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California Revealed

Since first launching in 2010 as a digitization initiative focused on audiovisual recordings, California Revealed has brought special focus to educating and empowering regional organizations to make the most of their collections. To date, California Revealed includes more than 190,000 objects from over 450 partner organizations representing a diverse array of communities and collections. The objects themselves are similarly eclectic: motion picture film, video tapes, audio recordings, newspapers, scrapbooks, photographs, microfilm, manuscripts, digital files, and more.

By providing online access to digitized materials, California Revealed is working to aggregate California's digital collections into a single resource at californiarevealed.org. California Revealed collections are also discoverable through the Internet Archive, the Digital Public Library of America, Calisphere, and WorldCat, offering multiple access points for potential users, including teachers, genealogists, artists, scholars, journalists, and others. The kaleidoscopic view of California culture and history represented in California Revealed's collections allows educators and students to easily integrate primary resources into their course of study.

Each year, we issue an open call for memory organizations to nominate archival materials related to California history for our collections care services. Services can be free or subsidized based on the operational budget of the organization. If the organization has its own funding, there is also the option for California Revealed to help plan and manage the project from start to finish. 

Depending on available funding, our services include:

California Revealed is supported by the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act, administered in California by the State Librarian. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this collection do not necessarily reflect those of the funder.

For more information, visit https://californiarevealed.org. Comments or questions? Contact us!

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2025 Funding Update

To our partners and the communities they serve,

We face an uncertain future. Since March 2025, the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) – the only federal agency responsible for distributing Congressionally approved funds to state libraries and providing grants for libraries, museums, and archives – has been under attack by the Trump administration. California Revealed is 100% funded by the IMLS via their Grants to States program, among other essential statewide library services. 

The State Library is trying to find ways to continue providing access to the California Revealed website and repository, but they cannot make funding commitments beyond June 30th.

The termination of IMLS means a loss of $1.4 million in vital funding for all of our programs: 

  • Digitization & Digital Preservation: serving over 450 under-resourced organizations across the state 

  • californiarevealed.org Website and Repository: online access to over 190,000 archival primary sources

  • Cataloging Assistance & Mentorship

  • Preservation Consultations & Planning

  • Free Archival Training: Workshops & Webinars

  • Community Archiving Workshops

  • Memory Lab Support & Training

  • Educator Fellowship & K-12 Curriculum Support

Our mission is to advocate for equitable access to history and support community memory work on behalf of our partner organizations. We play a vital role in training professionals, supporting under-resourced organizations, and expanding access to local histories across the state. We are honored to work alongside our partners in stewarding collections from inventory to long-term preservation.

We remain committed to a future where preservation work is community-driven, inclusive, and sustainable. But California Revealed cannot continue without your help.

Public access to history empowers communities, sparks collaboration, and ensures lasting care for California’s cultural memory. In a moment when many institutions are being forced to scale back or go silent, support for California Revealed is not just necessary, it is urgent because our work matters.

Digitization and preservation is not just technical labor. It is a labor of love to ensure that historically excluded communities are seen, heard, and remembered, and we couldn’t do this work without the active participation of our partner organizations. Supporting us means supporting our partners to expand access, deepen impact, and ensure lasting care for California’s cultural memory. We need your help to continue.

Our partners are more than repositories. They are living connections to California’s past and future. They provide access to diverse voices, helping us to listen and understand where we come from and where we’re going. They are stewards of memory, meaning, and identity, with impact that spans local and global communities. These organizations create spaces for reflection, identity, and dialogue, especially when histories are contested or forgotten. Without your help these voices will be lost.

Funding museums, libraries, and educational programs is essential to preserving and understanding our shared history. Supporting this work is an investment in a more inclusive archival future where preservation is guided by trust and collective care. We need your help to continue. Our impact reaches far beyond digitization. Public access to our shared history creates opportunities for collaboration and empowerment for community memory-keepers. In a time when so many institutions are being forced to scale back or silence their work, continued funding and advocacy for initiatives like California Revealed is not only necessary, it is urgent.

How you can help:

  • Donate to California Revealed. Currently we’re aiming for $200,000 which will keep our programs going for three months. This goal will cover: full-time support for our team of digital services librarians, rent for our office in midtown Sacramento, as well as digital storage for our website and repository. Please note that we are in the process of becoming a 501(c)(3) organization, and our application is currently pending. While we await approval, the Association of Moving Image Archivists (AMIA) is willing to be our fiscal sponsor, and your donation will be fully tax-deductible.

  • Tell us about your collection needs. Please respond to our Call for Collections if you’re in need of digitization and/or description assistance. We will use this information to pursue funding support for our programs.

  • Write a letter of support sharing how California Revealed has impacted your organization or community. Templates are available - email us: team@californiarevealed.org

  • Continue to contact your federal legislators and urge them to fully restore the $15 million IMLS committed to California for FY 2025–2026. 

  • If you're in the Sacramento area, attend our upcoming fundraiser screening: "Sacramento on Film: Celebrating 15 Years of California Revealed" on Saturday, September 20th! Tickets are available with a suggested donation.

Despite the funding challenges we face at this time, nothing will diminish our joy and enthusiasm for saving California's cultural heritage. As we work together to save collections in community, our shared past and our histories shape our futures. Thank you for your love and solidarity.

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