Privacy & Terms of Use

Privacy

We don’t collect personal information when you visit our website unless you choose to provide that information. If you have questions regarding our privacy policy or use of personal information, see our Privacy Program.

Information Collected and Stored Automatically

When you visit our website, we may store some or all of the following using “cookie” technology (learn more below in the ‘Cookies’ section): the Internet protocol address from which you access the website, date and time, the name of the site from which you linked to IMLS.gov, the name of the file or words you searched, items clicked on a page, and the browser and operating system used.

We use this information to measure the number of visitors to the various sections of our site and identify system performance or problem areas. We also use it to help develop the site, analyze patterns of usage, and to make the site more useful.

We do not use the acquired data to associate search terms or patterns of site navigation with individual users. We may anonymize and provide this information to third party entities for research analysis. We do not share or sell visitor data for the purposes of advertising, marketing, or any other commercial purpose.

Cookies

Like many websites, we use "persistent cookie" technology. A persistent cookie is a small text file that this website places on your web browser so that it can gather anonymous summary demographic information, and remember your browser when it is used to visit our site again later. These cookies uniquely identify a browser on a computer, but never a person or any associated PII.

We use persistent cookies in the following ways:

• To get aggregate metrics on site usage to understand how people are using the site and how we can make it better. Government agencies only ever receive traffic statistics anonymously and in the aggregate.

• To gather anonymous summary demographic information about our visitors, such as gender, age range, and areas of interest for adults over the age of 18. We do this by using Google Demographic and Interests reports. When you visit a website that has partnered with the Google Display Network, Google stores a number in your browser using a persistent cookie to remember your visits. This number uniquely identifies a web browser, not a specific person. Browsers may be associated with a demographic category, such as gender or age range, based on the sites that were visited. This demographic information is used to help us better understand our visitors' interests and needs to more effectively develop content to serve you.

• To remember your browser if you come back to the site so we don't invite you to take our customer satisfaction survey every time you visit. Our customer satisfaction survey uses a persistent cookie to ensure we won’t invite you to take a customer satisfaction survey within 90 days of completing a survey.

Most browsers automatically accept persistent cookies. Although using persistent cookies creates a much better experience for you, our website will also work without them.

If you don't want to accept cookies, you can edit your browser's options to stop accepting persistent cookies or to prompt you before accepting a cookie from the websites you visit. Here's general instructions on how you can disable and manage cookies on some of the most commonly used browsers.

If You Share Personal Information with Us

If you choose to provide us with personally identifiable information (PII) by subscribing to our newsletter(s), sending us an e-mail or message, or applying to serve as a peer reviewer, you consent to sharing your PII with us and we will use that information to register your subscription, respond to your e-mail or message, and/or review your application, respectively, as appropriate.

We will not share the information you share with us with another government department or agency without your written consent or at your written request, unless it is necessary to respond to your request, your request relates to that agency or government department, or it is legally required/ specifically authorized by law. We do not collect PII, or creates individual profiles, for commercial or marketing purposes. We also do not sell PII to third parties.

If You Use Our Grants Resources

We use several online systems to carry out our grant-making responsibilities. Use of these resources is voluntary, and we will use the information you submit solely for the reasons you provided it. If you apply for a grant online, we will use the personal information you submit to determine eligibility, review and evaluate the application, select successful applicants, and administer the award. Some peer reviewers will be from outside the agency, and we will take appropriate measures to protect the information we share with them. If you submit a report online, the information will be used to evaluate your project and for related government purposes. Excluding general routine uses as defined in the systems of record notice published by IMLS in the Federal Register, IMLS will not disclose the personal information you share with us through our grants resources without your written consent or at your written request, unless it is legally required or specifically authorized by law.

External Links

We provide links to other websites for your information and convenience. They are not intended to support private or commercial organizations or businesses.

Links to government and non-profit websites that share interests inherent to our mission are encouraged because of their general non-commercial, public-interest nature. Links to commercial domains are acceptable if supportive of users’ needs and relevant to our mission.

We reserve the right to review links and add or remove links at any time for any reason consistent with federal policy or agency guidelines.

We do not agree to reciprocal link arrangements except in limited cases such as formal partnerships.

Disclaimer of Endorsements

When you select a link to an external website, you will leave our website and are subject to the privacy and security policies of the external website.

• We do not control or guarantee the accuracy, relevance, timeliness, or completeness of information contained on an external website.

• We do not endorse the organizations sponsoring external websites and we do not endorse the views they express or the products/services they offer.

• We cannot authorize the use of copyrighted materials contained on external websites. Users must request such authorization from the sponsor of the external website.

• We are not responsible for transmissions users receive from external websites.

• We do not guarantee that external websites comply with Section 508 (accessibility requirements) of the Rehabilitation Act.

Commercial Downloads

The first time that you use an area of our website that requires software, you may see an invitation to download software or a plug-in from a commercial website. We do not endorse these sites or guarantee anything about their products. If you choose to download their products, carefully review their policies for details about their privacy and use policies.

Copyright

Most, but not all, material on IMLS’s website is considered a work of the U.S. Government, meaning the work was prepared by an IMLS officer or employee in the scope of their employment (17 U.S.C. § 105). These works are in the public domain, not subject to copyright restrictions, and may be copied and distributed without permission If you do reuse our work, acknowledgment of publication by the Institute of Museum and Library Services is appreciated (e.g., “Source: The Institute of Museum and Library Services, www.imls.gov”).

Please be aware that not all materials on our website are works of the U.S. Government. You may find documents, illustrations, photographs, or other resources contributed or licensed by private individuals, companies, or organizations and these may be protected by copyright laws. Transmission or reproduction of protected items beyond that allowed by fair use, requires the written permission of the copyright owners. We are unable to give copyright permission for any materials that are posted on our website for which the copyright is owned by a third party. If you would like to use these materials, please contact the copyright owner directly for permission. For more information about copyright law, please visit the web site for the Library of Congress, U.S. Copyright Office, www.copyright.gov.

If you have any more information about material on our website, or if you are the copyright holder and believe our website has not properly attributed your work or has used it without permission, we want to hear from you. Please contact ogc@imls.gov with your contact information and a link to the relevant content.

Security

For site security purposes and to ensure that this website remains available to all users, this government computer system employs commercial software programs to monitor network traffic to identify unauthorized attempts to upload or change information, or otherwise cause damage.

Except for authorized law enforcement investigations, no other attempts are made to identify individual users or their usage habits. Raw data logs are used for no other purposes and are scheduled for regular destruction in accordance with National Archives and Records Administration guidelines.

Unauthorized attempts to upload information or change information on this service are strictly prohibited and may be punishable under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986 and the National Information Infrastructure Protection Act of 1996.

Social Media

We manage a presence on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Linkedin and others to share government information, and engage with the public. We do not collect any PII through those sites, and we do not use any PII made available to us by the third-party sites.

Comments and Posts

We welcome your participation and comments on our social media pages and sites as outlined in our Commenting and Posting Policy.

Last Updated: February 2025