IMLS Announces 276 Grants, $14.16 Million for Libraries in the United States
From the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS):
The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) today announced 276 grants to institutions totaling $14,165,292. The grants were awarded through six programs: National Leadership Grants for Libraries, Sparks! Ignition Grants for Libraries, Native American Library Services Basic, Native American Library Services Enhancement, Native Hawaiian Library Services, and Laura Bush 21st Century Library Program.
Direct to Details About All August 2015 Grants/Grant Recipients
Highlights/Breakdown
National Leadership Grants for Libraries support projects that address challenges faced by the library and archive fields and that have the potential to advance library and archival practice with new tools, research findings, models, services, practices, or alliances that can be widely replicated.
Among the 17 funded projects, totaling $6,439,248, are:
Stanford University Libraries’ effort, with university partners and the Metropolitan New York Library Council, to improveePADD, an open-source software package archiving emails. The two-phased project will support software development and scalability issues to provide access to otherwise hidden cultural heritage materials.
Vermont Department of Libraries’ Vermont Early Literacy Initiative to be developed in partnership with the Vermont Center for the Book and the Montshire Museum of Science. The three-year project will help 25 librarians learn concepts and practices essential to STEM learning and weave STEM language and ideas throughout programming for young children, parents, and community childcare providers.
Sparks! Ignition Grants for Libraries provide opportunities to expand and test the boundaries of library and archive services and practices. Sparks Grants support the deployment, testing, and evaluation of promising and groundbreaking new tools, products, services, or organizational practices.
Twenty projects, totaling $473,343, were funded this year, including:
The Free Library of Philadelphia’s Prison Services project to meet the needs of incarcerated parents, returning citizens, and their children and families by supporting bonding and by connecting them to critical resources, literacy and workforce development programs. The project will include two new services: a family televisiting and shared reading program hosted in libraries close to participants’ homes; and the dissemination of temporary library cards and reentry resource packets to returning citizens on the day of their release.
Native American Library Services Enhancement grants enhance existing library services or implement new library services for Indian tribes. Enhancement Grants are only awarded to applicants that have an active Native American Library Services Basic Grant in the same fiscal year.
IMLS is awarding $1,731,000 to 13 institutions through this grant program, including:
The Chilkat Indian Village Library’s program focusing on Tlingit culture, tribal history, and impacts of library and cultural services with the goal of increasing community knowledge of tribal cultural history, media literacy, and life and career skills. The library will present programs, develop collections, provide increased access to cultural resources, create films that record tribal lands history, and analyze the long-term impacts of cultural and library services.
Native Hawaiian Library Services grants are available to nonprofit organizations that primarily serve and represent Native Hawaiians so they can enhance existing or implement new library services.
This year IMLS is awarding $550,000 to four Native Hawaiian-serving organizations.
The Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program supports projects to recruit and educate the next generation of librarians, faculty, and library leaders.
IMLS is awarding $3,410,701 for 11 projects with funding from this program.
Some of the Organizations and Institutions Awarded Grants Include:
- Brooklyn Public Library
- COSLA
- Central New York Library Resources Council
- Connecticut State Library
- Creative Commons
- Free Library of Philadelphia
- George Mason University
- Internet Archive
- METRO
- Mozilla Foundation
- OCLC
- New York Public Library
- State Library of Kansas
- Urban Libraries Council
- WGBH
The largest grant awarded is for $1,372,154 to NYPL who is working with DPLA and others on the Library Simplified open source eBook platform.
Direct to Details About All August 2015 Grants/Grant Recipients
Filed under: Associations and Organizations, Funding, Libraries, Management and Leadership, News, Public Libraries

About Gary Price
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com.