National Leadership Grants for Libraries

National Leadership Grants for Libraries (NLG) support projects that address significant challenges and opportunities facing the library and archive fields and that have the potential to advance theory and practice. Successful proposals will generate results such as new tools, research findings, models, services, practices, or alliances that will be widely used, adapted, scaled, or replicated to extend the benefits of federal investment.

To be eligible for National Leadership Grants for Libraries Program, 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: be located in one of the 50 States of the United States of America, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, or the Republic of Palau; 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 (including community 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; Public elementary and secondary school libraries; 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 U.S.C. 9121-9165); 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 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. Native American tribal organizations may apply if they otherwise meet the above eligibility requirements.

Tim Carrigan, Senior Program Officer, 202-653-4639, tcarrigan@imls.gov; Sarah Fuller, Program Officer, 202-653-4783, sfuller@imls.gov; Sandra Toro, PhD, Senior Program Officer, 202-653-4662, storo@imls.gov; Trevor Owens, PhD, Supervisory Senior Program Officer, 202-653-4654, tjowens@imls.gov; James Neal, Senior Program Officer, 202-653-4740, jneal@imls.gov; Emily Reynolds, Program Officer, 202-635-4665, ereynolds@imls.gov; Ashley Sands, Senior Program Officer, 202-653-4730, asands@imls.gov