We are tremendously excited to announce that the Institute for Museum and Library Services has awarded RADD a Sparks! Ignition grant to build and document two kits, one for audiovisual digitization (“PRAVDA,” for “Portably Reformat A/V to Digital from Analog”), one for digital-data rescue (“PROUD,” for “Portable Recovery of Unique Data”).
Our hope is that proving the feasibility of constructing such kits will spark kit construction at centers of cultural heritage such as state libraries and archives, DPLA Service Hubs, library consortia, and LIS schools. In turn, the kits will enable small cultural-heritage institutions to rescue and share at least some of their most at-risk collections, and to help patrons rescue their own personal and family history.
We are glad to share with the community the abstract and (slightly redacted) narrative from our grant application. We make no pretense of perfection—indeed, if we were to write this grant today we would change a few things!—but we hope sharing these helps others write successful applications.