Further community assistance is provided by the National Preservation Office through its Community Heritage Grants program . Of fifteen grants awarded in 1994, two were for microfilming projects. Apart from storing its own collections of master negatives, the Library is also offering free cold storage space to other institutions. Recognising that a number of older master negatives are stored on acetate base film, the Library is currently developing a program for copying these titles onto polyester base film. On a national level there has also been a lot of interest in preservation microfilming activities.
Most State libraries operate active preservation microfilming programs.
Under this plan each state library undertakes to microfilm all newspaper titles published within that State and to preserve one hard copy of each title. There are also provisions for repatriation of hard copy originals. The National Library is contributing by accepting responsibility for preserving hard copy originals of national newspapers and assisting State libraries and regional organisations with microfilming newspapers which are more than thirty years old. Much has been accomplished, but there is still much more work to be done. Recognising that many preservation microfilming issues required wider discussion at a national level, the National Preservation Office devoted its first national conference to preservation microfilming.