Digital Flowers Shout Out: An AUC Robert W. Woodruff Library x Project STAND Archival Microgrant Initiative

Student organizers from BIPOC communities are often the heartbeat of social movements that lead to transformative justice, the development of spaces that celebrate marginalized communities, push institutions to change policies supporting institutional racism or dismantle other discriminatory practices that are abusive toward BIPOC students. Activists from marginalized student communities were integral to the protests of 2020’s racial reckoning in the aftermath of the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbury. Student organizers hold institutions and communities accountable demanding redress against the long history of white supremacy, shifting funds away from campus police, to repatriating stolen artifacts to their rightful homes. We want to help give these agents of change their flowers, past and present!
Our Digital Flowers Shout Out (DFSO) supports organizations and institutions that want the histories and contributions of BIPOC student activists and their organizations accessible through digitization projects that help democratize access of important accounts from Black joy to cross-cultural collaborations, inter-generational dialog, cultural celebrations, traditions, protests/demonstrations, to examples of self-care etc. Through the generosity of The Mellon Foundation, partners in the “Building Capacity in the Ethical Documentation and Archiving of Student Activism in BIPOC Communities” grant project – Atlanta University Center (AUC) Robert W. Woodruff Library and Project STAND–DFSO will provide a micro-grant up to $10k to support vendor costs for digitizing records, hiring project staff, preservation needs, to supporting subscriptions for digital platforms, equipment etc.
Review application process here
Deadline: November 22, 2021
Micro-grant informational Webinars
We are also happy to announce that we will host two micro-grant informational webinars, including one specifically geared toward HBCUs!
The sessions will be held on the following dates:
Wednesday, November 3, 2021 11 am for HBCUs
Thursday, November 4, 2021 at 2 pm for any interested institutions/organizations
The webinars will be led by Andrea Jackson Gavin, Director of Engagement and Scholarship, Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Library
ELIGIBLE PROJECTS
Eligible projects must be related to documenting or/and providing access to records related to contemporary or historical student activism within marginalized communities. Appropriate expenditures include hiring student workers, contracting reproduction or digitization services, in-house digitization costs, or other technologies related to preserving and making student activism records accessible. Institutions may also apply for a two-year Archive-It subscription.
Archive-It Subscription Applications
Funding is available for five Project STAND member institutions to receive access to a two-year Archive-It instance. Archive-It is the leading web archiving solution for a wide-range of organizations, including academic, federal, state or local libraries, archives, and other cultural heritage institutions. Archive-It partners benefit from access to in-depth training, documentation, and technical support from the Internet Archive’s professional web archivists and engineers. Archive-It will be useful for institutions seeking to work with student organizers; these student activists will have identified an interest in preserving their content (websites, social media, digital humanities projects, etc.) for public access and their willingness to work with the college or university archivist to frame descriptions for harvested content.
If applying only for the Archive-It instance, funds will be paid directly to Archive-It for the two-year subscription. An institution may apply for both the Archive-It instance, and a small digitization project. If awarded both, institutions will receive the $8,000 grant and a two-year subscription to Archive-It (paid directly to Archive-It).
SELECTION CRITERIA
Project STAND will review and evaluate all eligible applications received by November 22, 2021. Completed applications will be reviewed by the Project STAND Advisory Board. Any Advisory Board members who have a conflict of interest will be asked to refrain from evaluating relevant applications. Grants will be selected on a competitive basis by Project STAND, which will give preference to those organizations with limited digitization resources or experience. In determining whether an applicant shall receive a grant, the following criteria will be considered:
- Does the project relate to documenting student activism in African American, Latinx, Asian American, Undocumented, LGBTQ, or other historically underdocumented student populations?
- Is the project proposal scope clear and responsibilities well-defined?
- Does the project utilize ethical practices for collecting, preserving, and making student activism records accessible?
- Are the proposed expenditures cost effective?
- Does the proposal adhere to grant project application requirements and does it contain sufficient information for Project STAND decision-making?
- Is the financial information submitted realistic and accurate?
- In general, is the project aligned with the goals and objectives of Project STAND?
IMPORTANT DATES
Grant Applications must be received by Project STAND by November 22, 2021.
Applicants will be notified of Project STAND’s decision by December 2021.
Grant Projects will begin once Project STAND receives the signed and executed contract, and no later than February 1, 2022.
Update Reports are due every six months after the project begins.
Digitization project is due on or before June 30, 2023 and the final performance and financial reports are due by July 1, 2023 and the reports are due by
July 31, 2023.
APPLICATION ASSISTANCE
Direct questions about the grant application process or project administration to (Project STAND Coordinator) at projectstandarchives@gmail.com
REQUIRED AGREEMENTS
All micro-grant recipients must complete and sign an agreement with AUC Woodruff Library and Project STAND before beginning the micro-grant project. Recipients must submit project update reports every six months after beginning the grant based on a template provided, and a final report to be submitted by July 1, 2023.
APPLICATION PROCESS
To apply, complete the application form(s) by November 22, 2021. Microgrant submission formArchive-It submission form
The application forms include contact information, description of content, and ability to upload attachments listed below.
- Letter of support (PDF) from an institution officer (Department Head, Library Director, etc.) must be included to confirm ability and willingness to accept funding and complete project implementation
- For Archive-IT applications, include names and urls of websites to be archived
- For Archive-IT Applications include urls
- For digitization project applications, include sample(s) (JPG or PDF) of no more than 5 images of material to be digitized
- For digitization project applications, submit a budget (PDF) that includes conversion costs, hosting fees (if applicable), student worker salaries
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