(HISTORICAL) Sparks! Ignition Grants for Libraries

 
  • Grants Office Grantwriting service fee is currently unavailable for this grant
    Get more information on grantwriting

    CFDA#

    45.312     		 

    Funder Type

    Federal Government

    IT Classification

    C - Funds little to no technology

    Authority

    Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS)

    Summary

    Sparks! Ignition Grants for Libraries (Sparks Grants) are a special funding opportunity within the IMLS National Leadership Grants for Libraries program. These small grants encourage libraries and archives to prototype and evaluate specific innovations in the ways they operate and the services they provide resulting in new tools, products, services, or organizational practices. You may propose activities or approaches that involve risk, but the project results – be they success, failure, or a combination thereof – must offer valuable information to the library or archives fields, promise an impact beyond the applicant's institution and provide the potential for improvement in the ways libraries and archives serve their communities. You are required to submit a short white paper, which will be publicly posted and shared.

    In FY2016, each award under this program will support one of the following three goals of the IMLS Strategic Plan, Creating a Nation of Learners:

    1. IMLS places the learner at the center and supports engaging experiences in libraries and museums that prepare people to be full participants in their local communities and our global society.
    2. IMLS promotes museums and libraries as strong community anchors that enhance civic engagement, cultural opportunities, and economic vitality.
    3. IMLS supports exemplary stewardship of museum and library collections and promotes the use of technology to facilitate discovery of knowledge and cultural heritage.

    The goals focus on achieving positive public outcomes for communities and individuals; supporting the unique role of museums and libraries in preserving and providing access to collections and content; and promoting library, museum, and information service policies that ensure access to information for all Americans.

    Examples of activities that may be funded by this program include but are not limited to the following:

    • Rapid prototyping and testing of new ways to engage learners
    • Offering innovative new types of services or new service options
    • Exploring the potential of highly original, experimental collaborations
    • Implementing new workflows or processes with potential for substantial cost savings
    • Addressing community challenges through new types of partnerships, services, processes, or practices
    • Developing and testing new tools or services that facilitate access, presentation, management, preservation, sharing, or use of library and/or archival collection
     

    History of Funding

    A database of grant recipients is available at: http://www.imls.gov/recipients/default.aspx/

    Additional Information

    Examples of allowable costs include: 
    • 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
    • Publication design and printing
    • Staff and volunteer training
    • Indirect or overhead costs
    Examples of unallowable costs include: 
    • General museum fundraising costs, such as development office staff or other staff time devoted to general fundraising
    • Contributions to endowments
    • General museum operating support
    • Acquisition of collections
    • Construction and renovation of museum facilities
    • Reconstruction or renovation of historic sites
    • Pre-award costs

    Contacts

    Tim Carrigan

    Tim Carrigan
    Office of Library Services
    1800 M Street NW, 9th Floor
    Washington, DC 20036-5802
    (202) 653-4639
     

  • Eligibility Details

    Eligible applicants must qualify as one of the following: 
    • 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. Research libraries must be under the supervision of at least one permanent professional staff librarian and 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;
    • A private library or other special library, but only if the State in which it is located determines that the library should be considered a library for purposes of Library Services and Technology;
    • 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 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;
    • 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.

    Deadline Details

    Applications were to be submitted by February 15, 2016.


    This record is for historical purposes only. The Sparks! program has been absorbed into the National Leadership Grants program.

    Award Details

    Up to $250,000 is available for an anticipated 12 awards.  Individual awards will range from $10,000 to $25,000.  Cost sharing/matching is not required.  Project periods will extend up to 12-months, starting October 1, 2016.  

    Related Webcasts Use the links below to view the recorded playback of these webcasts


    • Funding Classroom Technology to Empower Students and Teachers - Sponsored by Panasonic - Playback Available
    • Maximizing Technology-friendly Workforce Development Grants - Sponsored by Panasonic - Playback Available
    • Funding Data-driven Workforce Development Projects - Sponsored by NetApp - Playback Available

 

You have not selected any grants to Add


Please select at least one grant to continue.


Selections Added


The selected grant has been added to your .



  Okay  

Research Reports


One of the benefits of purchasing an UPstream® subscription is
generating professional research reports in Microsoft® Word or Adobe® PDF format
Generating research reports allows you to capture all the grant data as
well as a nice set of instructions on how to read these reports


Watchlists and Grant Progress


With an UPstream® subscription you can add grants to your
own personal Watchlist. By adding grants to your watchlist, you will
receive emails about updates to your grants, be able to track your
grant's progress from watching to awards, and can easily manage any
step in the process through simplified workflows.

Email this Grant


With an UPstream® subscription, you can email grant details, a research report,
and relevant links to yourself or others so that you never lose your
details again. Emailing grants is a great way to keep a copy of the
current details so that when you are ready to start seeking funding
you already know where to go