Frequently Asked Questions about the Scaling Community through Archives cohort application
This is a collection of the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) for the Scaling Community through Archives cohort application. These have been gathered through email and interactions at the information sessions held in February 2025. If you have a question that is not answered here, please email Chris Jowaisas (chrisjow@uw.edu).
Last updated: March 20, 2025 – 3:10pm Pacific ST
March 20th, 2025: The Scaling Community Through Archives team knows that the recent Executive Orders have raised many questions about federal government grant funding and activities. At this time, the current guidance the project team has received is to proceed with our activities until there is more specific guidance provided to us. We know that this creates an uncertainty for potential cohort applicants as to whether to invest the effort in applying. We’ll be flexible whenever possible to provide extra assistance and time once we receive additional guidance. If there are questions that we can answer before the application deadline, please feel free to contact us at any time.
Important dates
Applications due April 1, 2025
Decisions expected early May 2025
Q. We missed the information sessions – can we still apply? Are there recordings of the sessions? What resources are available to support our application?
A. Attendance at the information sessions is not required to submit an application. We didn’t make recordings of the sessions. We’d would recommend that you take a look at the following resources as you prepare your application. If you have any additional questions not answered from these resources then please email us with questions.
Luckily, you are in a great place to start with this FAQ – read through this page and then head over to the following resources:
For general background on what the project is start at the general project webpage: Scaling Community Through Archives: A National Program to Expand Community Archives | The Technology & Social Change Group
To better understand what a community archive is and see some ideas of possible activities that could happen in your community, we recommend visiting the Community Archives Toolkit: Community Archives Toolkit | Community Archives Toolkit. I’d point your attention to Section 1.1. Background on Community Archives in the toolkit for an introduction to community archives and Chapter 3. Build the Community Archive for potential examples of community events.
To get an overview of what information is asked on the application, see the Cohort application information page: Cohort applications now open for Scaling Community Through Archives project | The Technology & Social Change Group
And finally if you want to get the really big picture of the whole project, the complete grant proposal to IMLS is here: NLG-L Recipient, LG-256575-OLS-24
Q. Is our project appropriate / the right fit / etc. for this application?
A. This is a difficult question to answer broadly. We would refer you to the “Background on Community Archives” section in the Toolkit as a good place to start when you are considering whether your proposed project would be a good fit. 1.1 Background on Community Archives | Community Archives Toolkit
We are looking for projects that include the active participation of the community in the various aspects (e.g. documenting, collecting, managing, and making accessible) of the archive. Generally speaking, projects that don’t include this participation will not be considered as compelling as those that do. For example, a project that seeks to digitize existing historical records without community involvement will not be as competitive as a project that is initiated by or involves participation of the community in different phases of the archive.
Q. We have a team of people at our library and/or community partners who would participate in the project. How should we fill out the application to indicate that more than one person will be participating?
A. Each project should fill out one application that covers all potential participants. The project lead should supply their information in Section 1, questions 1 – 6. The project lead is the person who is ultimately responsible for ensuring the activities are completed. Additional staff, volunteers, or other participants should be identified in Section 2, question 3 when describing additional internal and external stakeholders. Some of the cohort activities will be limited to the project lead while other activities will be open to additional staff due to capacity constraints. We will strive to have participation be as broadly open as possible.
Q. How much detail should we provide or are you expecting for each question?
A. This is a hard one to answer because the projects we are expecting can vary in complexity, scale, and stage of development. In practical terms, we think most questions should not exceed a page in length at most. We want to keep the investment of your time proportional to the support you could receive, so keep that in mind as you think about the time you spend preparing the application. Our recommendation is to provide enough detail that most questions are answered. We understand that for some proposals there may be more unknowns because they are in a less developed state than others. Do your best to balance providing detail with the knowledge that the reviewers realize that projects change and require flexibility to be successful.
Q. How should we describe the internal and external stakeholders? Is there a template we should use for that portion of the application or generally to fill out the application?
A. There is not a template for the application questions. For each question, please provide as much detail as you feel is necessary for us to understand your project. For the role of internal and external stakeholders, we would recommend that you provide enough information for us to understand how they will support the facets of the program in implementing or sustaining it as appropriate.
Q. Are wages for someone working on the project an appropriate use of funds? Or is it limited to only being spent on equipment and supplies?
A. The stipend is provided to the organization to use in whatever way they determine to be the best use to support the project (within any legal or programmatic rules). This can include wages, equipment, supplies, or providing support to partner organizations to participate in the project. Provide as much detail as you can in Section 2 Question 5 about your planned use of the stipend. We’ll follow-up if we have questions.
Q. What level of documentation will be required for expenditures?
A. The stipend is meant to provide flexibility for the use of funds. As such, we don’t require additional documentation (e.g. receipts) for the expenditure of funds. Your organization may have requirements that obviously should be followed, but otherwise, UW will not be asking for additional documentation in regard to expenditures.
Since our project is focused on identifying we might follow-up as part of research discussions to understand how funds were ultimately spent to understand what areas across participating libraries received the highest concentration of funds. This follow-up would not expect exact figures but instead would be to understand potential areas that libraries could expect to invest in if they undertake community archives projects.
Q. Can the stipend be shared with partner organizations that are participating in the activities?
A. Yes – you should describe in the application the use of the funds by the partner as best known at the time of the application.
Q. We are a tribal library. Are we eligible to apply?
A. Yes – we will not be scrutinizing the definition of a public library. If you feel like your library meets the criteria of the project, we encourage you to apply. Please note that the project team will ask participants to take part in interviews, focus groups, and other research activities to help us to expand the community archives resources. If the tribe connected to the library requires review or approval of these research activities by a university, we would need to work with you to get these approvals. Research review by tribes varies from tribe to tribe, thus we would need to build in time for this tribal approval, if needed. Please contact Sandy Littletree if you have questions about this.
Q. We are a library regional system / a 501c3 organization / etc. – can we apply in collaboration with our local public libraries or does the library need to apply?
A. The participating organizations can decide who is the lead applicant based on local circumstances but should clearly describe the role of each organization in the project. As our project is focused on research questions related to the role of public libraries and community archives, we will need to clearly understand the proposed role of the public library and what factors (e.g. administrative or financial organizational structures) make a different type of organization the preferred lead versus a public library.
Q. If an applicant has experience working in community archives and has a background in public libraries, archives, and research, but does not currently work in a public library, would they still be eligible to apply?
A. Yes, but the application should be done in partnership with a public library. Since we are researching questions around how to help public libraries develop, expand, or sustain community archive projects, a public library needs to be involved in any proposed project for a cohort participant.
Q: Do projects need to begin immediately upon acceptance into the cohort, after the in-person training, or at another time?
A. Because we expect to have projects that are at different stages, the project can begin before or after the in-person training. Due to the processing time for the stipends, we don’t expect that funds will be available to libraries until July 2025 if paperwork is completed in May 2025.
Q. Are there resources that we can access right now to help us with a community archive project?
A. Yes – take a look at the Community Archives Toolkit produced as part of our initial project work with Tacoma Public Library and also take a peek at the Digital Readiness Toolkit if you are focused on digital objects. Public libraries, historical societies, and other community-focused organizations can apply to join the Community Webs program (https://communitywebs.archive-it.org/). Members receive free access to community archiving, web archiving, and digital preservation training and services.
Q. I’m interested in the research portion of the project – can you point me to more information about those activities?
A. Sure thing – this grant is an Applied Research grant and focuses on investigating three primary research questions as follows:
1.How do understandings of community archives, and their desired role within communities, vary between public library staff in differently sized rural and urban systems?
2. How do urban and rural systems differ in terms of the challenges they must navigate to effectively build community archives?
3. How do these systems differ in terms of best practices for implementing impactful community archives?
The project team will be conducting interviews, focus group sessions, and participant observation with the cohort to answer these research questions during and after the project. By participating in this project, you will be helping support the expansion of the existing community archives toolkit, as well as helping build the foundation for curricular resources to support the training of library staff to implement community archives nationwide.
The full proposal can be accessed here for additional information – NLG-L Recipient, LG-256575-OLS-24. The project has been reviewed by the University of Washington Human Subjects Division and approved.
Q. Who is reviewing the applications?
The project team will review the applications and make the selections. We are looking to build a cohort with a mix of library locales (e.g. rural + urban), a range of experiences in terms of participants, and project types, both in focus and in stages of development. We are looking for these various characteristics to help us hopefully have a wide range of inputs into answering the research questions and ultimately develop resources that are of benefit to the widest range of libraries interested in developing, expanding, or sustaining community archive projects on their own.
Q. Is there a way for us to keep up to date with the project even if we are not chosen for the cohort?
Yes – you can check our project website (Scaling Community Through Archives: A National Program to Expand Community Archives | The Technology & Social Change Group). We are also exploring a listserv / newsletter / other mechanism for sending out project updates to people. If you are interested in being added to our current high-tech solution (a post-it note with everyone’s email), please send a request to be added to Chris Jowaisas and he will update the post-it.
