The Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) is an independent, nonprofit organization that forges strategies to enhance research, teaching, and learning environments in collaboration with libraries, cultural institutions, and communities of higher learning.

CLIR's Digitizing Hidden Special Collections and Archives program is intended to help digitize rare and unique content in cultural institutions in the United States and Canada that collect, preserve, and share rare and unique materials with the general public.

The 2024-25 call for proposals is titled Amplifying Unheard Voices. The focus is on deepening public understanding of the histories of people of color and other communities and populations whose work, experiences, and perspectives have been insufficiently recognized or unattended.

Applicants must convincingly argue that their materials are “hidden” in the sense that they cannot have a meaningful impact on public understanding of people, communities, and populations whose work, experiences, and perspectives have been insufficiently recognized or attended in the past until those materials are digitized, discoverable, and accessible in ethical, respectful, and legal ways.

These often “hidden” histories include, but are not necessarily limited to, those of Black, Indigenous, Latine, and other people of color; women; LGBTQ+ communities; immigrants; displaced populations; blind, deaf, and disabled people and communities; and colonized, disenfranchised, enslaved, and incarcerated people.

This program supports the digitization of rare and unique historical and cultural materials in a variety of formats and the creation and promotion of online access to those materials. Any expenditures of program funds must be directly related to these purposes.

Materials nominated for digitization through this program must be owned and held by an eligible organization.