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ENDANGERED ARCHIVES PROGRAMMEComing in October 2004In pursuit of their general aim to support fundamental research intoimportant issues in the humanities and social sciences, the Trustees of theLisbet Rausing Charitable Fund have decided to sponsor a Programme focusingon the preservation and copying of important but vulnerable archivesthroughout the world.The Programme is administered by the British Library and applications willbe considered by an International Panel of historians and archivists.The Programme will achieve its objectives principally by making a number ofgrants to individual researchers to locate relevant collections, whereverpossible to arrange their transfer to a suitable local archival home, and todeliver copies into the international research domain via the BritishLibrary. Pilot projects may also be funded. Grants will be made each yearand will vary in amount, but a guideline maximum of GBP 50,000 for a fullproject, and GBP 10,000 for a pilot project, is envisaged.It will also make available - to overseas archivists and librarians only -bursaries for professional attachments at the British Library to fosterbetter archival standards in cataloguing, preservation, etc., and thereby toassist the process of safeguarding other such collections locally in thefuture.The aim is to safeguard archival material relating to societies usually atan early stage of development, i.e. its normal focus will be on the periodof a society's history before 'modernisation' or 'industrialisation' hadgenerated institutional and record-keeping structures for the systematicpreservation of historical records, very broadly defined. The relevant timeperiod will therefore mostly vary according to the society with which wedeal.The Programme will be completely open as to theme and regional interest,although it will normally, but not invariably, be concerned with non-westernsocieties.For the purposes of the Programme, archives will be interpreted widely toembrace not only rare printed sources (books, serials, newspapers, ephemera,etc.) and manuscripts in any language, but also visual materials (drawings,paintings, prints, posters, photographs, etc.), audio or video recordings,digital data, and even other objects and artefacts - but normally only wherethey are found in association with a documentary archive. In all cases, thevalidity of archival materials for inclusion in the Programme will beassessed by their relevance as source materials for the pre-industrial stageof a society's history.The Fund does not offer grants to support the 'normal' activities of anarchive, although the Programme may offer support for such items as costsdirectly related to the acceptance of relocated material.Further information about the timetable, criteria, eligibility andprocedures will be announced on the Programme's website athttp://www.bl.uk/endangeredarchives in October.Preliminary enquiries or expressions of interest may be addressed now toeap@bl.uk.Sophie ArpPA to Graham ShawHead, Asia Pacific &#38; Africa CollectionsThe British Library96 Euston RoadLondonNW1 2DBSource: H-MUSEUM