LA raza historical society (lrhs) will expand its capacity to care for and provide access to a collection of images documenting local history

The Institute of Museum and Library Services awarded $784,600 to La Raza Historical Society of Santa Clara Valley on October 1, 2025, under the Museum Grants for American Latino History and Culture program (CFDA 45.033) to organize, catalog, and digitize up to 90 percent of the organization's image collection documenting local history.

The recipient will hire a Collection Digitization Specialist and procure equipment and software to support the digitization work. The project will establish digital asset management procedures, digitization workflows, and quality standards, including metadata recording, file naming and storage protocols, and catalog record matching. Staff will upload, transcribe, and attach relevant object information to catalog records. Upon completion, students, researchers, and community members will have improved access to photos, negatives, and historical records.

Performance takes place in San Jose, California. The period of performance runs from October 1, 2025, through September 30, 2028. Funds are released as advances or reimbursements in response to requests for payment.

The project involves organizing, cataloging, and digitizing up to 90% of the existing collection. The project will support hiring a collection digitization specialist, providing necessary equipment and software, and developing digital asset management procedures, digitization workflows, and standards to ensure digitization quality, recording metadata, and correctly naming and storing digital files, making sure to match information from the digitized items with lrhs's catalog, uploading, transcribing and attaching relevant object information to catalog records. As a result of this project, students, researchers, and community members will have improved access to photos, negatives, and historical records.