Broad Agency Announcement - Archie Green Cultural Documentation Program

The purpose of this BAA is to solicit projects that will support the creation of community-centered collections that will increase the public’s knowledge and understanding of a diverse range of local and regional cultural and traditional practices.

Background

The Library of Congress is the largest library in the world, with millions of books, recordings, photographs, newspapers, maps and manuscripts in its collections. The Library’s mission is to engage, inspire, and inform Congress and the American people with a universal and enduring source of knowledge and creativity. The Library’s goal is to expand access, calls upon curatorial units to “build and enrich Library collections and content to serve Congress and America’s communities."

The American Folklife Center (AFC) documents and shares the many expressions of human experience to inspire, revitalize, and perpetuate living cultural traditions. Designated by the U.S. Congress as the national center for folklife documentation and research, AFC meets its mission by stewarding archival collections, creating public programs, and exchanging knowledge and expertise. Congress enacted the AFC to support research and scholarship in American folklife in order to contribute to an understanding of the complex problems of the basic desires, beliefs, and values of the American people in both rural and urban areas. AFC's vision is to encourage foster community participation in the collective creation of cultural memory and obtain a broad range of perspective and materials related to expressions of cultural practices.

In this Broad Agency Announcement, the AFC seeks proposals that will support contemporary cultural documentation and research with a focus on documentation of community-based cultural and traditional practices. Funded projects will result in archival collections preserved at the American Folklife Center and made accessible through the Library of Congress’ web site. The major goals of this program are to enable communities to document their cultural traditions, practices, and experiences from their own perspectives, while enhancing the Library’s holdings with materials featuring creativity and knowledge found at the local level.