IMLS Learning Labs in Libraries and Museums Grants – Deadline Jun 15, 2012

Closing Date for Applications: June 15, 2012 Award Amount: Up to $100,000 Issuing agency: Institue of Museum and Library Services Grants for Learning Labs in Libraries and Museums will support planning and design activities for spaces that foster experimentation and creativity for middle- and high-school youth in library- and museum-based, out-of-school-time settings. The labs should be grounded in evidence-based research on youth, and should be designed to support youth learning in such 21st century skills as critical thinking, problem solving, communication, collaboration, and STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math). These grants will enable grantees to develop comprehensive plans for programs, space, staffing, and budgeting for their Learning Labs. The awards may also be used to prototype certain lab activities or experiences. In addition, the grants may be used to support emerging learning labs that are already in the process of serving middle- and high-school youth with innovative digital media and learning and need additional funds to enhance their efforts, provided that they are aligned with the grant program criteria. Eligibility: To be eligible as a library applicant for a Learning Labs in Libraries and Museums, you must: •be either a unit of State or local government or a private nonprofit organization that has tax-exempt status under the Internal Revenue Code. •be located in one of the 50 States of the United States of America, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the Virgin Islands, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, or the Republic of Palau; and •qualify as one of the following six types of organizations: 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 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. Private or special libraries that have been deemed eligible to participate in this program by the State in which the library is located; 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 application; 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; 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 a library association 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. Details are available at http://www.imls.gov/applicants/detail.aspx?GrantId=20.