The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) would receive $171.3 million under the Obama Administration’s fiscal year (FY) 2010 budget request that was released this week. The total budget for the NEH would increase $16.3 million from the current $155 million.
Under the Obama administration’s fiscal year (FY) 2010 budget request, funding for programs within the Historic Preservation Fund at the National Park Service will generally see healthy increases while funding for cultural and historic partnership programs will remain flat.
In its Fiscal Year 2010 Department of Education budget request to Congress, the Obama administration proposes the elimination of three programs that support activities related to civic education. The Administration would replace these programs with a new $37 million competitive grant program under the Fund for the Improvement of Education that would be targeted toward civic education.
The Music Division in the Library of Congress recently announced that it has acquired archival materials from the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publisher (ASCAP) Foundation, the not-for-profit arm of the world’s largest performing-rights organization, representing more than 275,000 creators.
On May 5, 2009 the “Preserving the American Historical Record Act (PAHR)” (H.R. 2256) was introduced by Congressmen Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) and John McHugh (R-NY). The PAHR legislation would establish a new federal program of formula grants to the states and territories to support archives and historical records at the state and local level.
In March, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) sought public comment on cost effective ways of modifying the present system for archiving and providing public access to Presidential records. On April 29, the National Coalition for History submitted its comments to NARA. To see a copy of NCH’s comments, click here. The deadline for submitting comments to NARA has been extended until May 22.
The Advisory Committee on the Electronic Records Archives (ACERA) met in Washington on April 29 & 30, 2009. ACERA advises the Archivist of the United States on technical, mission, and service issues related to NARA’s Electronic Records Archive (ERA) project.
On April 27, the Advisory Committee on the Records of Congress (ACRC) met at the U.S. Capitol. The Advisory Committee is comprised of the officials in Congress responsible for its records (Clerk of the House, Secretary of the Senate, Senate Historian, and House Historian) and the Archivist of the United States, who is responsible for the administration of the archived records of Congress.
Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar recently announced the National Park Service will undertake more than 800 projects at parks across the country. The projects reflect an investment of $750 million in the national park system part of more than $3 billion the Interior Department is receiving under President Obama’s recovery plan. For a full list of the projects, go to the Department’s Recovery Web Site at www.interior.gov/recovery.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and 32 partner institutions recently launched the World Digital Library, a website that features unique cultural materials from libraries and archives from around the world. The site located at www.wdl.org includes manuscripts, maps, rare books, films, sound recordings, prints and photographs. It provides unrestricted public access, free of charge, to this material.