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Resolution in Support of the National Endowment for the Humanities
Adopted by the Council of the Society of American Archivists,
February 15, 1995.
The Society of American Archivists is keenly aware of the critical role
played by the National Endowment for the Humanities in protecting America's
documentary heritage. The Endowment's national perspective enables the
strategic dispersion of grant funds, so that the limited funds available
can have the broadest possible impact.
Broadly effective activities that could only be launched through the
investment of Endowment funds include: research leading to identification
of means of preventing air pollution damage to preservation microforms
and enhancing the longevity of photographic film; development and implementation
of preservation education programs that prepare the personnel needed to
conserve national information resources; and multi-institutional cooperative
efforts to process, preserve, and enhance the availability of endangered
photographs, pamphlets, artifacts, musical recordings, maps, architectural
drawings, manuscripts and motion pictures. One of the most successful
efforts in the latter category has been the Endowment-funded national
collaborative effort to locate, catalog, preserve on microfilm, and make
available the highly acidic and deteriorating newspapers that have been
published in the U.S. since the eighteenth century.
Whereas, the national initiatives that are needed to conserve national
information resources will not be undertaken without the leadership and
support of the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Society of American
Archivists urges continuing Congressional authorization and appropriations
for this important federal agency.
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