Deadline: Feb. 2, 2015
Amount: $10,000 – $25,000
Awarding institution: Institute of Museum and Library Services

The Sparks! Ignition Grants for Libraries are a special funding opportunity within the IMLS National Leadership Grants for Libraries program. These small grants encourage libraries and archives to test and evaluate specific innovations in the ways they operate and the services they provide. Sparks Grants support the deployment, testing, and evaluation of promising and groundbreaking new tools, products, services, or organizational practices. You may propose activities or approaches that involve risk, as long as the risk is balanced by significant potential for improvement in the ways libraries and museums serve their communities. Successful proposals will address problems, challenges, or needs of broad relevance to libraries and/or archives.

Eligibility: Libraries that fulfill the general criteria for libraries may apply. In addition, institutions of higher education, including public and nonprofit universities, are eligible.

For more information: http://www.imls.gov/applicants/detail.aspx?GrantId=19

Deadline: Feb. 3, 2014
Amount: $10,000 – $25,000
Awarding institution: Institute of Museum and Library Services

The Sparks! Ignition Grants for Libraries are a special funding opportunity within the IMLS National Leadership Grants for Libraries program. These small grants encourage libraries and archives to test and evaluate specific innovations in the ways they operate and the services they provide. Sparks Grants support the deployment, testing, and evaluation of promising and groundbreaking new tools, products, services, or organizational practices. You may propose activities or approaches that involve risk, as long as the risk is balanced by significant potential for improvement in the ways libraries and museums serve their communities.

Eligibility: Libraries that fulfill the general criteria for libraries may apply. In addition, institutions of higher education, including public and nonprofit universities, are eligible.

For more information: http://www.imls.gov/applicants/detail.aspx?GrantId=19

Institute of Museum and Library Services National Leadership Grants support projects that address challenges faced by the museum, library, and/or archive fields and that have the potential to advance practice in those fields. Applications are due February 3, 2014.

Successful proposals will seek innovative responses to the challenge(s) identified in the proposals, and will have national impact. IMLS invites libraries to address STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) in their programs and projects in order to advance learning and support the acquisition of STEM knowledge at all ages, but particularly for at-risk youth.

Applicants that fulfill the general criteria for libraries may apply. These 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.

More information is available at http://www.imls.gov/applicants/detail.aspx?GrantId=14.

National Leadership Grants support projects that address challenges faced by the museum, library, and/or archive fields and that have the potential to advance practice in those fields. Successful proposals will seek innovative responses to the challenge(s) identified in the proposals, and will have national impact. For FY2013, IMLS continues to pursue its commitment to early learning by seeking proposals addressing learners from ages 0-8 and their parents and caregivers. Library applicants are encouraged to partner with community organizations to address at least one of the challenges identified by the Campaign for Grade Level Reading including school readiness, summer reading loss, and chronic school absence. Click here to learn more about IMLS’s role in this initiative. Projects addressing the goals of the Campaign for Grade Level Reading should check the appropriate box on the Program Information Sheet component of the application.

The National Leadership Grant program accepts applications under four main categories:

• Advancing Digital Resources—Support the creation, use, presentation, and preservation of significant digital resources as well as the development of tools to enhance access, use, and management of digital assets.
• Research—Research—Support research that investigates key questions that are important to museum, library, and archival practice.
• Demonstration—Demonstration—Support projects that produce a replicable model or practice that is usable, adaptable, or scalable by other institutions for improving services and performance.
• Library Museum Collaboration Grants— Support collaborative projects (between museums and/or libraries and other community organizations) that address the educational, economic, cultural, or social needs of a community. In 2012, a funding priority will be projects that promote early learning.

Applicants may choose to submit a Project Grant, Planning Grant, or National Forum Grant proposal in any of the above categories. Project Grants support fully developed projects for which needs assessments, partnership development, feasibility analyses, prototyping, and other planning activities have been completed. Planning Grants allow project teams to perform preliminary planning activities that could lead to a subsequent full project, such as needs and feasibility analyses, solidifying partnerships, developing project work plans, or developing prototypes or proofs of concept. Applications for Planning Grants must include at least one formal partner in addition to the lead applicant. National Forum Grants provide the opportunity to convene qualified groups of experts and key stakeholders to consider issues or challenges that are important to libraries, museums, and/or archives across the nation. Grant-supported meetings are expected to produce widely disseminated reports with expert recommendations for action or research that address a key challenge identified in the proposal. The expert recommendations resulting from these meetings are intended to guide future proposals to the National Leadership Grant program.

Eligibility: Libraries that fulfill the general criteria for libraries may apply. See program guidelines for special conditions of eligibility for this program. Museums that fulfill the general criteria for museums may apply. Public or private nonprofit agencies, organizations, or associations that engage in activities designed to advance museums and the museum profession may also apply. In addition, institutions of higher education, including public and non-profit universities, are eligible.

More information is available at http://www.imls.gov/applicants/detail.aspx?GrantId=14.

Deadline: Feb. 1, 2013
Amount: $10,000 – $25,000
Awarding institution: Institute of Museum and Library Services

The Sparks! Ignition Grants for Libraries and Museums are a special funding opportunity within the IMLS National Leadership Grants program. These small grants encourage libraries, museums, and archives to test and evaluate specific innovations in the ways they operate and the services they provide. Sparks Grants support the deployment, testing, and evaluation of promising and groundbreaking new tools, products, services, or organizational practices. You may propose activities or approaches that involve risk, as long as the risk is balanced by significant potential for improvement in the ways libraries and museums serve their communities.

Successful proposals will address problems, challenges, or needs of broad relevance to libraries, museums, and/or archives. A proposed project should test a specific, innovative response to the identified problem and present a plan to make the findings widely and openly accessible.

To maximize the public benefit from federal investments in these grants, the Sparks Grants will fund only projects with the following characteristics:

Broad Potential Impact—You should identify a specific problem or need that is relevant to many libraries, archives, and/or museums, and propose a testable and measurable solution. Proposals must demonstrate a thorough understanding of current issues and practices in the project’s focus area and discuss its potential impact within libraries, archives, and/or museums. Proposed innovations should be widely adoptable or adaptable.

Significant Innovation—The proposed solution to the identified problem must offer strong potential for non-incremental, significant advancement in the operation of libraries, archives, and/or museums. You must explain how the proposed activity differs from current practices or takes advantage of an unexplored opportunity, and the potential benefit to be gained by this innovation.

Eligibility: Libraries that fulfill the general criteria for libraries may apply. Museums that fulfill the general criteria for museums may apply. Public or private nonprofit agencies, organizations, or associations that engage in activities designed to advance museums and the museum profession may also apply. In addition, institutions of higher education, including public and nonprofit universities, are eligible.

For more information: http://www.imls.gov/applicants/detail.aspx?GrantId=19