The Society of Georgia Archivists joins the entire archives profession in mourning the passing of Dr. David B. Gracy, II. Many in our community knew Dr. Gracy well–as colleagues, students, friends, or fellow SGA members–and his loss will be deeply felt. Dr. Gracy was an early leader in archival education and many will recall not only his achievements in the field, but also his great kindness, enthusiasm, and sense of humor. 

Dr. Gracy came to Georgia in 1971 as Archivist for Georgia State University’s Southern Labor and University Archives, a department he helped to cultivate to its current status as one of the leading collections of organized labor history in the South. During his six years in Georgia, Dr. Gracy made a tremendous impact on the archives profession: he was instrumental in establishing the Southern Labor Studies Conference; was appointed by Governor George Busbee to serve on the 1976 State Historical Records Advisory Board of Georgia; served as the third President of this organization from 1972-1974; was founding editor of Provenance (then Georgia Archive); and for twelve years taught “Introduction to Archival Enterprise” at the Georgia Archives Institute. SGA’s David B. Gracy, II Award, first bestowed in 1990, honors superior contributions to Provenance. 

Following his time in Georgia, Dr. Gracy went on to become Director of Archives at Texas Tech and State Archivist of Texas. He served as President of the Society of American Archivists, the Academy of Certified Archivists, and Austin Archivists. He was also a Fellow of the Texas State Historical Society and President of the Austin Chapter of the Association of Records Managers and Administrators. Dr. Gracy was the author of several books, including Archives and Manuscripts: Arrangement and Description; Littlefield Lands: Colonization on the Texas Plains, 1912-1920; Too Lightly Esteemed in the Past: Archival Enterprise, Records Management and Preservation Administration in Texas; Moses Austin: His Life; and most recently, A Man Absolutely Sure of Himself: Texan George Washington Littlefield.

The Society of Georgia Archivists is grateful to Dr. Gracy for his crucial early work in support of the Society and is deeply saddened by the loss of such a powerful force in the archives profession. May Dr. Gracy rest in peace, and may we all continue to honor his legacy through our care and advocacy for archives and archivists.

To broaden partner participation in the Digital Library of Georgia (DLG), DLG is soliciting proposals for historic digitization projects costing up to $7500 from non-profit Georgia cultural heritage institutions. Applicant organizations must be open to the public, and their collections must be available for public research either by appointment or through regular hours. Project metadata will be included in the DLG portal and the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA). Projects may include the reformatting of textual materials (not including newspapers), graphic materials, or audio-visual materials. Applicants should have materials prepared for a project start date of January 1, 2021.

Selection of materials or collections to digitize will be made in accordance with the DLG’s Collection Development Policy and will depend on the availability of resources and funding. Applications will be reviewed based on the following criteria:

• Clarity of proposal–Project scope and responsibilities should be well-defined.
• Diversity–Materials that represent the cultural, political, social, geographic, and/or economic diversity of the state of Georgia will be given priority.
  
• Reusability–Materials should be free of legal restrictions or have permissions granted by the copyright holder. Preference is given to materials that are freely available or available for free reuse for either educational or non-commercial uses.
  
• Historic value–Materials should have high research, artifactual, or evidential value and/or be of particular interest to multiple audiences.
  
• Added value through digitization–Materials for which access will be substantially improved by digitization or which have a high potential for added value in the digital environment through linkages to existing digitized content will be given priority.
  
• Capacity building–Preference will be given to organizations who have not yet collaborated with the DLG and/or those with limited digitization resources or experience.
  

A committee consisting of DLG, Georgia HomePLACE, Georgia Humanities Council, and Georgia Council for the Arts staff and representatives of GHRAC and the DLG partner community will determine awards. Awards committee members will recuse themselves from review of a proposal should a conflict of interest exist.

For textual and graphic materials, digitization and descriptive services will be performed by DLG staff. In the case of audio-visual collections, digitization will be outsourced to a vendor. Partners are responsible for transporting materials to and from the DLG or for costs associated with shipping to and from vendors.

Nominated materials must have clear rights statements and documentation. Any metadata created will be shared under a Creative Commons License Public Domain License (CC0), through the DLG’s portal and the DPLA.

To apply, submit a 2 MB or smaller zip file of the following to our proposal submission form (you will need a gmail account) by October 1, 2020:

• Application form;
• One letter of reference from a previous user of the materials describing their historic value and potential for reuse by multiple audiences;
  
• Five samples of selected content;
  
• A budget that includes conversion costs, metadata services, and hosting fees based on the DLG Digital Services Cost Recovery for Proposal Development and using the application budget form; and
  
• If requesting DLG hosting, proof of rights status for materials (e.g., letter of permissions from copyright holder, donor’s agreement, orphan works status assessment, release form, etc.).
  

Important dates

• August 12, 2020, 2 pm, Webinar 
• August 25, 2020, 9 am-noon, Phone office hours with DLG staff 
• August 26, 2020, 1-4 pm, Phone office hours with DLG staff
• October 1, 2020, Proposals due
• November 7, 2020, Committee reviews proposals
• November 16, 2020, Recipients notified
• December 16, 2020, Service agreements signed (Sample MOU available here) and project schedules agreed
• January 1, 2021, Projects begin

Sample applications, reviewer materials, and information about past recipients and their projects are all available at https://sites.google.com/view/dlg-docs/dlg-documentation/dlg-subgranting-program.