Sparks! Ignition Grants for Libraries and Museums

The summary for the Sparks! Ignition Grants for Libraries and Museums 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 and Museums: The citizens and communities served by libraries, archives, and museums now are offered an increasing variety of choice for information sources and services. In this environment, cultural heritage organizations are challenged to respond to changing user needs and expectations, and to make more productive use of the money, staff, and other resources they are given to serve their users. Innovation will be a key determinant of their success.The IMLS Sparks! Ignition Grants for Libraries and Museums are a new IMLS funding opportunity within the National Leadership Grants program. These grants encourage libraries, archives, and museums to challenge existing assumptions about how they operate and the services they provide. These small grants support the deployment, testing, and evaluation of promising and groundbreaking new tools, products, services, or organizational practices. Applicants may propose activities or approaches that involve risk, as long as the risk is balanced by significant potential for improvement in the ways cultural heritage institutions serve their communities.Successful proposals will address problems, challenges, or needs of broad relevance to libraries, archives, and/or museums, will test innovative responses to these problems, and will make the findings of these tests widely and openly accessible.