The National Library of Australia invites applications for 2018 Community Heritage Grants. Now in its 25th year, this popular grants program makes available up to $15,000 to community groups to help preserve and manage locally held but nationally significant cultural heritage collections.

These collections comprise a range of materials from archival records, oral histories and textiles through to paintings, drawings, photographs and objects. Community Heritage Grants support a range of activities designed to preserve these materials for future generations. Previous projects have included preservation training, conservation treatments, digitising of items, and purchase of archival-quality storage material or collection-management software.

Dr Marie-Louise Ayres, Director-General of the National Library of Australia, said the grants program has had a significant impact on safeguarding local but nationally significant collections around the country, from cities to the remotest of regions. ‘Since the program began in 1994, more than $6.5 million has been allocated to over 1,320 collection preservation and management projects.

‘I strongly encourage everyone who believes they have a special collection in their local community—historical societies, regional museums, galleries, archives, public libraries, Indigenous groups, migrant community groups—to apply for a Community Heritage Grant,’ Dr Ayres said.

The National Library manages the Community Heritage Grants Program—which is funded by the Australian Government through the Department of Communications and the Arts—with the National Archives of Australia, the National Film and Sound Archive and the National Museum of Australia.

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