Sparks! Ignition Grants for Libraries

The summary for the Sparks! Ignition Grants for Libraries grant is detailed below. This summary states who is eligible for the grant, how much grant money will be awarded, current and past deadlines, Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) numbers, and a sampling of similar government grants. Verify the accuracy of the data FederalGrants.com provides by visiting the webpage noted in the Link to Full Announcement section or by contacting the appropriate person listed as the Grant Announcement Contact. If any section is incomplete, please visit the website for the Institute of Museum and Library Services, which is the U.S. government agency offering this grant.

Sparks! Ignition Grants for Libraries: 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, as long as the project results – be they success, failure, or a combination thereof – offer valuable information to the library field and the potential for improvement in the ways libraries serve their communities. You are required to submit a short white paper, with the results of your work to be publicly posted and shared with the field.

Federal Grant Title:	Sparks! Ignition Grants for Libraries
Federal Agency Name:	Institute of Museum and Library Services
Grant Categories:	Arts Humanities
Type of Opportunity:	Discretionary
Funding Opportunity Number:	SPARKS-LIBRARIES-FY14
Type of Funding:	Grant
CFDA Numbers:	45.312
CFDA Descriptions:	National Leadership Grants
Current Application Deadline:	Feb 3, 2014
Original Application Deadline:	Feb 3, 2014
Posted Date:	Nov 14, 2013
Creation Date:	Nov 14, 2013
Archive Date:	Mar 5, 2014
Total Program Funding:	$300,000
Maximum Federal Grant Award:	$25,000
Minimum Federal Grant Award:	$10,000
Expected Number of Awards:	12
Cost Sharing or Matching:	No

Applicants Eligible for this Grant: Others (see text field entitled "Additional Information on Eligibility" for clarification)
Additional Information on Eligibility: To be eligible for an award under the FY2014 Sparks! Ignition Grants for Libraries program, you must meet all three of the following criteria:
• You must be either a unit of state or local government or a private nonprofit organization that has tax-exempt status under the Internal Revenue Code.
• You must be located in one of the 50 States of the United States of America, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, or the Republic of Palau.
• You must qualify as one of the following types of organizations: 1. 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, under the supervision of at least one permanent professional staff person, must 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.
2. 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 (see (20 USC 9122(1)(E)).
3. 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.
4. 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 person.
5. 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;
6. 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.
7. 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.
Link to Full Grant Announcement: http://www.imls.gov/applicants/detail.aspx?GrantId=19
Grant Announcement Contact: Robert Horton Associate Deputy Director for Library Services 202-653-4660 [email protected] Kathy Mitchell Program Specialist 202-653-4687 [email protected]
[email protected]

Institute of Museum and Library Services 202-653-4629
Similar Government Grants: • National Leadership Grants for Museums (2024); • National Leadership Grants for Libraries (2024); • National Leadership Grants for Museums (2023); • National Leadership Grants for Libraries (2023); • National Leadership Grants for Libraries (2022); • Connecting to Collections - State Planning Grants; • National Leadership Grants; • Build and Share Knowledge of Good Practice
More Grants from the Institute of Museum and Library Services: • Native American Library Services Enhancement Grants (2024); • Native Hawaiian Library Services Grants (2024); • 21st Century Museum Professionals Program (2024); • Native American Library Services Basic Grant (2024); • American Latino Museum Internship and Fellowship Initiative (2024)