In response to Anita's original message and to the responses on HISTARCH: The National Endowment for the Humanities' Division of Preservation and Access supports projects that will preserve and increase the availability of resources important for research, education, and public programming in the humanities. Projects may encompass collections of books, journals, newspapers, manuscript and archival materials, maps, still and moving image collections, sound recordings, and objects of material culture held by libraries, archives, museums, historical organizations, and other repositories. The division accepts applications that address problems of preservation and intellectual access related to unique collections -- including anthropological and archaeological field and laboratory records, illustrative materials (site maps and plans), and image collections (B&W still images, transparencies, etc.). The preservation microfilming or photocopying on archival quality (nonacidic) paper of site materials is appropriate in terms of current archival practices but attempting to "preserve" site records and "grey" literature by creating CD-ROM's is not. CDs are not considered to be archival and deteriorate over time. Furthermore, CDs are subject to pollution (especially dust), storage environment parameters (relative humidity and temperature ranges), and if the CD is damaged, the ENTIRE corpus of information cannot be retrieved -- it is LOST. Current technologies cannot retrieve the data. Further information about CD longevity is available from the National Media Laboratory in St. Paul, MN. FAX 612/733-4340. At NEH I have a responsibility for still and moving image collections, recorded sound, magnetic media, and scanning/digitization in the Division of Preservation and Access. I'm also a professional archaeologist (Mesoamerica, Central Asia, Eastern North America, East Africa) with particular interests in ceramics and settlement pattern analyses. If you have any questions, please contact me via telephone or e-mail (preferably the former); ask the secretary to send you a copy of our guidelines before attempting to develop a proposal: 202/606-8570 or [log in to unmask] Charles C. Kolb National Endowment for the Humanities Division of Preservation and Access, Room 802 1100 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20506