ROYALSTON — The Phinehas S. Newton Library in Royalston recently received a Roving Archivist Grant, an award made possible through the Massachusetts State Historic Records Advisory Board (MA SHRAB) and the National Historical Publications Commission (NHPRC) grant program. The grant provides a trained archivist to conduct the investigation. Thomas Doyle, Interim Roving Archivist, was assigned to complete a thorough examination of the historical collection held in the Library.
The evaluation provided a detailed look at the different collections. The visit was invaluable for prioritizing the work, identifying the core collections, developing proper storage methods, and highlighting materials that are appropriate and important to digitize. The collection contains many important historical documents that they hope to make more widely available and included several items that are historically significant to researchers and which will be digitized in the future.
The report allowed the library to apply for a Massachusetts SHRAB Re-grant Program Grant, which awards funds to purchase archival storage materials to house the historical records. The Library was selected and will be implementing the organizing and proper storage of the records utilizing the funds derived from the grant. The Re-grant Program is also through Massachusetts SHRAB and the NHPRC.