Library & Museum Funding Opportunities

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2013-03-19T17:05:00.001-07:00

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Small Grants to Libraries (NEH)

2011-12-15T16:02:00.000-08:00

America’s Music: A Film History of Our Popular Music from Blues to Bluegrass to Broadway is a six-week public program featuring documentary film screenings and scholar-led discussions of twentieth-century American popular music. The six sessions focus on these uniquely American musical genres: blues and gospel, Broadway, jazz, bluegrass and country, rock n’ roll, and mambo and hip hop. The project will provide DVDs of compelling documentary films, discussion guidelines, original essays by eminent scholars, extensive resource guides, and Web support. The project will offer participating organizations training in how to organize, promote, and run the series successfully. All libraries and nonprofit organizations selected to implement the public program will receive grants of $2,500 for project expenses. Fifty organizations (libraries and other eligible nonprofits) will be selected to receive a grant to present this series of community programs on the history of American popular music. The grantee institutions are expected to offer the programs between January 1, 2013, and December 31, 2013.

Amount: $2,500

Date due: March 14, 2012

For more information, click here.

Sparks! Ignitition Grants for Libraries

2011-12-06T15:28:00.000-08:00

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.

Amount: $25,000

Date due: February 12, 2012

For more information, click here.

ALA Library grant to host exhibit

2011-03-03T11:42:00.000-08:00

The American Library Association Public Programs Office, the Folger Shakespeare Library, and the National Endowment for the Humanities invite public, academic, and special libraries to apply to host "Manifold Greatness: The Creation and Afterlife of the King James Bible," a traveling exhibition to America's libraries.

Created to mark the 400th anniversary of the first printing of the King James Bible, the exhibition tells the story of the origins, creation, and impact of the King James Bible, including its influence on English and American literature and its multifaceted impact on culture and society up to the present day. Three copies of the exhibit will travel to forty libraries from the fall of 2011 through the winter of 2013.

Successful applicants will host the exhibit for a four-week period between the fall of 2011 and the winter of 2013 and will receive a $2,500 grant from NEH for attendance at an exhibit-planning workshop and other exhibit-related expenses. Participating libraries are expected to present at least two free public programs featuring a lecture or discussion by a qualified scholar on exhibition themes.

Due: April 5, 2011

For more information, click here.

Preservation and Access Research and Development Grants

2011-02-28T16:00:00.000-08:00

Preservation and Access Research and Development grants support projects that address major challenges in preserving or providing access to humanities collections and resources. These challenges include the need to find better ways to preserve materials of critical importance to the nation’s cultural heritage—from fragile artifacts and manuscripts to analog recordings and digital assets subject to technological obsolescence—and to develop advanced modes of searching, discovering, and using such materials. Applicants should define a specific problem, devise procedures and potential solutions, and explain how they would evaluate their projects and disseminate their findings. Project results must serve the needs of a significant segment of humanists. Eligible projects include the development of technical standards, best practices, and tools for preserving and creating access to humanities collections; the exploration of more effective scientific and technical methods of preserving humanities collections; the development of automated procedures and computational tools to integrate, analyze, and repurpose humanities data in disparate online resources; and the investigation and testing of new ways of providing digital access to humanities materials that are not easily digitized using current methods. NEH especially encourages applications that address the following topics: Digital Preservation: how to preserve digital humanities materials, including born-digital materials, for which there is no analog counterpart; Recorded Sound and Moving Image Collections: how to preserve and increase access to the record of the twentieth century contained in these formats; and Preventive Conservation: how to protect and slow the deterioration of humanities collections through the use of sustainable preservation strategies.

Amount: $350,000

Date due: May 19, 2011

For more information, click here.

ALA Awards

2011-01-07T12:11:00.000-08:00

The American Library Association has extended the deadline for a number of ALA-administered awards and grants, including the ALA Information Today Library of the Future Award, the Beta Phi Mu Award, the Gale Cengage Learning Financial Development Award, the Paul Howard Award for Courage, the Lippincott Award, and the Scholastic Library Publishing Award, to February 1, 2011.

The ALA Information Today Library of the Future Award honors a library, library consortium, group of librarians, or support organization for innovative planning for, applications of, or development of patron training programs about information technology in a library setting. The award includes $1,500 and a gold-framed citation.

The Beta Phi Mu Award is presented to a faculty member of a library school or an individual for distinguished service to education in librarianship. The award includes $1,000 and a gold-framed citation.

The Gale Cengage Learning Financial Development Award is given to a library organization that exhibited meritorious achievement in carrying out a library financial development project to secure new funding resources for a public or academic library. The award includes $2,500 and a gold-framed citation.

The Paul Howard Award for Courage is a bi-annual award consisting of $1,000 and a gold-framed citation of achievement honoring a librarian, library board, library group, or an individual who has exhibited unusual courage for the benefit of library programs or services.

The Joseph W. Lippincott Award is given to a librarian for distinguished service to the profession. To qualify, the librarian must display outstanding participation in professional library activities, notable published professional writing, or other significant activities on behalf of the profession. The award includes $1,000 and a gold-framed citation.

The Scholastic Library Publishing Award is an annual award consisting of $1,000 and a gold-framed citation presented to a librarian whose "unusual contribution to the stimulation and guidance of reading by children and young people" exemplifies outstanding achievement in the profession.

For more information, click here.

Electronic Records Projects

2010-12-16T09:25:00.000-08:00

The National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC), a part of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), supports projects that promote the preservation and use of America's documentary heritage essential to understanding our democracy, history, and culture. The Commission seeks proposals that will increase the capacity of archival repositories to create electronic records archives that preserve records of enduring historical value. The NHPRC supports efforts by archivists and records managers to meet the challenges of electronic records.

Projects must involve institutions that have already established archives and records management programs. We seek applications for start-up or collaborative projects:1. Start-up projects: Develop the capacity of institutions to prepare to capture and preserve electronic records, through program planning; OR 2. Collaborative projects: Establish and/or improve electronic records archives by engaging in effective and innovative collaborations. Most electronic records archives depend upon collaboration among archivists, record managers, and information technology specialists. Only a few organizations have all the required expertise, making training, collaboration and recruitment of new personnel essential components of electronic records archives. NHPRC strongly encourages applicants to include professional development components necessary for the success of the project. These may consist of basic or advanced electronic records and digital preservation training for archives staff, agency records managers, high level administrators, information technologists, and others. Projects cannot establish electronic document management systems that only manage born-digital records with limited retention periods. Projects in this category cannot digitize historical records. Applicants who wish to digitize records should refer to the Digitizing Historical Records announcement. Applications requesting support for these activities will be considered ineligible in this program.

Due Date: June 9, 2011

Amount: A grant normally is for 1 to 3 years and up to $300,000. Cost sharing is required. It is the financial contribution the applicant pledges to the cost of a project. Cost sharing can include both direct and indirect expenses, in-kind contributions, non-Federal third-party contributions, and any income earned directly by the project. The NHPRC will provide up to 50 percent of the total project costs.

For more information, click here.

National Historical Publications Historical Records grant

2010-06-03T15:05:00.000-07:00

The National Historical Publications and Records Commission seeks proposals to publish historical records of national significance. Projects may focus on the papers of major figures from American life or cover broad historical movements in politics, military, business, social reform, the arts, and other aspects of the national experience. The historical value of the records and their expected usefulness to broad audiences must justify the costs of the project. Grants are awarded for collecting, describing, preserving, compiling, editing, and publishing documentary source materials. The NHPRC does not fund proposals to purchase historical records; it also does not fund proposals to publish the papers of anyone who has been deceased for fewer than ten years. Eligible Activities Include: * Scholarly documentary editions in printed and bound volumes. * Scholarly documentary editions in online and other formats. * Image editions in online, microfilm, and other formats. * Conversion of existing print and microfilm editions to electronic publications. * Combinations of the above.

Amount: $250,000

Date due: October 7, 2010

For more information, click here.

National Historical Projects Basic Projects

2010-06-03T15:00:00.000-07:00

The National Historical Publications and Records Commission seeks proposals for fundamental archival activities that promote the preservation and use of America's documentary heritage. Proposals must demonstrate how the applicant employs the best and most cost-effective archival methods. Activities included under Basic Projects may be any one or combination of the following: 1. Basic Processing, 2. Preservation Planning, 3. Collections Development, and/or 4. Establishing Archives. Although projects focused exclusively on professional development are not eligible in this grant category, the Commission strongly encourages each application to include professional development components necessary for the success of the project.

Amount: $200,000

Date due: October 7, 2010

For more information, click here.

Library Support Program (Canada)

2010-05-21T16:13:00.000-07:00

The Library Support Program is designed to assist university libraries to strengthen their library holdings related to Canada in order to support teaching and research on Canada and/or Canada-U.S. relations. The International Council for Canadian Studies (ICCS), through the respective Canadian Consulate or the Embassy, will contribute up to $2,500 Canadian for library materials (books, journals, CD-ROMs, microforms) purchased by university libraries on a one-to-one matching grant basis. These funds will be available only for the purchase of library materials considered to be Canadiana and which are deemed by the Embassy of Canada or High Commission to qualify as having a specific bearing on the study of Canada and/or Canadian culture. The material has to be about Canada, published in Canada, and not out-of-print.

Amount: $2,500

For more information, click here.

Humanities Collections and Reference Resources

2010-04-15T13:00:00.000-07:00

The Humanities Collections and Reference Resources program supports projects that provide an essential foundation for scholarship, education, and public programming in the humanities. Thousands of libraries, archives, museums, and historical organizations across the country maintain important collections of books and manuscripts, photographs, sound recordings and moving images, archaeological and ethnographic artifacts, art and material culture, and digital objects. Funding from this program strengthens efforts to extend the life of such materials and make their intellectual content widely accessible, often through the use of digital technology. Awards are also made to create various reference resources that facilitate use of cultural materials, from works that provide basic information quickly to tools that synthesize and codify knowledge of a subject for in-depth investigation.

Applications may be submitted for projects that address one or more of the following activities: arranging and describing archival and manuscript collections; cataloging collections of printed works, photographs, recorded sound, moving images, art, and material culture; providing conservation treatment for collections (including mass deacidification); digitizing collections; preserving and improving access to born-digital sources; developing databases, virtual collections, or other electronic resources to codify information on a subject field or to provide integrated access to selected humanities materials; creating encyclopedias; preparing linguistic tools, such as historical and etymological dictionaries, corpora, and reference grammars (separate funding is available for endangered language projects in partnership with the National Science Foundation); developing tools for spatial analysis and representation of humanities data, such as atlases and geographical information systems (GIS); and designing digital tools to facilitate use of humanities resources.

Because ensuring the longevity of humanities sources is critical to enabling their ongoing use, applicants may request support for implementing preservation measures, such as reformatting (including microfilming), rehousing, or item-level conservation treatment, in the context of projects that also create or enhance access to humanities collections.

Amount: $350,000 (across 3 years)

Date due: July 15, 2010

For more information, click here.

Save America's Treasures

2010-04-07T15:31:00.000-07:00

Administered by the National Park Service in collaboration with the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, Save America's Treasures is an annual grant program designed to provide critical investments in the preservation of the nation's most significant and endangered cultural treasures.

Grants are available for preservation and/or conservation work on nationally significant intellectual and cultural artifacts and historic structures and sites. Intellectual and cultural artifacts include objects, collections, documents, sculpture, and works of art. Historic structures and sites include historic districts, lots, buildings, structures, and objects.

Amount: Varies

Date due: May 21, 2010

For more information, click here.

Hidden Collections Grants (pre-proposals)

2010-04-01T16:02:00.000-07:00

The Council on Library and Information Resources, an independent, nonprofit organization whose mission is to expand access to information, however recorded and preserved, has opened the pre-proposal application period for its Cataloging Hidden Special Collections and Archives grant program.

The program will award funds to institutions (including historical associations and societies as well as archives, museums, libraries, and other cultural heritage organizations) holding collections of high scholarly value that are difficult or impossible to locate through existing finding aids. Award recipients will create descriptive information for their hidden collections that will be linked to and interoperable with all other projects funded by this grant with the purpose of forming a federated environment that can be built upon over time. Funding for the program comes from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Amount: $75,000 - $500,000

Date due: April 23, 2010

For more information, visit the Council on Library and Information Resources.

ALA Diversity Research Grant

2010-02-05T15:19:00.000-08:00

The American Library Association's Office for Diversity seeks proposals for its Diversity Research Grant program. Since 2002, the ALA has sponsored the program to address critical gaps in the knowledge of diversity issues within library and information science.

Applicants must be current ALA members, and proposals must address one of three identified topics: upward mobility of library leaders from underrepresented populations; information services and collections for diverse children and young adults; and libraries and the meaning of multiculturalism. Only proposals demonstrating relevance to the 2010 research topics will be considered.

Amount: $2,000

Date due: April 30, 2010

For more information, click here.

Preservation Assistance Grant

2010-02-05T15:12:00.000-08:00

Preservation Assistance Grants help small and mid-sized institutions—such as libraries, museums, historical societies, archival repositories, cultural organizations, town and county records offices, and colleges and universities—improve their ability to preserve and care for their humanities collections. These may include special collections of books and journals, archives and manuscripts, prints and photographs, moving images, sound recordings, architectural and cartographic records, decorative and fine art objects, textiles, archaeological and ethnographic artifacts, furniture, historical objects, and digital materials.

Applicants must draw on the knowledge of consultants whose preservation skills and experience are related to the types of collections and the nature of the activities that are the focus of their projects. Within the conservation field, for example, conservators usually specialize in the care of specific types of collections, such as objects, paper, or paintings. Applicants should therefore choose a conservator whose specialty is appropriate for the nature of their collections. Similarly, when assessing the preservation needs of archival holdings, applicants must seek a consultant specifically knowledgeable about archives and preservation. Because the organization and the preservation of archival collections must be approached in tandem, an archival consultant should also provide advice about the management and processing needs of such holdings as part of a preservation assessment that includes long-term plans for the arrangement and description of archival collections.

Amount: $6,000 for 18 months

Date due: May 18, 2010

For more information, click here.

Access to Artistic Excellence (Museums)

2010-01-13T17:22:00.000-08:00

Access to Artistic Excellence encourages and supports artistic creativity, preserves our diverse cultural heritage, and makes the arts more widely available in communities throughout the country. This category supports

Presentation of artistic works of all cultures and periods.

Preservation of significant works of art and cultural traditions.

Enabling arts organizations and artists to expand and diversify their audiences.

Amount: $150,000

Date due: March 11 or August 12 (depending upon focus)

For more information, click here.

21st Century Museum Professionals grant

2010-01-11T12:59:00.000-08:00

The Institute of Museum and Library Services is calling for proposals from museums, museum service organizations, and universities for projects that will enhance the professional development of museum staff. The 21st Century Museum Professionals grants are intended to have an impact on multiple institutions by reaching broad groups of museum professionals.

Funding will support projects involving core management skills such as planning, leadership, finance, program design, partnership, and evaluation. Projects may also focus on collections care and management, interpretation, marketing and audience development, staff retention, visitor services, governance, and other areas of museum operations. Additionally, IMLS encourages applicants to review its report, "Museums, Libraries, and 21st Century Skills," and respond with project proposals that address competence in such 21st century skill areas as information, communications, and technology literacy; critical thinking; problem solving; creativity; civic literacy; and global awareness.

Amount: $15,000 - $500,000

Date due: March 15, 2010

For more information, click here.

Native American Research grant

2010-01-11T12:46:00.000-08:00

The Phillips Fund for Native American Research provides grants for research in Native American linguistics, ethnohistory, and the history of studies of Native Americans in the continental United States and Canada. Grants are not made for projects in archaeology, ethnography, psycholinguistics, or for the preparation of pedagogical materials.

Amount: $2,500 - $3,500

Date due: March 1, 2010

For more information, click here.

NASA Space Shuttle Artifacts Available for Libraries

2009-11-18T16:09:00.000-08:00

The Institute of Museum and Library Services invites museums and libraries to apply for free NASA space shuttle artifacts, including small items such as astronaut helmets, gloves, and boots, and large items such as shuttle motion-based simulators and crew compartment trainers. NASA will retire the Space Shuttle Program at the end of 2010, and seeks to help the public learn about space exploration through museum and library exhibitions.

The artifacts are free, but eligible recipients must cover shipping and special handling fees. Shipping fees on smaller items will be relatively inexpensive, while larger items may involve extensive disassembly, preparation, shipping, and reassembly costs.

Date due: November 29, 2009; January 2010 (TBD)

For more information, click here.

Digital Humanities Start-Up Grants

2009-11-18T15:50:00.001-08:00

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) invites applications to the Digital Humanities Start-Up Grants program. These grants should result in plans, prototypes, or proofs of concept for long-term digital humanities projects prior to implementation.

Amount: $5,000 - $25,000 (Level I); $25,001 - $50,000 (Level II)

Date due: March 23, 2010

Two levels of awards are available: (1) Level I awards are small grants designed to fund brainstorming sessions, workshops, early alpha-level prototypes, and initial planning; (2) Level II awards are larger grants that can be used for more fully-formed projects that are ready to begin implementation or the creation of working prototypes.

For more information, click here.

Institutes for Advanced Topics in Digital Humanities

2009-11-10T11:36:00.000-08:00

These NEH grants support national or regional (multistate) training programs for scholars and advanced graduate students to broaden and extend their knowledge of digital humanities. Through these programs, NEH seeks to increase the number of humanities scholars using digital technology in their research and to broadly disseminate knowledge about advanced technology tools and methodologies relevant to the humanities.

Amount: $50,000 - $250,000

Date due: February 17, 2010

The projects may be a single opportunity or offered multiple times to different audiences. Institutes may be as short as a few days and held at multiple locations or as long as six weeks at a single site. The duration of a program should allow for full and thorough treatment of the topic.

For more information, click here.

National Museum of the American Indian Grants Programs

2009-11-05T16:46:00.001-08:00

The National Museum of the American Indian's Indigenous Contemporary Arts Programoffers support to a wide range of arts activities with the goal of increasing the knowledge, understanding, and appreciation of contemporary Native American arts. The NMAI considers the recognition of living artists of the Western Hemisphere and Hawaii to be of primary importance and will give awards to projects that strengthen the scholarship in this underserved field and create opportunities for new and innovative work.

Amount: $7,500 - $15,000

Date due: January 11, 2010

NMAI's Exhibitions and Publications program awards grants of $7,500 to $15,000 to support exhibitions, installations, publications, and critical writing that interpret and present the work of contemporary Native visual artists to the public and encourage dialogue and critical commentary. At least one-half of the proposed project team (artists, authors, curators, etc.) must be Native American or Native Hawaiian.

NMAI's Expressive Arts program awards grants of up to $10,000 to support the creation and presentation of new works through the collaboration of two or more Native artists. Awards will specifically support the creation of new works for public performance that may include, but is not limited to, music, dance, spoken word, electronic media, costume design, mask making, set design, performance art, photography, painting, and other forms of expressive culture. The award is open to all indigenous peoples who hold citizenship in the Americas.

For more information, click here.

Interpreting America's Historic Places: Planning Grants

2009-11-05T14:37:00.001-08:00

Interpreting America’s Historic Places grants support public humanities projects that exploit the evocative power of historic places to explore stories, ideas, and beliefs that deepen our understanding of our lives and our world. The Division of Public Programs supports the development of humanities content and interactivity that excite, inform, and stir thoughtful reflection upon culture, identity, and history in creative and new ways. Interpreting America’s Historic Places projects may interpret a single historic site or house, a series of sites, an entire neighborhood, a town or community, or a larger geographical region. Grants for Interpreting America’s Historic Places should encourage dialogue, discussion, and civic engagement, and they should foster learning among people of all ages. To that end, the Division of Public Programs urges applicants to consider more than one format for presenting humanities ideas to the public.

Amount: $40,000 - $75,000

Date due: January 13, 2010

Planning grants are available for those projects that may need further development before applying for implementation. This planning can include the identification and refinement of the project’s main humanities ideas and questions, consultation with scholars in order to strengthen the humanities content, preliminary audience evaluation, preliminary design of the proposed interpretive formats, beta testing of digital formats, development of complementary programming, research at archives or sites whose resources might be used, or the drafting of interpretive materials.

For more information, click here.

National Leadership Grants (Libraries)

2009-10-28T15:11:00.000-07:00

National Leadership Grants support projects that have the potential to elevate museum and library practice. The Institute seeks to advance the ability of museums and libraries to preserve culture, heritage and knowledge while enhancing learning. IMLS welcomes proposals that promote the skills necessary to develop 21st century communities, citizens, and workers. Successful proposals will have national impact and generate results—new tools, research, models, services, practices, or alliances—that can be widely adapted or replicated to extend the benefit of federal investment.

Amount: $50,000 - $1m (3 years)

Date due: February 1, 2010

Competitive applications describe projects that will produce programs, collections, research findings, and/or tools that will have strategic impact, demonstrate innovation, produce models for collaboration, and actively disseminate project results. Four categories are represented: advancing digital resources, research, demonstration, and library-museum collaboration.

For more information, click here.

ALA Research Grant

2009-10-23T15:31:00.001-07:00

The American Library Association's Office for Research and Statistics is accepting applications for the Carroll Preston Baber Research Grant. The grant is given to one or more librarians or library educators conducting innovative research that could lead to an improvement in services to any specified group of people.

Amount: $3,000

Date due: December 1, 2009

A grant of up to $3,000 will be given to a proposed project that aims to answer a question of vital importance to the national library community. Any ALA member may apply, and the jury welcomes projects that involve both a practicing librarian and a researcher.

For more information, click here.