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.