CFP: http://imls.gov/applicants/grants/21centuryLibrarian.shtm
Deadline: 12/15/2008
Award amounts: $50,000 – $1,000,000
Project duration: 3-4 years
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Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program
Application forms and guidelines for the current fiscal year are made available approximately 90 days before the grant deadline. Until that time, applications and guidelines from the previous year are available for your reference, but you must use the current fiscal year application when you apply.
2008 Grant Program Guidelines (PDF, 436KB)
Grants.gov Instructions
Frequently Asked Questions about the IMLS Early Careers Development Program (PDF, 58KB)
FY 2009 Deadline: December 15, 2008
Grant Amount: $50,000–$1,000,000
Grant Period: Up to three years, except for doctoral program projects, which may be up to four years
Matching Requirement: Fifty percent of total project costs. Funds requested for student support and for research projects are not subject to matching requirements.
Program Contacts:
Kevin Cherry, Senior Program Officer
Phone: 202/653-4662
E-mail: kcherry@imls.gov
Karmen Bisher, Program Specialist
Phone: 202/653-4664
E-mail: kbisher@imls.gov
Program Overview
This program supports projects to develop faculty and library leaders, to recruit and educate the next generation of librarians, to conduct research on the library profession, and to support early career research on any area of library and information science by tenure-track, untenured faculty in graduate schools of library and information science. It also supports projects to attract high school and college students to consider careers in libraries, to build institutional capacity in graduate schools of library and information science, and to assist in the professional development of librarians and library staff.
Categories of funding are as follows:
Doctoral Programs
• Develop faculty to educate the next generation of library professionals. In particular, increase the number of students enrolled in doctoral programs that will prepare faculty to teach master’s students who will work in school, public, and academic libraries.
• Develop the next generation of library leaders. In particular, increase the number of students enrolled in doctoral programs that will prepare them to assume positions as library managers and administrators.
Master’s Level Programs
• Educate the next generation of librarians. In particular, increase the number of students enrolled in nationally accredited graduate library programs preparing for careers of service in libraries.
Research
• Support the early career development of new faculty members who are likely to become leaders in library and information science by supporting innovative research by untenured, tenure-track faculty. See Program Guidelines for specific eligibility criteria. Proposed research should be in the investigator’s own field of inquiry and need not relate to library education or librarianship as a career. For more information on the early career development program, contact Stephanie Clark at sclark@imls.gov and see Special Conditions of Eligibility for Institutions of Higher Education in the program guidelines. See also Frequently Asked Questions About the IMLS Early Careers Development Program.
• Provide the library community with information needed to support successful recruitment and education of the next generation of librarians. In particular, through funded research, establish baseline data on professional demographics and job availability, and evaluate current programs in library education for their capacity to meet the identified needs.
• Conduct research and establish ongoing research capacity in the field of library and information science, particularly the evaluation of library and information services, assessment of the value and use of public libraries and their services by the public, and assessment of the public value and use of the Internet.
Pre-Professional Programs
• Recruit future professionals in library and information science. In particular, attract promising junior high, high school of college students to consider careers in library and information science through statewide or regional pilot projects employing recruitment strategies that are cost-effective and measurable.
• Introduce high school or college students to potential careers in library and information science by employing them to assist with library disaster recovery or service operations in areas that have suffered major disasters. Participation of at least one library, as the applicant or as an official partner, in a location certified by the Federal Emergency Management Agency as a major disaster area in 2005 or 2006, is required.
Programs to Build Institutional Capacity
• Develop or enhance curricula within graduate schools of library and information science. In particular:
• Develop or enhance courses or programs of study for library, museum, and archives professionals in the creation, management, preservation, presentation, and use of digital assets.
• Develop or enhance courses or programs of study related to the development of critical thinking skills, such as organization leadership and research methods.
• Broaden the library and information science curriculum by incorporating perspectives from other disciplines and fields of scholarship, such as public policy, ethics, American studies, urban planning, mass communication, and instructional design.
• Develop projects or programs in data curation as training programs for graduate students in library and information science. Data curation includes the authentication, archiving, management, preservation, retrieval and representation of high-quality digital data for use and re-use over time. No limitations on topic or data format are imposed. Successful proposals will involve collaborations with existing data repositories of sufficient scale and complexity to provide a rich testbed for education and investigation. Collaborations with repositories or programs within the same institution as the applicant are permitted. One or more awards may be made.
Continuing Education
• Develop or enhance programs of continuing education and training in library and information science for librarians and library staff.
• Develop or enhance programs to enable librarians and library staff to improve services to audiences with special needs such as youth at risk, seniors, and those with language, physical or other barriers to service.
• Develop or enhance programs to promote collaboration between educators and librarians employed in educational institutions.
• Provide internships in conservation practice in libraries that have suffered disaster-related collections damage. Participation of at least one library, as the applicant or as an official partner, in a location certified by the Federal Emergency Management Agency as a major disaster area in 2005 or 2006, is required.
Eligibility
All types of libraries, except federal and for profit libraries, may apply. Eligible libraries include public, school, academic, special, private (not-for-profit), archives, library agencies, library consortia, and library associations. In addition, research libraries that give the public access to services and materials suitable for scholarly research not otherwise available to the public and that are not part of a university or college are eligible. Institutions of higher education, including public and not-for-profit universities and colleges, also are eligible. Graduate schools of library and information science may apply as part of an institution of higher education. See Program Guidelines for specific eligibility criteria.
Special Conditions of Eligibility for Institutions of Higher Education
In addition to all eligible applicants listed above, institutions of higher education as noted under Categories 1, 2, 4, and 5 are eligible to apply with these special conditions:
Doctoral Programs
• All graduate schools of library and information science offering programs of study at the doctoral level are eligible to apply for funding of doctoral-level scholarships and fellowships, either individually or in a partnership.
Master’s Programs
• Graduate schools of library and information science or school library media certification programs are eligible to apply for funds to educate students at the master’s level if they apply in a partnership that includes one or more eligible library entities. Any of the eligible applicants in the partnership may serve as the lead applicant.
Research
• For early career development projects, see Frequently Asked Questions about the IMLS Early Career Development Program.
• For all other research projects, all eligible library entities may apply, either individually or in a partnership.
Programs to Build Institutional Capacity
• All graduate schools of library and information science are eligible to apply for funding to build institutional capacity, either individually or in a partnership.
