The Circuit Court Records Preservation Program (CCRP) Grant Review Board met on 11 June 2015 at the Library of Virginia to consider records preservation grant requests from circuit courts across the commonwealth. The board is comprised of six members: four 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. The board meets twice a year to evaluate proposals. This cycle’s grant applications requested funds for processing, conserving, securing, and increasing access to circuit court records. A total of sixty-three applications were submitted from fifty-eight localities with requests totaling over one million dollars. After careful evaluation and discussion of all applications, the board approved fifty-eight grant projects totaling over $900 thousand. Fifty-one of the approved applications were for funding to perform professional conservation treatment on more than 250 volumes housed in circuit court clerks’ offices that had been damaged by use, age, or previous non-professional repairs. The remaining seven grants were for security systems and reformatting projects.
The CCRP is a part of the Library of Virginia’s Government Records Division. Funded through $1.50 from the circuit court clerk’s recordation fee, the CCRP provides resources to help preserve and make accessible permanent circuit court records. The program awards grants to the offices of the commonwealth’s circuit court clerks to help address the preservation, security, and access needs of the records housed in their localities. Since 1992, the CCRP has awarded over 1,300 preservation grants for nearly $18 million dollars. Below is a full listing of awarded grants in the most recent cycle.
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