Much history lies locked away in the vaults of five public and university libraries, difficult to find and sometimes too fragile to handle safely.

But a recent gift of $2.2 million from two Abilene foundations should help make much of that information easier to access and use - creating a ''searchable archive of Abilene's history,'' said Robert Gillette, executive director of the Abilene Library Consortium.

The consortium's digital archive project, funded through the Dodge Jones and Dian Graves Owen foundations, will create digital versions of some of the most fragile, valuable and interesting materials in the libraries' collections. The material is kept at Abilene's three universities, Abilene Public Library, and Howard Payne University in Brownwood.

Dodge Jones is giving $2 million, and the Owen foundation is giving $200,000 to begin the project and sustain it for three years.

Some of the material is historically significant. HSU alone has letters from Sam Houston and Charles Goodnight, a collection of thousands of historical photographs, and video and audio tapes of interviews with local people who have ties to historic events, said Alice Specht, chair of the group's administrative council and dean of University Libraries at HSU.

''So much of this material is decaying, especially photographs and items printed on acid-based papers,'' said Robert Gillette, executive director of the consortium.

Trained staff will scan photographs and printed materials to make digital copies. Audio and video files also will be converted into current, future-friendly digital file formats.

Specht said the consortium has wanted to work on the project for some time, but it did not have the resources to gather the expertise or equipment for until now.

Eventually, anyone will be able to gain easy access to the growing archives.

''We'll have a special server for the digital archive,'' Gillette said. ''It will not only help you find what you're looking for, but the experience should be like looking at similar items on the same shelf in a real library.''

Thus, browsers should be able to find a variety of interesting items they never knew existed.

''People just don't know we have some of these genuinely wonderful things, and some items are so fragile that we have to severely limit access to them,'' Specht said.

Eventually, the consortium hopes to provide workshops for the community on how to archive and save their own historical documents.

Abilene Library Consortium members:

Abilene Christian University

Abilene Public Library

Hardin-Simmons University,

Howard Payne University in Brownwood

McMurry University

The $2.2 million given to archive historical records will:

• Buy equipment and train staff to make digital copies of fragile or decaying photos, documents and sound and video recordings kept by members of the Abilene Library Consortium.

• Allow the consortium to hire a professional archivist and others to help with the project.