The Circuit Court Records Preservation Program (CCRP) Grant Review Board met on 24 July 2018 at the Library of Virginia to consider records preservation grant requests from circuit courts across the commonwealth. Five voting members comprise the board: three circuit court clerks, appointed annually by the president of the Virginia Court Clerks’ Association; and two staff members from the Library of Virginia, currently the state archivist and the deputy of collections and programs. Board members meet once a year to evaluate applications. Clerks of the circuit courts are eligible to apply for funds to conserve, secure, and increase access to circuit court records. In all, 87 localities submitted 89 applications requesting a total of $1,290,790.35.
After careful evaluation and discussion of all applications, the board approved 87 grants totaling nearly $920,000. Eighty-four of the approved applications covered professional conservation treatment for items including deed books, will books, order books, surveyor books, minute books, and plat books, housed in circuit court clerks’ offices, which suffered damage from use, age, or previous non-professional repairs. The remaining three grants funded records reformatting and a security system.
The following are a few of the items that received grant funding:
The Library of Virginia’s Government Records Division administers the CCRP. The program is funded through a $1.50 recordation fee on land instruments recorded in the circuit court clerks’ offices. The CCRP provides resources to preserve and make accessible Virginia’s permanent circuit court records. Since 1992, the CCRP has awarded over 1,500 preservation grants totaling over $21 million dollars.
–Greg Crawford, Local Records Program Manager
