants to digitize rare and unique audio and audiovisual materials through its Recordings at Risk program. The program’s twelfth cohort of 21 projects will begin work on September 1, 2025. This diverse group of projects will digitally preserve groundbreaking experimental music, rare Latin American recordings, historic speeches from college and university campuses, and many more voices and experiences from across the US and beyond. Among the unique collections that will be preserved are documentary footage from the Muhammad Ali Museum, LGBTQ+ oral histories from Ohio, regional news recordings from Hawai‘i, documentation of Asian American communities in Southern California, and folk music recordings from West Virginia.

“Each cycle of Recordings at Risk reminds us how fragile yet vital our recorded heritage is,” said Charles Henry, president of CLIR. “These grants ensure that people can experience voices, performances, and stories that might otherwise fall silent. These preserved recordings will offer future generations a chance to build deeper understanding across time, place, and identity, ultimately strengthening our shared cultural fabric. We are grateful to the Mellon Foundation for their steadfast support and to our partner organizations for their dedication to preserving our collective memory.”

Since its inception in 2017, the Recordings at Risk program has awarded nearly $6.75 million for over 200 projects led by libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural organizations that hold audio or audiovisual materials. These grants provide essential resources to preserve stories, languages, and artistic expressions that define communities and connect generations, thereby contributing to a more comprehensive and inclusive historical record.

The next call for proposals, open to eligible organizations in the US and Canada, will open in November 2025. Those interested are encouraged to sign up for CLIR’s Grants & Programs Newsletter for updates. The most recently awarded projects are listed below. For a complete list of funded projects and more information about the program, visit the Recordings at Risk Funded Projects page.

American Ancestors ($37,995)
Hilton Head Island Voices: Interviews with Residents on Segregation, Gullah Traditions, and the Arrival of the Bridge

Archives of Michigan ($50,000)
Michigan Can Lead the Way: Preserving the audio recordings of Michigan’s 1961-1962 Constitutional Convention

Blank Forms ($29,205)
Catherine Christer Hennix Preservation Project: Digitizing the Personal Collection of Recordings by the Pioneering Composer and Artist

BYU Library ($43,291)
By Study and By Faith: Preserving Campus Addresses

California State University, Fullerton ($38,122)
Preserving & Protecting Southern California Asian American Voices

Fundación Luis Muñoz Marín (FLMM) ($50,000)
Echoes of the Past: Transfer of Dictaphone Tapes from the Collection of Governor Luis Muñoz Marín, San Juan, Puerto Rico

Holocaust Memorial Resource and Education Center of Florida ($15,320)
“The Final Archive: Saving the Last Voices of the Holocaust” – A Digital Lifeline to History’s Most Urgent Stories

Muhammad Ali Center ($50,000)
Preserving the Legacy of Muhammad Ali: Digitizing At-Risk Documentary Source Footage

Ohio History Connection (OHC) ($21,524)
Sights and Sounds of LGBTQ+ Ohio: Preserving the Gay Ohio History Initiative’s Audiovisual Collections

Robert S. Cox Special Collections and University Archives Research Center, UMass Amherst Libraries ($14,809)
Black Voices, Black Media: Preserving the Black Mass Communications Project (BMCP)

Robert W. Woodruff Library of the Atlanta University Center ($49,455)
Morehouse Speaks: The Digitization of the Morehouse College Archives Audiovisual Collection

Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey ($36,838)
Digitizing the Jazz from the Archives Radio Program

Shigeko Kubota Video Art Foundation (SKVAF) ($48,718)
Half Inch Open Reel Portapak Conservation and Digitization

SUNY Oneonta ($50,000)
Surviving and Thriving in Rural America: The Cooperstown Graduate Program Archive of New York State Folklife and Oral History

The Architectural League of New York ($40,690)
The Architectural League Audiovisual Archive Digitization Project

The Catholic University of America ($50,000)
Preserving the Latin American Music Center’s Audio Collection: Digitizing and Making Accessible Rare Brazilian Vinyl, Garmendia Tapes, and Reel-to-Reel Recordings (1950-1980)

The West End Museum ($13,540)
Digitizing the West End Video Newsletter

University of California San Diego ($48,815)
Singsings and Storytelling II: Sights & Sounds of Oceania Audio & Moving Image Reformatting Project

University of Hartford (UHart) ($35,920)
Preserving and providing access to selections from the Hartt Recording Studio archives (1959-1999)

University of Hawaii – West Oahu, ‘Ulu‘ulu Moving Image Archive ($50,000)
Digitization of Hawai’i Regional Broadcast News 1970 – 1981

West Virginia University Libraries ($44,590)
Preserving West Virginia’s Folk Music Sound Recordings

For media inquiries, contact Lizzi Albert, Community Relations Manager, lalbert@clir.org.

About CLIR

The Council on Library and Information Resources is an independent, nonprofit organization that forges strategies to enhance research, teaching, and learning environments in collaboration with libraries, cultural institutions, and communities of higher learning.

About The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation is the nation’s largest supporter of the arts and humanities. Since 1969, the Foundation has been guided by its core belief that the humanities and arts are essential to human understanding. The Foundation believes that the arts and humanities are where we express our complex humanity, and that everyone deserves the beauty, transcendence, and freedom that can be found there. Through our grants, we seek to build just communities enriched by meaning and empowered by critical thinking, where ideas and imagination can thrive. Learn more at mellon.org.