April 21, 2026 – The Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) is pleased to announce the publication of Preserving Endangered Cultural Memory at a Time of Heightened Risk: Evaluating the Recordings at Risk Grant Program.
This report is the result of a two-year retrospective assessment of Recordings at Risk, a regranting initiative that supports digital reformatting of the fragile and obsolete audio and audiovisual media that will soon deteriorate beyond the point of recovery, leaving permanent gaps in the historical record.
With the generous support of the Mellon Foundation, CLIR hired a team of three researchers from Shift Collective to collect data from past Recordings at Risk applicants, recipients, reviewers, and staff in order to develop recommendations for refining the program and broadening its impact.
In their report, authors Zakiya Collier, Lynette Johnson, and Gabriel Solís map out a pathway for CLIR to streamline and expand the program.
In their introduction, they write, “At a time when so many institutional programs that once strongly supported the cultural preservation field have been halted, Recordings at Risk, which receives no financial support from the [US] federal government, can be a vital source of funding for under-resourced and independent organizations seeking to preserve and provide access to culturally significant collections.”
Grounded in the insights and constructive feedback offered by program participants and other stakeholders, the team’s recommendations comprise a practical, multi-year strategy for CLIR to refine and expand the program to better align with the needs of under-resourced memory organizations. In implementing this strategy, the authors conclude, “CLIR can evolve Recordings at Risk so that it better meets the needs of constituents who need it most.”
The report is freely available on CLIR’s website at: https://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/. It is also available in CLIR’s publications repository at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19686344.
CLIR has offered competitive grants to nonprofit organizations through Recordings at Risk since 2017, awarding nearly $6.8 million for 211 reformatting projects. A thirteenth award cycle is currently underway; CLIR will announce the next cohort of grantees in late summer 2026.
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.