A preservation assessment and the purchase of environmental monitoring equipment and archival supplies for a collection of over 3,500 books, 1,100 microforms, 900 periodicals, 125 audiovisual items, and 14,000 digital files, including photographs, documents, video and audio files, and an encyclopedia related to the history of Boone County, Kentucky.  The collection contains church and court records; deeds; guardianship bonds; marriage, school, and tax records; will books; family files; and secondary sources.  Due to strengths documenting the African American experience and the Underground Railroad in the Ohio Valley region, the National Park Service designated the library a Network to Freedom Facility in April 2017.  The request to NEH includes a stipend of $1,000 for a recent graduate, who would work closely with the consultant on the preservation assessment.

The Boone County Public Library (BCPL) seeks assistance from the NEH for the preservation needs of their Local History Department. Collections recently acquired through donation to the Department are the focus of the project; all of which consist of primary resources pertinent to the history of Boone County. Because of Boone County's history of enslavement and its connections to the Underground Railroad, evidence of the African American experience is interwoven into nearly every primary Boone County resource. BCPL was designated by the National Park Service as a Network to Freedom Facility and would like to be proactive in pursuing the preservation of their collection. Through hiring a consultant for an assessment of the Department's collection, recommendations will be made for the current storage and arrangement of materials, environmental conditions for the space where the collection is housed and ways to integrate preservation needs into the strategic planning of the overall institution.