National Digital Newspaper Program NOFO 20240111-PJ modified.pdf

Notice of Funding Opportunity

National Digital Newspaper Program

Funding Opportunity Number: 20240111-PJ

Funding Opportunity Types: New, Renewal

Federal Assistance Listing Number: 45.149

Application Deadline: January 12, 2024

Ensure your SAM.gov and Grants.gov registrations and passwords are current.

It may take several weeks to register with SAM.gov and Grants.gov.

NEH will not grant deadline extensions for lack of registration.

Division of Preservation and Access Telephone: 202-606-8570 Email: preservation@neh.gov Telecommunications Relay Service: 7-1-1

OMB control number 3136-0134, expiration date October 31, 2024 mailto:preservation@neh.gov

20240111-PJ i

Executive Summary The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Division of Preservation and Access is accepting applications for the National Digital Newspaper Program. This program creates a national digital resource of historically significant newspapers published between 1690 and 1963 from all 56 states and U.S. jurisdictions. The Library of Congress (LOC) maintains this freely accessible, searchable online database.

Funding Opportunity Title National Digital Newspaper Program

Funding Opportunity Number 20240111-PJ

Federal Assistance Listing

Number

45.149

Optional Draft Deadlines November 30, 2023, 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time

Application Deadlines January 12, 2024, 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time

Anticipated Award

Announcements

August 2024

Anticipated FY 2024 Funding Approximately $2,500,000

Estimated Number and Type of

Awards

Approximately 10 cooperative agreements

Award Amounts Up to $325,000

Cost Sharing/Match Required No, unless you request federal matching funds

Period of Performance The period of performance is two years with a start date of

September 1, 2024.

Eligible Applicants • nonprofit organizations recognized as tax-exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code

• accredited institutions of higher education (public or nonprofit)

• state and local governments and their agencies

• federally recognized Native American Tribal governments

See C. Eligibility Information for additional information.

Program Resource Page https://www.neh.gov/grants/preservation/national-digital-newspaper-program

Published October 16, 2023 (modified October 18, 2023, to fix link) https://www.neh.gov/grants/preservation/national-digital-newspaper-program

20240111-PJ ii

Table of Contents A. Program Description

1. Purpose

2. Background

B. Federal Award Information

1. Type of Application and Award

2. Summary of Funding

C. Eligibility Information

1. Eligible Applicants

2. Cost Sharing

3. Other Eligibility Information

D. Application and Submission Information

1. Application Package

2. Content and Form of Application Submission

3. Unique Entity Identifier and System for Award Management

4. Submission Dates and Times

5. Intergovernmental Review

6. Funding Restrictions

E. Application Review Information

1. Review Criteria

2. Review and Selection Process

3. Assessment of Risk and Other Pre-Award Activities

4. Anticipated Announcement and Award Dates

F. Federal Award Administration Information

1. Federal Award Notices

2. Administrative and National Policy Requirements

3. Reporting

G. Agency Contacts

H. Other Information

20240111-PJ 1

A. Program Description

1. Purpose This notice solicits applications for the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP).

NDNP is a partnership between NEH and the Library of Congress (LOC) to create a national digital resource of historically significant newspapers published between 1690 and 1963 from all 56 states and U.S. jurisdictions. LOC will permanently maintain this freely accessible, searchable online database (see Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers). An accompanying national newspaper directory of bibliographic and holdings information on the website directs users to newspaper titles available in all types of formats. During its partnership with NEH, LOC will digitize and contribute a significant number of newspaper pages drawn from its own collections to Chronicling America.

If your application is successful, you will select newspapers—published in states or jurisdictions between 1690 and 1963—and over a period of two years, convert approximately 100,000 pages into digital files (preferably from microfilm), according to the technical guidelines outlined by LOC. You may select titles published in any language with a valid ISO 639-2 language code (or ISO 630-3, if appropriate). For newspapers published after 1927, you may only select those in the public domain (i.e., published without copyright or for which the copyright was not registered or renewed by 1963). If you wish to select titles for digitization published after 1927, you must indemnify LOC and NEH.

NEH welcomes applications that involve collaboration between prior NDNP recipients and new partners. Such collaborations might involve arrangements to manage the creation and delivery of digital files; regular and ongoing consultation about project management; or formal training for project staff at an onsite institute or workshop. NDNP has supported such collaborations between the following partners: Arkansas and Mississippi; Florida and Puerto Rico; Louisiana and Mississippi; Minnesota and Iowa; Minnesota and North Dakota; Minnesota and South Dakota; Montana and Idaho; Texas and New Mexico; Texas and Oklahoma; and Virginia and West Virginia.

NDNP supports dissemination activities that engage the wider public in exploring the digitized content, within appropriate limits. Your budget may include staff time, consultation with outside experts, and other eligible expenses related to disseminating NEH-funded products, but the primary purpose of this program is to create a national digital resource of historically significant newspapers.

If you propose digitizing titles in languages other than English, you must include staff with the relevant language expertise to review the quality of the converted content and related metadata.

Your award should include an advisory board that includes scholars, teachers, traditional knowledge keepers, librarians, and archivists at a variety of institutions. The advisory board should be involved in selecting the newspapers to be digitized. In addition to providing advice on content, the advisory board should help disseminate the project’s progress and Chronicling America more generally.

If you are a prior NDNP recipient, you may apply for a subsequent award to digitize additional newspapers. NEH has distinct programmatic expectations depending on how many NDNP http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/ https://www.loc.gov/ndnp/guidelines/NDNP_202426TechNotes.pdf

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awards you have previously received. This notice outlines these expectations. NEH will consider your number of previous NDNP awards when making funding decisions.

During your first three awards, you will become proficient in newspaper digitization production workflows and standards through your cooperative agreement with NEH and LOC. At this stage, you must ensure that you or your partner institutions have access to large quantities of master negative microfilms of the state or jurisdiction’s newspapers for the period from 1690 through 1963.

If you are seeking your first, second, or third NDNP award, you should develop selection criteria with the following principles in mind:

• titles should reflect the political, economic, and cultural history of the state or jurisdiction

• you should give preference to titles that are recognized as “papers of record” at the state or county level and that contain published legal notices, news of state and regional governmental affairs, and announcements of community news and events

• selected titles should provide state, or at least multi-county, coverage of the majority of the population areas

• you should give preference to newspapers with a broad chronological span over those with short runs or those that published sporadically

If you are seeking a subsequent NDNP award, you should, with the help of a carefully selected advisory board, develop selection criteria that move beyond the newspapers of record to include the following:

• titles with underrepresented perspectives and histories

• titles that shed light on the social and cultural causes of climate change, global warming, and environmental degradation

• titles that have ceased publication and/or lack ownership, and therefore would be less likely to be digitized by other sources

• previously digitized newspapers with strong justification for inclusion

In addition to more nuanced considerations of title selection, you might also advance the technological reaches of newspaper digitization by developing content platforms; finding innovative uses for NDNP data and metadata; and collaborating with educators, scholars, and/or technical experts.

Program Outcomes and Outputs The output of your first, second, or third NDNP award should be the addition of digitized newspapers from states or jurisdictions to the Chronicling America database.

The output of your fourth or subsequent NDNP award should be additions to the Chronicling America database that further enhance the collection by adding newspapers from states or jurisdictions that improve coverage of a particular theme.

You will describe your project outcomes and outputs, and how they would support the overall purpose of the NDNP program, in Attachment 1: Narrative.

See D6. Funding Restrictions for unallowable activities.

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See E1. Review Criteria for the standards NEH will use to evaluate applications under this notice.

2. Background NDNP builds on the foundation established by an earlier NEH initiative conducted from 1982 to 2011: the United States Newspaper Program (USNP). The USNP was a cooperative national effort to locate, catalog, and preserve on microfilm American newspapers published from the eighteenth century to the present. Projects in all fifty states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands collaborated to provide bibliographic control to widely scattered newspapers and preserved on microfilm (to consistent national standards) selected titles from this vulnerable corpus. LOC provided technical assistance for USNP throughout its existence.

NEH has funded NDNP projects in all fifty states and the jurisdictions of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands of the United States.

NEH intends to support projects in all states and U.S. jurisdiction and makes an award to an organization within each U.S. state or jurisdiction, which typically collaborates with relevant state partners in this effort. After their initial NDNP awards, NEH encourages state partners to seek second and third awards, to produce a total of approximately 300,000 pages of digitized newspapers per state. You may receive support for continued work beyond the third award, but NEH prioritizes applications from those states and jurisdictions that have not received NDNP funding—as well as applications from states and jurisdictions that have received fewer than three awards.

NEH offers this funding opportunity under the authority of 20 U.S.C. § 956. Awards are subject to 2 CFR Part 200 Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards, and the General Terms and Conditions for Awards to Organizations (for grants and cooperative agreements issued January 1, 2022 or later).

Under Section 3(a) of the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965, as amended, “The term ‘humanities’ includes, but is not limited to, the study of the following:

language, both modern and classical; linguistics; literature; history; jurisprudence; philosophy;

archaeology; comparative religion; ethics; the history, criticism and theory of the arts; those aspects of the social sciences which have humanistic content and employ humanistic methods;

and the study and application of the humanities to the human environment with particular attention to reflecting our diverse heritage, traditions, and history and to the relevance of the humanities to the current conditions of national life.”

Use the Funded Projects Query Form to find examples of NEH-supported projects.

Learn more about NEH.

NEH Areas of Interest NEH is especially interested in supporting projects that advance humanities-related work in the following areas. NEH will give all applications equal consideration in accordance with the program’s review criteria.

NEH encourages projects that include Native American organizations and communities as applicants and project partners.

http://www.neh.gov/projects/usnp.html https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?hl=false&edition=prelim&req=granuleid%3AUSC-prelim-title20-section956 https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?SID=236bb02f01d2e050f7a5b60c88a67066&mc=true&node=pt2.1.200&rgn=div5 https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?SID=236bb02f01d2e050f7a5b60c88a67066&mc=true&node=pt2.1.200&rgn=div5 https://www.neh.gov/general-terms-and-conditions-awards-organizations-grants-and-cooperative-agreements-issued-january-2022 https://www.neh.gov/general-terms-and-conditions-awards-organizations-grants-and-cooperative-agreements-issued-january-2022 https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCODE-1998-title20/pdf/USCODE-1998-title20-chap26-subchapI-sec952.pdf https://securegrants.neh.gov/publicquery/main.aspx https://www.neh.gov/about

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American Tapestry: Weaving Together Past, Present, and Future American Tapestry: Weaving Together Past, Present, and Future is a wide-ranging special initiative at NEH that leverages the humanities to tackle some of the most pressing challenges of our time: strengthening our democracy, advancing equity for all, and addressing our changing climate. The initiative encourages humanities projects that elevate the role of civics in schools and public programs, advance knowledge of the country’s history and political institutions, and examine threats to its democratic principles. The initiative also encourages projects that explore the untold stories of historically underrepresented groups and build capacity at cultural and educational institutions to benefit underserved communities. Finally, the initiative welcomes projects that promote research into the historical roots and cultural effects of climate change and support the cultural and educational sectors in building climate resilience. By supporting humanities projects that align with these three themes – strengthening our democracy, advancing equity for all, and addressing our changing climate – the American Tapestry initiative seeks to tell our country’s history in all its complexity and diversity.

United We Stand: Connecting Through Culture Hate must have no safe harbor in America – especially when that hate fuels the kind of violence we’ve seen from Oak Creek to Pittsburgh, from El Paso to Poway, and from Atlanta to Buffalo.

When ordinary Americans cannot participate in the basic activities of everyday life – like shopping at the grocery store or praying at their house of worship – without the fear of being targeted and killed for who they are, our security as well as democracy are at risk. In coordination with the White House “United We Stand” Summit in September 2022, NEH launched a new initiative titled United We Stand: Connecting Through Culture that uses the humanities to combat hate-motivated violence and promote civic engagement, social cohesion, and cross-cultural understanding. As a part of this initiative, NEH encourages humanities projects that further our understanding of the nation’s racial, ethnic, gender, and religious diversity; examine the sources of hate and intolerance in the United States; and explore progress towards greater inclusiveness.

NEH’s Support for the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative As a part of NEH’s partnership with the Department of the Interior on the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative, NEH encourages projects that further public understanding and knowledge of the Federal Indian boarding school system. From 1819 through the 1970s the government of the United States operated a system of schools for Native American, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian children premised on a policy of coerced cultural assimilation.

Native children were forcibly separated from their families and sent to attend federal Indian boarding schools, where they were frequently subject to harsh treatment and abuse. A number of these students died, and others never returned to their families and communities. Many were also deprived of their cultural inheritance. NEH encourages projects that document and explore the history of the federal Indian boarding schools as well as projects that contribute to Native and Indigenous cultural and language revitalization.

B. Federal Award Information

1. Type of Application and Award NEH seeks new and renewal applications in response to this notice.

https://www.neh.gov/news/american-tapestry-weaving-together-past-present-and-future https://www.neh.gov/unitedwestand https://www.neh.gov/bsi https://www.neh.gov/bsi

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NEH will provide funding in the form of cooperative agreements. A cooperative agreement is a financial assistance mechanism in which NEH anticipates having substantial programmatic involvement.

In collaboration with the recipients, and in partnership with technical advisors at LOC, NEH responsibilities will include:

• convening an initial workshop for recipients as well as subsequent program meetings or workshops

• consultation regarding the final selection of titles

• consultation regarding the production schedule for sample and final files

• consultation to ensure the required sample of digital assets complies with the LOC’s technical specifications (TIFF, OCR output, PDF, JP2, and metadata) for the program

• ensuring LOC review of all updated bibliographic records of digitized titles in WorldCat to ensure CONSER authentication and conformity with current cataloging practices for US newspapers

• reviewing and editing newspaper title essays

In collaboration with NEH staff and LOC technical advisors, you will perform all tasks for the continued development of Chronicling America. If you receive an award, your responsibilities will include:

• establishing an advisory board responsible for applying selection criteria for digitization to state newspaper titles in the public domain (i.e., published from 1690 through 1963)

• compiling a list of newspapers selected for the project, including information about each title, its geographic and chronological coverage, its LCCN (Library of Congress Control Number) identifying number, estimated number of pages you will digitize, number of reels (LOC to supply barcode for each reel), and confirmed public domain status

• evaluating and documenting copyright status for any material not currently in the public domain (You may only select material published without copyright or with a copyright not registered or renewed before 1964 and therefore in the public domain)

• technical analysis of available microfilm for optimal scanning of the selected titles (The format of analysis must follow the technical specifications provided in the guidelines)

• developing a production schedule with an agreed-upon timetable for sample and final files

• submitting an agreed-upon number of pages, established in your work plan, and following NDNP technical specifications (approximately 100,000 pages of digitized newsprint and associated files)

• creating a summary description (a maximum of 500 words each) of the scope, content, and significance of each digitized newspaper title, which you will deliver simultaneously with the associated assets

• surveying digital newspapers in the state to identify open-access (free) digital titles not included in NDNP (LOC will provide a spreadsheet to conduct this survey)

• updating bibliographic records of digitized titles in WorldCat to ensure CONSER authentication and conformity with current cataloging practices for US newspapers

• submitting all deliverables, following LOC’s delivery instructions, to LOC for review of conformance with the program’s technical guidelines and to NEH for subsequent review

• providing indemnity for the United States (and its licensees and assignees) to the extent permitted by law for projects that involve digitizing newspapers not held in the public domain based on published date against all claims, damages, liabilities, losses, costs, and https://www.worldcat.org/ https://www.loc.gov/ndnp/guidelines/NDNP_202325TechNotes.pdf https://www.worldcat.org/ https://www.loc.gov/ndnp/guidelines/NDNP_202426TechNotes.pdf

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expenses (including reasonable attorney’s fees) arising out of or caused by recipient’s breach of any warranty or agreement contained in this cooperative agreement

• attending an initial workshop and annual program meetings or workshops in the Washington, DC, area (or the virtual equivalent)

• researching, writing, and revising newspaper title essays

• providing quarterly data deliveries throughout the period of performance

2. Summary of Funding

Award amounts You may request up to $325,000. This includes the sum of direct and indirect costs.

NEH anticipates awarding approximately $2,500,000 among an estimated 10 recipients.

NEH will award successful applicants outright funds, which are not contingent on additional funding from other sources.

NEH will not determine the exact amount available for funding until Congress makes appropriations official for FY 2024. NEH will issue awards subject to the availability of appropriated funds. NEH is publishing this notice as a contingency to ensure that NEH can process applications and issue awards in a timely manner, should sufficient funds become available.

Period of performance The period of performance is two years with a start date of September 1, 2024. Each renewal will have its own period of performance. The new period of performance cannot overlap with the period of performance of an active NDNP award.

The period of performance is the span of time during which you may incur expenses to carry out the work under the award. It must start on the first day of the month and end on the last day of the month.

C. Eligibility Information

1. Eligible Applicants To be eligible to apply, your organization must be established in the United States or its jurisdictions as one of the following:

• a nonprofit organization recognized as tax-exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code

• an accredited institution of higher education (public or nonprofit)

• a state or local government or one of their agencies

• a federally recognized Native American Tribal government

Individuals and other organizations, including foreign and for-profit entities, are ineligible.

https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/search-for-tax-exempt-organizations https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/search-for-tax-exempt-organizations https://ope.ed.gov/dapip/#/home https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2022/01/28/2022-01789/indian-entities-recognized-by-and-eligible-to-receive-services-from-the-united-states-bureau-of

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If your organization is eligible, you may apply on behalf of a consortium of collaborating organizations. If NEH selects your proposal for funding, you will be programmatically, legally, and fiscally responsible for the award.

The recipient may not function solely as a fiscal agent but should make substantive contributions to the success of the project.

2. Cost Sharing NEH does not require cost sharing in this program unless you request federal matching funds.

Cost sharing or matching is the portion of the project costs you pay for with non-NEH funds.

Peer reviewers will not consider cost sharing in their evaluation of applications.

If you request federal matching funds, you must raise third-party non-federal gifts dollar-for-dollar. NEH will certify the allowability of these gifts before releasing federal matching funds.

Typically, NEH distributes federal matching funds on an annual basis over the period of performance. See the NEH Federal Matching Funds Guidelines.

You may contribute voluntary cost share to your project if the total costs exceed the amount awarded by NEH. Voluntary cost share includes:

• cash contributions made to the project by you or a third party

• your unrecovered indirect costs

• in-kind contributions (non-cash contributions, such as property or services, that benefit the project and are contributed without charge) by you or a third party

While you may describe voluntary cost share in your budget justification, you should not include it on your Research and Related Budget.

You must maintain auditable records of the source and use of cost share. See 2 CFR § 200.306.

Learn about types of funds NEH offers.

3. Other Eligibility Information You may submit only one application under this notice.

If you submit multiple applications (including submitting to the wrong funding opportunity or making corrections/updates), NEH will only accept your last validated submission prior to the deadline under the correct Grants.gov funding opportunity.

You may revise and resubmit previously rejected applications. Submissions are subject to the application requirements and review criteria of the current competition.

Per 2 CFR § 200.403(f), you must not include the same project costs in more than one application for federal funding and/or approved federal award budget. However, you may submit multiple proposals for complementary aspects of the same overall project. NEH may disallow costs or reject applications that include overlapping project costs. An individual’s level of effort cannot exceed 100% across multiple active federally funded awards.

https://www.neh.gov/grants/manage/federal-matching-funds-guidelines https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?SID=3aeab4e3a836f5b6807999701e518c94&mc=true&node=pt2.1.200&rgn=div5#se2.1.200_1306 https://www.neh.gov/grants/manage/types-funding https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-2/subtitle-A/chapter-II/part-200/subpart-E/subject-group-ECFRea20080eff2ea53/section-200.403

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NEH does not issue awards to other federal entities. If your project is so closely intertwined with a federal entity that the project takes on characteristics of the federal entity’s own authorized activities, it is ineligible. You may use funds from, or sites and materials controlled by, other federal entities in your project, but you may not use them as gifts to release federal matching funds.

NEH does not provide financial assistance to foreign institutions or organizations. If you are an eligible domestic entity, you may apply for collaborative projects involving foreign organizations provided you do not use NEH funds for the purpose of issuing subawards to any foreign organization, as defined in 2 CFR §§ 200.1 and .331(a). You may obtain the services of foreign individuals and consultants to carry out programmatic activities on a fee-for-service basis, as specified in 2 CFR § 200.459. You may obtain goods and services from foreign vendors, such as in-country transportation services, in accordance with 2 CFR § 200.331(b). If you plan to submit an application involving international collaboration, contact program staff at preservation@neh.gov.

Except for the rare cases covered by its late submission policy, NEH will not consider applications submitted after the deadline.

NEH will not consider incomplete, nonresponsive, or ineligible applications for funding.

NEH will not consider applications that exceed mandatory page limits or deviate from formatting instructions. See the Application Components Table.

D. Application and Submission Information

1. Application Package You must apply using Grants.gov Workspace or a Grants.gov system-to-system solution. You can find this funding opportunity in Grants.gov under number 20240111-PJ. There is also a link on the program resource page.

Once you have located the funding opportunity in Grants.gov, you will find the application package under the “Package” tab. It includes a series of required and conditionally required forms. You will upload additional application components using the Attachments Form.

You must complete a multistep registration process prior to submitting your application. See D3. Unique Entity Identifier and System for Award Management.

Contact preservation@neh.gov to request a paper copy of this notice.

If you are deaf, hard of hearing, or have a speech disability, please dial 7-1-1 to access telecommunications relay services.

2. Content and Form of Application Submission Your application will include a narrative, budget, and other forms and attachments. You will complete the forms within Grants.gov Workspace and upload other components into the Attachments Form. See the Application Component Table.

https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?SID=35fcd29238edd42c8b1f8b1628e39d47&mc=true&node=pt2.1.200&rgn=div5#se2.1.200_11 https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?SID=b76712a585433486e57dafcd521c952e&mc=true&node=pt2.1.200&rgn=div5#se2.1.200_1331 https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?SID=35fcd29238edd42c8b1f8b1628e39d47&mc=true&node=pt2.1.200&rgn=div5#se2.1.200_1459 https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?SID=b76712a585433486e57dafcd521c952e&mc=true&node=pt2.1.200&rgn=div5#se2.1.200_1331 mailto:preservation@neh.gov https://www.neh.gov/grants/policy-on-late-submissions mailto:preservation@neh.gov

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NEH has assigned each application component one of the following designations:

• Required: You must submit this component.

• Conditionally Required: You must submit this component if your proposal meets the specified conditions.

• Optional: You may submit this component, but NEH does not require it.

• Required for recipients: You are encouraged but not required to submit this component when you apply. You must submit it if you receive an award.

You must submit all required components and conditionally required components relevant to your proposal. NEH will not review applications missing any required documents or relevant conditionally required documents.

In addition, NEH has established page limits for some application components:

• Mandatory: You must not exceed the page limit.

• Suggested: NEH encourages, but does not require, you to abide by the page limit.

Note page limits and formatting instructions in this notice. NEH will not review applications that exceed mandatory page limits or deviate from formatting instructions.

Your application components must conform to the following formatting requirements, unless otherwise indicated:

• pages no larger than standard letter (8 ½" x 11”)

• at least one-inch margins on all sides for all pages

• a font no smaller than 11 points

In addition, NEH encourages you to format your components consistent with the following:

• single-spacing

• a readable font such as Arial, Georgia, Helvetica, or Times New Roman

• any standard citation style (include citations in page counts)

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Application Component Table Application Component File Name Designation Page limit

Attachments

1: Narrative narrative.pdf Required 10 pages if seeking a first, second, or third award; 15 pages if seeking a fourth or subsequent award

(mandatory; see narrative instructions)

2: Work plan workplan.pdf Required

3: Résumés resumes.pdf Required 2 pages per résumé

(suggested)

4: Consultants and advisory board members consultants.pdf Required

5: Letters of commitment letters.pdf Optional

6: Additional supporting documentation documentation.pdf Optional

7: History of awards history.pdf Optional

8: Subrecipient budget(s) subrecipient.pdf Conditionally required

9: Federally negotiated indirect cost rate agreement agreement.pdf Conditionally

10: Explanation of delinquent federal debt delinquentdebt.pdf Conditionally

Grants.gov forms

SF-424 Application for

Federal Assistance - Short

Organizational

Required

Supplementary Cover Sheet for NEH Grant Programs

Required

Project/Performance Site(s)

Location Form

Required

Research and Related Budget and Budget Justification

Required

Attachments Form Required

Certification Regarding

Lobbying

Required for recipients

Standard Form-LLL

“Disclosure of Lobbying

Activities”

Required for recipients https://nehemail.sharepoint.com/teams/nofo/Shared%20Documents/General/Templates/Disclosure#_Standard_Form-LLL,_ https://nehemail.sharepoint.com/teams/nofo/Shared%20Documents/General/Templates/Disclosure#_Standard_Form-LLL,_ https://nehemail.sharepoint.com/teams/nofo/Shared%20Documents/General/Templates/Disclosure#_Standard_Form-LLL,_

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Application Components: Attachments Each attachment must be a single PDF file. See the Attachments Form instructions for further guidance about file requirements. Read this section carefully, as Grants.gov will not accept files that do not meet the requirements.

Attachment 1: Narrative (required)

Compose a narrative that provides a comprehensive description of your proposed project. Your narrative should be succinct, well organized, and free of technical terms and jargon so that peer reviewers can understand the proposed project. Do not include an executive summary, cover page, or a table of contents. You may include images, charts, diagrams, footnotes, or endnotes if they fit within the page limit.

If you are seeking your first, second, or third NDNP award, you must limit your narrative to ten pages.

If you are seeking a fourth or subsequent NDNP award, you must limit the narrative to fifteen pages.

Note the differentiated narrative instructions depending on your project’s phase. If your narrative exceeds the page limit, NEH will not review it.

If relevant, include sample materials (such as URLs or screenshots) and statistics (the number of projects undertaken and of digitized materials) that illustrate your experience executing comparable digital conversion projects.

Organize your narrative using the following section headings. Each section aligns with one or more review criteria NEH will use to evaluate your proposal.

History and scope of the project (aligns with review criterion 1)

Provide a concise summary of how the state or jurisdiction’s newspapers add new perspectives or insights into local and national histories. How do the newspapers’ chronological or geographical reach, their voicing of either popular or underrepresented perspectives, or their unique publishing history illuminate major historical events, uncover lesser-known events? And how do newspapers shed new light on histories of human interactions with place, including the occupation, exploitation, and stewardship of the built and the natural environment?

If you have previously received an NDNP award, describe the project’s work to date, including specific information about deliverables in comparison with projected goals.

If you are seeking your first, second, or third NDNP award, describe newspaper collections within the state or jurisdiction and the extent to which they have been cataloged and microfilmed. Discuss past or current efforts to digitize these collections. You may provide additional supporting documentation regarding newspaper collections in Attachment 6:

Additional supporting documentation.

If you are seeking a fourth or subsequent NDNP award, describe the themes guiding the next round of title selection. Provide evidence of user interest in and need for this thematic direction.

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Methodology and standards (aligns with review criteria 2, 3, and 5)

Indicate whether you or your partners have access to large quantities of master negative microfilms of the state or jurisdiction’s newspapers for the period from 1690 through 1963 and whether the film was produced to USNP microfilming guidelines. If you propose including microfilm that was not created to USNP standards, describe the overall quality of the microfilm and its suitability for digitization, including general information about such factors as its density, resolution, reduction ratio, focus, and physical condition.

Discuss how you will select newspapers published between 1690 and 1963 and ensure that those selected are in the public domain.

If relevant, discuss your capacity to administer a project that involves multiple partners. Explain the role of any proposed partners and include letters from those institutions indicating their commitment to the project in Attachment 5.

Explain how you will evaluate and document copyright registration and/or renewal for all material not held in the public domain based on published date. The inability to locate the copyright holder for titles with registered or renewed copyrights does not mean that the titles are in the public domain. Explain how you will ensure that “orphaned works” will not be selected for digitization.

Describe your selection criteria, keeping in mind the principles outlined in Section A1. Purpose.

If you are seeking your first, second, or third NDNP award, describe your institution’s existing infrastructure for undertaking digital projects and / or your collaboration with other institutions to undertake such projects. Discuss your institution’s experience with or collaboration on large digital conversion projects, especially from microfilm, and with projects that involve serials or newspapers. Discuss your involvement in any initiatives and/or partnerships to advance technological capacities—such as platforms, IIIF, or OCR—for digital newspapers.

If you are seeking a fourth or subsequent NDNP award, explain what kind of information about individual titles you would make available to the advisory committee to allow them to select papers that reflect diverse coverage—differences in readership, editorial stance, or political orientation—as well as linguistic, geographical, ethnic, and racial representation.

Dissemination (aligns with review criterion 4)

Describe how you will disseminate the project’s products to relevant communities of users, such as scholars, students, educators, and the broader public. NDNP can support outreach activities within appropriate limits, such as development of lesson plans, Wiki-thons, and social media promotion; it cannot support large-scale exhibits or conferences. Your budget may include staff time and other eligible expenses related to disseminating the NEH-funded product.

Work plan (aligns with review criterion 5)

Summarize your work plan, providing an overview of what you will accomplish during each stage of the project. Describe activities for each stage and specify the project team members involved. For multi-institutional collaborative projects, discuss the distribution of responsibilities across each institution. Provide a detailed version of your work plan in Attachment 2: Work plan.

http://www.loc.gov/rr/news/usnp/usnpguidelinesp.html

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Staff (aligns with review criterion 6)

Identify the project staff, including consultants, advisory board members, and other technical and production staff. Describe their duties and qualifications. Indicate the amount of time that the principal members of the project staff will devote to the project.

Describe the advisory board of scholars (including experts on the history of print journalism, teachers, librarians, and archivists) involved in the selection process.

If you are seeking a fourth or subsequent NDNP award, you should describe how new or existing members of the advisory board are suited to address the proposed selection criteria.

Name the file narrative.pdf.

Narrative Alignment

Each section of the narrative aligns with corresponding review criteria. Use the crosswalk to ensure you address all criteria.

Narrative Section Review Criteria

History and scope of the project 1

Methodology and standards 2, 3, and 5

Dissemination 4

Work plan 5

Staff 6

Attachment 2: Work plan (required)

Your work plan should reflect the major activities you describe in your narrative, the project dates on your SF-424 Application for Federal Assistance - Short Organizational, and your Research and Related Budget.

Attach the work plan for the project that includes all information detailed in the Project Narrative. If funds will be sub-awarded or expended on contracts, describe how your organization will ensure the funds are properly documented.

If you are seeking your first, second, or third NDNP award, you should provide a schedule outline with only milestones, deliverables, and deadlines along with an approximation of pages of digital content.

If you are seeking a fourth or subsequent NDNP award, you should provide a full work plan, including detailed information on the following: selection of titles and evaluation of microfilm, conversion processes, metadata creation, OCR text conversion, quality review procedures, approximation of pages of digital content created, and data delivery mechanisms.

Propose a schedule for project milestones and deliverables that includes deadlines for the various stages.

Name the file workplan.pdf.

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Attachment 3: Résumés for key personnel (required)

Include résumés for staff with major responsibilities for the project’s implementation and for consultants to the project. Include job descriptions for any additional staff you will hire to work on the project.

Résumés should not exceed two pages per person. Name the file resumes.pdf.

Attachment 4: Consultants and advisory board members (required)

List consultants to the project and members of the project’s advisory board.

Name the file consultants.pdf.

Attachment 5: Letters of commitment (optional)

Provide any documents that describe working relationships between your organization and other individuals, entities, and programs cited in the application. Letters of commitment must be signed and dated.

Name the file letters.pdf.

Attachment 6: Additional supporting documentation (optional)

You may provide supplemental information for state or jurisdictional newspaper titles on microfilm and letters of cooperation from their holding institutions.

You may also include up to three letters of support. Elected government officials, current NEH staff, and current members of NEH’s National Council on the Humanities may not serve as letter writers.

Name the file documentation.pdf.

Attachment 7: History of awards (optional)

If your organization has received previous support from any federal or nonfederal sources, including NEH, for digital conversion activities similar to those you will undertake in the project for which you are seeking funding, list on one page the sources, dates, and amounts of these funds. If the project has a long history of support, you may group and summarize the sources and contributions.

Name the file history.pdf.

Attachment 8: Subrecipient budget(s) (conditionally required)

If your project includes subawards, you must provide a separate Research and Related Budget and budget justification for each subrecipient.

Download a fillable PDF of the Research and Related Budget form from the NEH website for each subrecipient. You must open and complete this form in Adobe Reader 8.0 or higher rather than in your web browser.

Prepare a budget and budget justification for each subrecipient using the same instructions in this notice, with a few exceptions:

https://www.neh.gov/about/national-council-on-the-humanities https://www.neh.gov/sites/default/files/inline-files/RR_Budget10_3_0-V3.0.pdf

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• Enter the subrecipient’s Unique Entity Identifier, organization name, and period of performance start and end date (these fields will not prepopulate).

• For “budget type,” check “Subaward/Consortium.”

If your subrecipients have a federally negotiated indirect cost rate, you must honor it. If they do not have a federally negotiated indirect cost rate, they may negotiate a rate with you consistent with 2 CFR § 200.414 or use the de minimis rate.

Rather than attaching related documents (budget justification, additional personnel, additional equipment) to the form itself, you will separately convert each document into a PDF and combine all subrecipients’ budget forms and related documents into a single document. Do not attach portfolios containing multiple PDFs.

NEH cannot accept security-enhanced PDFs (e.g., XFA files, PDFs that include password-protection, encryption, digital signatures). Remove these features (or “flatten” these files) before merging them into a single PDF and uploading it to the Attachments Form.

Name the file subrecipient.pdf.

Attachment 9: Federally negotiated indirect cost rate agreement (conditionally required)

If your organization is claiming indirect costs and has a current federally negotiated indirect cost rate agreement, provide a copy of the agreement. If applicable, provide the indirect cost rate agreements for subrecipients claiming indirect costs. If you and your subrecipients are requesting the de minimis rate, you do not need to submit this attachment.

Name the file agreement.pdf.

Attachment 10: Explanation of delinquent federal debt (conditionally required)

If your organization is delinquent in the repayment of any federal debt, explain why. Provide evidence that you have entered into a repayment agreement with the Internal Revenue Service, if applicable, and that you are current on all payments due. Examples of relevant debt include delinquent payroll or other taxes, audit disallowances, and benefit overpayments. See OMB Circular A-129.

Name the file delinquentdebt.pdf.

Application Components: Grants.gov Forms

SF-424 Application for Federal Assistance – Short Organizational

This form requests basic information about your institution, the proposed project, and key contacts. Items 1, 2, and 4 will be automatically filled in; leave item 3 blank.

5. Applicant Information a-d. Provide your organization’s legal name, address, and web address. Select the applicant type that best describes your organization from the drop-down menu.

e-f. Provide your organization’s employer/taxpayer identification number (EIN/TIN), and Unique Entity Identifier assigned by the System for Award Management. If you do not know https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?SID=d22b09774a679ad264cf0098635dabb8&mc=true&node=pt2.1.200&rgn=div5#se2.1.200_1414 https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/omb/circulars_a129_rev2013 https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/omb/circulars_a129_rev2013

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your identifier, contact your grant administrator or chief financial officer. See D3. Unique Entity Identifier and System for Award Management.

g. Provide your congressional district with your two-character state abbreviation followed by your three-character district number. For example, if your institution is located in the 5th congressional district of Alabama, enter “AL-005.” If your institution is in a state or U.S.

jurisdiction that does not have districts, enter “000” in place of the district number. If your institution is outside the U.S., enter “00-000.”

6. Project Information

a. Provide your project’s title. It should be brief (no more than 125 characters, including spaces), descriptive of the project, and easily understood by the general public. If NEH funds your project, the agency may retitle your project for clarity in internal and external communications, including the public announcement of awards. Regardless, you may use your preferred title when carrying out the project.

b. Provide a brief description of your project (no more than one thousand characters, including spaces). You should write the description for a nonspecialist audience, clearly stating the importance of the proposed work and its relation to larger issues in the humanities.

c. State your project’s period of performance start and end dates. Your project must start on the first day of a month and end on the last day of a month. See B2. Summary of Funding for allowable periods of performance.

7. Project Director

Provide the project director’s name, title, and contact information. The project director is responsible for the programmatic aspects and day-to-day management of the proposed project.

You must notify the NEH Office of Grant Management immediately if you need to change project directors.

If the project director is not employed by the applicant organization, you must have a formal written agreement with the project director that specifies an official relationship between the parties even if the relationship does not involve a salary or other form of remuneration.

8. Primary Contact/Grant Administrator

Provide the name, title, and contact information for the official responsible for the administration of the award (e.g., negotiating the budget and ensuring compliance with the terms and conditions of the award).

As a matter of NEH policy, the project director and primary contact/grant administrator must not be the same person.

The grant administrator (also called the “institutional grant administrator”) functions as the representative of the recipient organization. This individual should have authority to act on the organization’s behalf in matters related to the administration of the award. The institutional grant administrator must sign or countersign financial reports and prior approval requests such as budget revisions, extensions to the period of performance, and changes in key personnel.

NEH will address official correspondence (for example, the offer letter or Notice of Action) to the institutional grant administrator and copy the project director.

https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative

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9. Authorized Representative

Provide the name, title, and contact information for the authorized organization representative (AOR) who is submitting the application on behalf of the institution. This person, often called an “authorizing official,” is typically the institution’s president, vice president, executive director, board chair, provost, or chancellor. The institution’s Grants.gov E-Business Point of Contact must designate the AOR. See the Grants.gov Online User Guide.

Supplementary Cover Sheet for NEH Grant Programs

1. Project Director

Select the project director’s major field of study from the drop-down menu.

2. Institutional Information

Select your institution type from the drop-down menu.

3. Project Funding

• Under “Outright Funds,” enter the amount of outright funds you are requesting.

• Under “Federal Match,” enter the amount of federal matching funds you are…