Research News

Limited Submission Opportunity: CLIR Recordings at Risk

Vanderbilt University may submit one application to the Recordings at Risk program.

Recordings at Risk is a national regranting program administered by the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) to support the preservation of rare and unique audio and audiovisual content of high scholarly value through digital reformatting. Awards from the open competitions range from $10,000 to $50,000 and cover costs of preservation reformatting for audio and/or audiovisual content by qualified external service providers.

Recordings at Risk encourages professionals who may be constrained by limited resources and/or technical expertise to take action against the threats of degradation and obsolescence. The program aims to help institutions identify priorities and develop practical strategies for digital reformatting, build relationships with partners, and raise awareness of best practices. Projects will be evaluated according to impact, urgency, preservation and cost-effectiveness.

The grant may fund up to 100 percent of the direct costs of audio or audiovisual digital reformatting services to be provided by an external service provider. In-house digitization projects are not eligible for this program. Applicants must agree to create appropriate descriptive and technical metadata for all content digitized through grant funds during the grant term, and to dedicate this metadata to the public domain. CLIR will make exceptions for culturally sensitive metadata.

The eighth competition, which was initially scheduled to open May 1, was pushed back by CLIR with a new deadline of Jan. 29, 2021. Significant changes to the program’s guidelines are not expected, so applicants may refer to the Cycle 7 guidelines and template below. Note that an informational webinar will take place on Nov. 18, 2020. Register here.

*Recordings at Risk is a limited-time CLIR program funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation that will end in 2021. This present competition is the eighth of a total of nine competition cycles that will run through next year. Vanderbilt is eligible to apply this cycle even though it has been awarded in a previous cycle.

See the guidelines and Applicant Resources page for more information.

Submission instructions

Interested faculty should visit https://vanderbilt.infoready4.com/#competitionDetail/1826881 to apply for the internal LSO competition and to find additional information about the opportunity. The deadline for the internal competition is Nov. 18, 2020.

Any questions about this opportunity may be directed to VU-LSO@vanderbilt.edu.