DAPHNE, Ala. — The Old Methodist Church Museum and the Daphne Public Library’s Teen Advisory Board hope to form a partnership and archive historical documents if the museum is awarded a $10,000 grant, Mickey Boykin, museum president, said.

The History Channel’s Save Our History grant — which Boykin applied for June 4 — could help purchase supplies and equipment needed to archive the museum’s old newspapers and photographs that soon will deteriorate. The History Channel could choose to award the requested amount — $10,000 — or a lesser sum like $1,000, Boykin said, stressing that the grant isn’t a done deal, and the museum awaits word on whether they’ve won.

The grant could pay for a computer and scanner that would digitize newspapers, maps and photographs — to name a few — that otherwise would become corrupt and useless, Boykin said. Costs of printing invitations and advertising for an archived exhibit also could be paid from the grant, she said.

If the money comes through, teenagers could get a hands-on history lesson, Louise Youngblood, Daphne’s young adult librarian, said.

“We’ll actually go to the museum and help the museum — which runs on a volunteer basis — with a couple of the collections that have been given to them,” she said.

If all goes well, the museum could start the archival process as soon as Sept. 1, Boykin said.

Carol Ellis, an archivist at the University of South Alabama in Mobile, first alerted Boykin to the museum’s archival needs.

“None of us knew anything about archiving …,” Boykin said, referring to the museum’s staff, “so I e-mailed her to see if she would conduct a workshop for us.”

Deborah Norris, reference librarian; and museum volunteers Lee Swetman, Betty Baker and Helen Baroco, along with Boykin and Youngblood, toured USA’s facility on June 25. There, they learned archival skills and a few lessons about what they could do to save historical information.

“We actually took a sample document and encapsulated it so that it would be preserved,” Youngblood said. “And they gave us so much information as to how to approach a collection, the steps that you would take at the very beginning … and thinking, ‘What do we need to save here? What’s worth saving? They would impress upon us the importance of trying to determine what was worth the time, effort and money that would be spent in just one piece.”

“We learned that the supplies to work with a collection are very, very expensive,” she added.

For instance, $30 pays for a spray can that encapsulates a single sheet of paper, according to Youngblood.

Boykin learned that the museum can keep copies of historical documents.

“We have original copies of The Daphne Standard, which was a newspaper back in 1900,” she said. “We can’t even show that (to visitors) because it’s so fragile and it’s going to have to be microfilmed, or something like that, so we can put it on a disk and people can view it.”

Boykin and Youngblood had broached the idea of a partnership in late spring during a City of Daphne volunteers event, Youngblood said.

“After the ceremony we were just chatting and I had heard what she was doing at the museum …. I said, ‘Let’s talk with Ms. Tonja (Young, library director) and see if we can work something out,” Youngblood said.

“It just came together like it was meant to be,” Boykin said, explaining that Youngblood had approached her about getting the teens more involved with the museum, just when she was considering the grant application.

The History Channel’s grant program had three criteria:

•Applicants must design a project in partnership with a local school or youth group.

•Projects must aim to preserve a significant aspect of community history.

•Projects should focus on the history or efforts to help preserve a building, cemetery, historic site, historic collections, events or traditions.

The History Channel’s national grant program — which raises awareness and support for preserving local heritage — launched in 2004; since then, $750,000 in grants have been awarded to 82 historical organizations nationwide, according to the channel’s Web site.

Two Alabama organizations have received grants since the program’s inception.

Last year, Phillip Hamm Library, in Dothan, partnered with Dale County High School; the grant helped preserve the history of segregated school life in Dale County.

In 2006, the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute partnered with Banks Middle School in Birmingham; the grant helped fund research on children’s roles in the civil rights movement.

The Old Methodist Church Museum of Daphne is open from 1 to 4 p.m. on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Special tours may be scheduled; call 626-3275 or 626-3858 for more information.