2023 Washington Digital Heritage Grants: Home

The 2023-24 Washington Digital Heritage (WDH) grant cycle supports public, tribal, special, and academic libraries in carrying out a variety of digital initiatives focused on archival and special collections of cultural or historical significance.

The Washington State Library (WSL) seeks proposals that: 1) Develop institutional capacity to carry out and sustain digital initiatives, and: 2) Support regional and/or statewide approaches to digitization and the use of digital cultural heritage collections.

This WDH grant cycle works to fulfill WSL’s Library Services and Technology Act Plan goal, 2023-2027: Preserve and share Washington’s stories using methods and tools that balance accessibility with respect for the storytelling culture.

Proposals may include or involve:

• Digitization/reformatting of archival and special collections (excluding newspapers).
• Metadata creation, remediation/cleanup, and/or re-cataloging.
• Development of local standards, practices and/or policies related to digitization, metadata creation, digital preservation, etc.
• Creation of born-digital multimedia content (e.g., oral histories, digital exhibits).
• Integration of primary sources or archival collections into educational settings by way of lesson plans/curricula, and/or Open Educational Resources (OERs).

Project outputs should be openly accessible to the public. Exceptions may be made for tribal libraries working with culturally sensitive materials. Collaboration and formal partnerships are encouraged, but not required. Proposals using existing standards and best practices, and supporting a regional approach to the preservation and dissemination of digital collections will receive priority consideration for grant awards. Examples of this might include contributing records to a Digital Public Library of America service hub or other regional consortium, such as the Plateau Peoples' Web Portal, or developing workflows, tools, or best practices useful to other libraries in the region. Learn more about the Orbis Cascade Alliance digital collections work for the Northwest here: https://www.orbiscascade.org/programs/ulc/digital-collections/ or about the work of WSL and State Library of Oregon here: https://www.northwestdigitalheritage.org/. For additional information about the possibility of contributing digital objects to the Plateau Peoples’ Web Portal, please contact the CDSC at cdsc.info@wsu.edu.

WSL supports libraries throughout the state in building local capacity to develop and sustain digital cultural heritage initiatives. The collaborative digitization program, Washington Rural Heritage (WRH), http://www.washingtonruralheritage.org, provides a statewide digital platform for smaller institutions. An existing or prospective WRH partner may use this grant opportunity to develop WRH collections. However, institutions are also welcome to undertake projects existing outside the WRH program and are free to use their own local systems, repositories, or platforms to manage and share project outputs.

WSL staff are available to provide consulting, training, and support of awardees throughout this grant cycle. Please note that WSL also offers separate Professional Development Grants to support professional training and continuing education (e.g., for advanced digitization topics): https://washstatelib.libguides.com/pdgrants.