Federal
Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS)
01/09/19
02/25/19 11:59 PM U.S. Eastern Time
Grants ranging from $10,000 to $50,000 to USA and territories libraries, agencies, schools, and nonprofits for improvements to rural and small libraries. Funding is intended for enhancements of school libraries at all educational levels, improving digital access and education at libraries, and engaging communities in the collection, documentation, and preservation of their local histories, experiences, and identities.
IMLS’ Accelerating Promising Practices for Small Libraries (APP) is a special initiative of the National Leadership Grants for Libraries Program. The goal of this initiative is to support projects that strengthen the ability of small and rural libraries and archives to serve their communities. IMLS invites applications that focus on transforming school library practice, community memory, or digital inclusion and are clearly linked to an individual institution's broader community needs.
Given the initiative’s focus on capacity-building, expenses for supplies, materials, and equipment may not exceed 30% of the total funds requested.
Indicators (characteristics) of successful projects in the APP special initiative are as follows:
- In-depth knowledge: The project justification reflects a thorough understanding of the subject being addressed.
- Project-based design: The project work plan consists of a set of logical, interrelated activities tied directly to addressing the key opportunity or challenge identified in the application.
- Demonstrable outcomes: The project generates measurable results that relate directly to the need or challenge it was designed to address.
Project Categories:
Transforming School Library Practice:
IMLS recognizes the essential role of school library media centers (school libraries) in supporting cross-disciplinary and inquiry-based methods of learning and fostering the development of 21st century skills such as critical thinking, creativity, and collaboration. We welcome applications that embrace meaningful shifts from transactional approaches toward ones in which school libraries serve as dynamic hubs for self-directed, inquiry-based learning and that position school library professionals as integral instructional partners to classroom teachers. Successful projects will provide high-quality, inclusive educational opportunities that equitably address particular needs of the communities served. Applicants should align their proposals with appropriate standards and best practices in school librarianship. All applicants are encouraged to build on or make use of previous IMLS-funded work as it relates to their project and organizational context.
Projects may include, but are not limited to, the following activities:
- Enhancing school library services and creating resources to foster early, digital, information, health, financial, media, civic, and other types of literacies;
- Developing, implementing, and evaluating programs and services that prepare students for success in college, career, and life;
- Purposefully integrating information technology and digital resources in ways that support media creation rather than consumption, informed by constructivist-based pedagogical approaches such as experiential learning, project-based learning, inquiry-based learning, or guided discovery;
- Reconfiguring space in learner-centric ways to support the development of 21st century skills and literacies, informed by disciplines such as design thinking or user experience;
- Deepening meaningful instructional collaborations between school librarians and classroom teachers or school administrators;
- Partnering with community organizations that create opportunities for the student body and reinforce the school library as a dynamic hub for self-directed learning; and
- Providing extended library access beyond traditional school hours to support asynchronous, connected learning opportunities.
While grant funds may be used toward staff salaries, proposals focused exclusively on supporting the reinstatement or continuation of basic school library services are unlikely to be competitive in this category. Construction or renovation of facilities (generally, any activity involving the construction trades) are not allowable costs (please consult section D6 for further information).
Only school districts or other administrative units applying on behalf of eligible school libraries are eligible to apply for funding in this category.
Community Memory:
IMLS supports the role of libraries and archives as trusted stewards of our nation’s knowledge and collections, as well as their ability to serve as trusted spaces for community engagement and dialogue. We are interested in projects that engage local communities in the collection, documentation, and preservation of their local histories, experiences, and identities. Applicants should follow appropriate standards and best practices for creating, describing, and preserving physical and digital collections. Projects should incorporate authentic and ethical practices and relationships with community members or organizations to ensure the work undertaken aligns with community needs. All applicants are encouraged to build on or make use of previous IMLS-funded work or existing open source software as it relates to their project and organizational context.
Projects may include, but are not limited to, the following activities:
- Planning and implementing events and programs to engage community members with collections documenting local histories and experiences;
- Using methods such as web archiving or oral history to engage community members in the documentation and preservation of local histories;
- Supporting events and programs to digitize or describe materials related to community histories, including photographs, artifacts, texts, and other materials;
- Creating events and programs in support of community dialogues related to the collection and preservation of local histories;
- Developing crowdsourcing projects to engage community members in the description or contextualization of collections;
- Supporting community cohesion by documenting important local issues or events and engaging community members with related collections; and
- Engaging with specific communities in activities related to capturing and preserving their personal or family collections or histories and supporting development of sustainable and accessible stewardship models.
Digital Inclusion:
IMLS makes strategic investments to support libraries in promoting and facilitating digital inclusion. We welcome applications for projects that enhance the role of libraries in increasing access to information, ideas, and networks. We are interested in projects that support the role libraries play in promoting digital literacy, providing internet access, and enabling community engagement through civic data and civic technology. We encourage collaborations with partners, which may include local governments, data intermediaries, educational institutions, housing authorities, community technology training centers, network providers, non-profit organizations, and other social service and civic organizations. Applicants should follow appropriate standards and best practices for broadband adoption and digital literacy education. All applicants are encouraged to build on or make use of previous IMLS-funded work as it relates to their project and organizational context.
Projects may include, but are not limited to, the following activities:
- Supporting broadband access and wireless networks in order to address the homework gap and increase small business development and entrepreneurship;
- Providing innovative and creative services that augment and expand WiFi hotspot lending services in public and school libraries;
- Creating inclusive educational opportunities that address particular audience needs related to digital literacy. These opportunities may involve: user privacy and security, personal computer use, and access and use of E-government programs (including Census 2020);
- Supporting emergency preparedness and community resiliency through broadband access, wireless networks, and other communications infrastructures;
- Evaluating broadband and wireless capacity within libraries by exploring topics such as: bandwidth requirements, necessary data wiring and equipment, efficient network setups, and extent of WiFi coverage;
- Understanding and developing solutions with partners to address barriers to broadband access;
- Capacity-building and training for library staff and volunteers to actively support a range of users in building digital literacy skills; and
- Fostering participation in accessible telecommunications programs (e.g.,E-rate) through partnerships between schools and libraries.
The following list includes some examples of generally allowable costs, both for IMLS funds and for cost share (if applicable), under this announcement:
- Personnel salaries, wages, and fringe benefits
- Travel expenses for key project staff and consultants
- Materials, supplies, software, and equipment related directly to project activities
- Equipment to improve collections storage and exhibit environments
- Third-party costs
- Publication design and printing
- Staff and volunteer training
- Internships/fellowships
- Indirect or overhead costs
GrantWatch ID#: 184904
$1,200,000
25
Grant Amount: $10,000 – $50,000
Projects must begin on September 1, 2019.
Anticipated period of performance: September 1, 2019 – August 31, 2021. Project activities will be carried out for two years.
To be eligible as an applicant for the Accelerating Promising Practices for Small Libraries Initiative, you must:
- Be either a unit of State or local government or be a private, nonprofit institution that has nonprofit status under the Internal Revenue Code of 1954, as amended, and
- Be located in one of the 50 States of the United States of America, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, or the Republic of Palau.
In addition, you must be one of the following six types of organizations:
(1) A library or a parent organization, such as a school district, a municipality, a State agency, or an academic institution, that is responsible for the administration of a library. Eligible libraries include:
- Public libraries;
- Public elementary and secondary school libraries;
- College (including community college) and university libraries;
- Research libraries and archives that are not an integral part of an institution of higher education and that make publicly available library services and materials that are suitable for scholarly research and not otherwise available. Research libraries must be under the supervision of at least one permanent professional staff librarian and must be either generally recognized as possessing unique, scholarly research materials and services that are made available to the public, or able to demonstrate that such is the case when submitting an application to IMLS;
- Private or other special library, but only if the State in which such private or special library is located determines that the library should be considered a library for the purposes of the Library Services and Technology subchapter (see 20 U.S.C. 9121-9165);
(2) An academic or administrative unit, such as a graduate school of library and information science that is part of an institution of higher education through which it would make an application;
(3) A digital library, if it makes library materials publicly available and provides library services, including selection, organization, description, reference, and preservation, under the supervision of at least one permanent professional staff librarian;
(4) A library agency that is an official agency of a State or other unit of government and is charged by the law governing it with the extension and development of public library services within its jurisdiction;
(5) A library consortium that is a local, statewide, regional, interstate, or international cooperative association of library entities that provides for the systematic and effective coordination of the resources of eligible libraries, as defined above, and information centers that work to improve the services delivered to the clientele of these libraries; or
(6) A library association or library organization that exists on a permanent basis; serves libraries or library professionals on a national, regional, State, or local level; and engages in activities designed to advance the well-being of libraries and the library profession.
Native American tribal organizations may apply if they otherwise meet the above eligibility requirements.
The following list includes some examples of unallowable costs, both for IMLS funds and for cost share (if applicable), under this announcement:
- General fundraising costs, such as development office staff or other staff time devoted to general fundraising
- Contributions to endowments
- General operating support
- Acquisition of collections (see 2 C.F.R. §3187.15(b))
- General advertising or public relations costs designed solely for promotional activities other than those related to the specific project
- Construction or renovation of facilities (generally, any activity involving the construction trades is not an allowable cost)
- Social activities, ceremonies, receptions, or entertainment
- Research projects (see 2 C.F.R. § 200.87)
- Pre-award costs
Applicants are invited to participate in a pre-application webinar to learn more about the Accelerating Promising Practices for Small Libraries (APP) initiative and ask questions.
Tuesday, December 18, 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM Eastern
Participant call-in number: 1-888-272-8702
Participant PIN: 2053175
Webinar Link: https://sas.elluminate.com/m.jnlp?sid=2012653&password=M.56AC067526494FD177722D3F565918
Wednesday, January 9, 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM Eastern
Participant call-in number: 1-888-272-8702
Participant PIN: 2053175
Webinar Link: https://sas.elluminate.com/m.jnlp?sid=2012653&password=M.E91042F800D917754C09DB2DE8C17A
Due date: February 25, 2019 by 11:59 PM U.S. Eastern Time
Anticipated Date of Notification of Award Decisions: June 2019
Cost sharing is encouraged but not required for this initiative, and will not be considered in the evaluation.
Before submitting an application, your organization must have a current and active D-U-N-S® number (a unique entity identifier), System for Award Management (SAM.gov) registration, and Grants.gov registration. Check your materials and registrations well in advance of the application deadline to ensure that they are accurate, current, and active.
The multi-step Grants.gov registration process generally cannot be completed in a single day. If you are not already registered, you should allow several weeks before the grant program deadline to complete this one-time process. Do not wait until the day of the application deadline to register.
View this opportunity on Grants.gov:
https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=310610
Before starting your grant application, please review the funding source's website listed below for updates/changes/addendums/conferences/LOIs.
Register and Apply on Grants.gov:
https://apply07.grants.gov/apply/login.faces?oppId=310610&origin=vgo-apply
Community Memory contact:
Sarah Fuller, Senior Program Officer
sfuller@imls.gov
202-653-4783
Data Inclusion contact:
James Neal, Senior Program Officer
jneal@imls.gov
202-653-4740
School Libraries contact:
Tim Carrigan, Senior Program Officer
tcarrigan@imls.gov
202-653-4639
45.312
APP-FY19
USA: Alabama; Alaska; Arizona; Arkansas; California; Colorado; Connecticut; Delaware; Florida; Georgia; Hawaii; Idaho; Illinois; Indiana; Iowa; Kansas; Kentucky; Louisiana; Maine; Maryland; Massachusetts; Michigan; Minnesota; Mississippi; Missouri; Montana; Nebraska; Nevada; New Hampshire; New Jersey; New Mexico; New York City; New York; North Carolina; North Dakota; Ohio; Oklahoma; Oregon; Pennsylvania; Rhode Island; South Carolina; South Dakota; Tennessee; Texas; Utah; Vermont; Virginia; Washington, DC; Washington; West Virginia; Wisconsin; Wyoming
USA Territories: American Samoa (USA) Guam (USA) Puerto Rico (USA) Virgin Islands (USA) Northern Mariana Islands (USA)
USA Compact Free Associations: The Federated States of Micronesia (USA) Marshall Islands (USA) Republic of Palau (USA)
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