Beyond the Grant: Cultivating Sustainable Next Steps

Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies Volume 11 Article 5 2024 Beyond the Grant: Cultivating Sustainable Next Steps Virginia A. Dressler Kent State University, Michelle Sweetser Bowling Green State University, Nicholas Pavlik Bowling Green State University, Michael C. Hawkins Kent State University, Kaysie Harrington Lakeside Heritage Society, Follow this and additional works at: https://elischolar.library.yale.edu/jcas Part of the Archival Science Commons Recommended Citation Dressler, Virginia A.; Sweetser, Michelle; Pavlik, Nicholas; Hawkins, Michael C.; and Harrington, Kaysie (2024) "Beyond the Grant: Cultivating Sustainable Next Steps," Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies: Vol. 11, Article 5. Available at: https://elischolar.library.yale.edu/jcas/vol11/iss1/5 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by EliScholar – A Digital Platform for Scholarly Publishing at Yale. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies by an authorized editor of EliScholar – A Digital Platform for Scholarly Publishing at Yale. For more information, please contact . Beyond the Grant: Cultivating Sustainable Next Steps Cover Page Footnote We would like to thank the editor and reviewers for their time, feedback and consideration. We also would like to thank the funding agencies for supporting the projects described in this paper, which include National Endowment for the Humanities, Ohio Local History Alliance, Ohio History Fund, and Ohio Historical Records Advisory Board. This article is available in Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies: https://elischolar.library.yale.edu/jcas/vol11/ iss1/5 Dressler et al.: Beyond the Grant: Cultivating Sustainable Next Steps BEYOND THE GRANT: CULTIVATING SUSTAINABLE NEXT STEPS This paper highlights ongoing work at three cultural heritage institutions in northern Ohio (Bowling Green State University, Kent State University, and the Lakeside Heritage Society) to extend the work begun during grant-funded digital projects beyond the terms of the grant. Sustaining related work after the grant-funding period has expired is a concern for many practitioners and, to date, a topic that has not been discussed in-depth in museum and archival literature. While each institution has its own unique staffing and operational demands, this article outlines a number of sustainable approaches that can be tailored to different scenarios for ongoing project support and growth. Background The ideas presented here were initially formulated in two presentations at state conferences in 2022 (the Society of Ohio Archivists and the Ohio Local History Alliance). Our group seeks to bring more awareness to ways organizations can continue to build and evolve digital resources and relationships developed during a grant once the grant has expired and when ongoing support and resources are needed to sustain a project or initiative. Grant funding can provide a multitude of benefits that may not always be immediately apparent, but it is also important to consider the costs of ongoing maintenance and the resources required for continued growth, outreach, and promotion efforts. Additionally, it is essential to acknowledge the potential long-term effects on access and the impact that grant funding can have for research. As one prepares a grant application, it is natural to focus on developing an understanding of the rules and requirements for a particular grant, what costs are covered, and what kinds of projects are appropriate to a particular funding agency. Workshops, online webinars, and similar events often are aimed at helping potential applicants understand the application and selection processes, the kinds of projects or work that are allowable within the funder’s scope, how to prepare and administer a budget, and the like. However, it is equally important to consider the impact the grant will have on the organization (if funded) and the organization’s commitment to the future work that will be required for the long-term sustainability of the project deliverables. Grant applications and funded awards—by their very nature as limited-term funding—often do not directly address long-term sustainability issues, asking applicants to describe the work to be accomplished within the term, project scope, and framing parameters set by the agency in that cycle. Such focus places the grant within a framework that emphasizes a terminal product (digitize X number of items, process X linear feet of papers, etc.) within a preset period, rarely acknowledging the totality of the project and work behind the scenes. Digital collections often begin as project-based initiatives—for instance, “providing increased access to unique collections, preserving fragile records, raising the global profile of the institution, meeting user demand, and supporting the teaching, learning, and research needs of host institutions,” and as such may find initial support through grant funding.1 Professional resources, standards, and guidelines provide guidance in framing the nuts and bolts of grant project work, including digitization workflows, digitization standards (benchmarks/guidelines), post-production 1 O’Hara, Lapworth, and Lampert, “Cultivating Digitization Competencies,” 1. Published by EliScholar – A Digital Platform for Scholarly Publishing at Yale, 2024 1 Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies, Vol. 11 [2024], Art. 5 tasks, ingest into access and preservation repositories, and so on, but very few provide guidance on sustaining such initiatives long-term and after funds and/or staffing for the core digitization piece are depleted.2 It should be noted that the term sustainability is a broad and all-encompassing term, not only regarding the funding piece but also the human and systems resources as well. The Oxford English Dictionary defines “sustainable” as “capable of being maintained or continued at a certain rate or level.”3 Within an archival context, sustainability can have a number of practical meanings. It can define the ongoing support for and availability of systems resources such as digital preservation systems or the website architecture required to guarantee continuing access to and preservation of digital objects created during a grant. It is not uncommon for funding agencies to ask questions about some variation of this kind of sustainability. But digital projects also require human resources, which equate to time and money. As archival repositories frequently lack both staff time and money, sustainability must take other forms within the archival profession as well. For example, it can look like “the continued ability to exist in a way that meets the aims and objectives originally set out by the institution, organisation or community,” as defined by Sarah Baker and Jez Collins.4 In such a context, sustainability could mean allocating staff time to engage in a second phase of work that can improve on the product created (...truncated)