ARARAT - Ararat and District Historical Society has been awarded a Federal Community Heritage Grant of $2759 to fund the purchase of archival materials and preserve the collection at Langi Morgala Museum.

The grant was announced at the National Library of Australia late last year.

In 2007, grants worth $428,300 were distributed to 85 community groups and organisations from around Australia to assist in the identification and preservation of community owned but nationally significant heritage collections.

In addition, Robin Wilcock, from the Ararat and District Historical Society, attended a three day intensive preservation and collection management workshop held at the National Library, the National Archives of Australia, the National Museum of Australia and the National film and Sound Archive in Canberra.

Ms Wilcock said the grant was important in supporting the effort to preserve the collection at the Langi Morgala Museum at the grassroots level.

"The grant provides the funds and the workshop the expertise to help us protect our collection and make it accessible while it remains in the local context," she said.

Ms Wilcock said governments are now realising the importance of the many small museums dotted around Australia.

"Local museums are most effective in displaying and preserving the country's history," she said.

"Historical collections are of a great significance and value when housed in the area to which they refer rather than being part of other larger collections in bigger regional museums.

"More and more grants are being offered for improving and caring for local collections and the Ararat and District Historical Society committee of management has been successful in being awarded one of the Federal Community Heritage Grants.

"This grant will help to fund the purchase of archival storage material to further protect its valuable collection.

"Once materials have been obtained from Archival Survival a final report of the execution of the grant is due to be in Canberra by November 2008."

In announcing the awards, National Library director-general Jan Fullerton said the program, which began in 1994, had surpassed expectations.

"It has been taken up by groups throughout Australia, ensuring the longevity of nationally significant collections and that the collections stay in the community where they belong," she said.

"The diversity of the collections chronical our Australian lives - past and present - including transport, sport, music and the arts, military, science, industry, Indigenous, education, crafts, migration and religion. They also reflect geographic diversity with collection locations ranging from our capital cities to tiny, isolated villages.

"Over the years hundreds of people involved in nationally significant collections throughout Australia have been given the opportunity to come to Canberra, enhance their skills through the expertise of the national institutions and to then take their new knowledge back to their community to ensure the collections are preserved and managed while remaining in a meaningful context."

The grant money is used for significant assessments, preservation needs assessments, conservation treatments, training workshops, digitisation and purchasing archival-quality storage materials or collection management software.

The program is managed by the National Library. It is funded by the Australian Government through the Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, the National Archives, the National Film and Sound Archive, the National Museum and the Library.