The National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) is the arm of the National Archives that disperses grant funds to “promote the preservation and use of America’s documentary heritage.” Since its inception in 1964 the commission has funded over 4,000 projects for state and local archives, higher education institutions, libraries, historical societies, and other nonprofits. In conjunction with institutions that house the staff of these projects, and publishers that produce the volumes, microfilms, and digital editions, funding from the NHPRC has supported preservation, documentary editing, and publishing of an impressive catalogue of edited editions.

The NHPRC recently published draft proposals for a major overhaul of grant programs on its blog Annotation. The proposed new grants will be available in six categories, including Access to Historical Records, Literacy & Engagement with Historical Records, Online Publishing of Historical Records, Publishing Historical Records Online, State Board Programming Grants, and State Government Electronic Records.

The AHA wrote to Archivist of the United States David Ferriero as well as posting a copy of that letter on the comments on Annotation. The comment period, which closed on March 31, allowed individuals and organizations to provide perspectives on the new programs, and the NHPRC received a large number of comments and letters. The NHPRC will be publishing final versions of the grant programs in the coming weeks.

This post first appeared on AHA Today.