The entrance to the British Library.
The entrance to the British Library.
One of the biggest problems facing historians is the paucity of records. For most of the 20th Century this is not so bad, and since the widespread use of computers – first by governments and businesses, now by everyone – the historical record should be readily available to all at the push of a button. However, the further back one goes in time, the more scant becomes the written record. Added to this is the problem that at times records have been destroyed, either deliberately for various reasons, by accident, or by acts of God. Existing records from days of yore are also subject to deterioration, which is where ENDANGERED ARCHIVES comes in. The aim of this great project is to digitise endangered archives the world over and to make them accessible to the whole world through the WorldWideWeb. It is based at the British Library. One of the many projects it funded last year was an Inventory of the National Archives of Burundi.
The Endangered Archives Programme was founded by the Arcadia Fund, which was previously known as the Lisbet Rausing Charitable Fund. It has committed $18 million to this work.
The next call for grant applications will be in September; grants are made to accredited academics including independent researchers, and start from around £5,000 for pilot projects to in excess of £50,000 for major ones.
[The above article was first published March 3, 2014.]
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