Broad Agency Announcement - Archie Green Cultural Documentation Program

The Library of Congress, through its American Folklife Center, is soliciting proposals under Broad Agency Announcement 030ADV26R0034 to support community-driven documentation of cultural and traditional practices across the United States. The initiative, known as the Archie Green Cultural Documentation Program, aims to create enduring archival collections that reflect diverse local traditions, with a focus on empowering communities to tell their own stories through audio, video, photography, and written transcripts. Projects must be led by U.S.-based individuals or nonprofit organizations, with for-profit entities and government agencies explicitly ineligible. The program emphasizes direct community engagement, requiring that all materials be collected using archival-quality digital formats—WAV audio at 96kHz/24bit or 44.1kHz/16bit, TIFF images, and human-edited, time-coded transcripts in Word or PDF—with no machine-generated transcription allowed. All submissions must include signed participant release forms, complete metadata using AFC templates, and redacted personally identifiable information. Proposals must be structured into three volumes—technical, price, and supplemental—and submitted exclusively via email to Loc-BAA@loc.gov by May 28, 2026, with a maximum file size of 20MB. The contract is structured as a firm-fixed-price arrangement with a ceiling of $50,000 for a 12-month performance period beginning September 10, 2026. Payment is milestone-based and contingent upon successful delivery and acceptance of materials at the American Folklife Center in Washington, DC, which serves as the sole official place of performance and acceptance site. Evaluation prioritizes technical approach and past experience over price, with non-price factors considered significantly more important. Recipients are required to grant the Library a perpetual, nonexclusive, worldwide license to all intellectual property generated under the award, and submissions must include active SAM.gov registration and a Unique Entity Identifier. No subcontracting is permitted, and proposals must be self-contained, with no zipped files, password protection, or external file links accepted. The program operates under a trade-off selection process, not lowest price technically acceptable, and the Library retains the right to award partial proposals or extend funding based on performance and budget availability.