June 7, 2016
By Tim Carrigan
Senior Program Officer, IMLS
IMLS recently announced the recipients of National Leadership Grants for Libraries (NLG-L) from our fall 2015 application deadline, and over the past few weeks, our colleagues Trevor Owens and Emily Reynolds have highlighted projects aligned with the agency’s National Digital Platform funding priority in a four-part blog series. Switching gear slightly, we wanted to spotlight our new grantees whose projects respond to our Learning in Libraries priority.
This funding cycle, applicants submitting proposals in the Learning in Libraries category were asked to align their project activities with the recommendations of an IMLS Focus convening held at the Kansas City Public Library in May 2015. Our colleagues at OCLC Research compiled a report summarizing and synthesizing the day’s proceedings, which identified four key recommendations for future applicants to consider addressing in their proposals. These recommendations included:
- Connecting LIS education and professional development opportunities to 21st Century librarianship;
- Pursuing research that connects with library practice;
- Designing participator learning programs that demonstrate innovation and scalability; and,
- Developing cross-disciplinary collaborations that advance library services nationwide.
From this round of competition, four project proposals were selected for funding which addressed these recommendations. These grants advance a diverse yet critical set of challenges and opportunities facing libraries and the communities they serve nationwide, such as demonstrating new models for youth engagement; fostering integrated community solutions for workforce development and adult education; supporting small and rural libraries in adoption of emerging theories and practices, such as placemaking and human-centered design; and fully leveraging library services to improve educational achievement of low-income children. They underscore the critical role of libraries as community anchors focused on supporting lifelong learning.
If you’re interested in learning more about any of these exciting projects, click on their IMLS log number for links to components of their grant application and stay tuned for upcoming blog posts focused on professional development and research projects.
Providence Public Library – LibraryU
(LG-80-16-0067-16)
$529,997.00
Providence Public Library and its local and national partners will develop, implement, and disseminate a high-impact teen workforce development collective impact program model called LibraryU. Locally, the project will support more than 600 underserved teens who will receive free, accessible, high-quality competency-based learning opportunities, leading to digital credentials (that acknowledging participant achievement in a topic), academic credit, exposure to the world of work, and entry into education and career pathways. The project will demonstrate the important leadership role public libraries can play in communities to provide teen workforce education and increase employment and will disseminate this new model nationally, including program tools, curricula, and guidance needed to extend the program in other libraries.
Urban Libraries Council - National Forum on Closing the Opportunity Gap for Early Readers
(LG-83-16-0068-16)
$94,435.00
Urban Libraries Council, in partnership with the Council of the Great City Schools, will convene a national forum on public libraries expanding access to educational opportunities for K-3rd grade students from low-income communities. The forum will foster conversation among public library leaders, school leaders, local community leaders, and national school networks and national community development organizations that have a shared concern for the educational achievement of low-income children. Together, these leaders will identify areas of opportunity, gaps in knowledge, and strategic school-library-community partnerships that lead to increased access to and attainment of literacy supports and learning opportunities by children most in need of these resources. The Forum will help library, school, and community leaders identify on-going strategies, local partnerships, and resources to ensure early-grade children from low-income communities receive literacy supports and learning opportunities available via public libraries. The Campaign for Grade-Level Reading will serve as a strategic advisor on the project.
OCLC Online Computer Library – Small Libraries Create Smart Spaces
(LG-80-16-0039-16)
Award: $249,710.00
OCLC, in partnership with the Association of Small and Rural Libraries, will guide a cohort of fifteen libraries serving populations less than 25,000 through planning and implementation of flexible spaces which support participatory learning and underscore libraries' role as critical community anchor organizations. Participating libraries will be introduced to the principles of placemaking, community engagement, and human-centered space design. After conducting community input, action planning, and prototype activities, the libraries will implement a learning space using a starter set of materials. In partnership with their local communities, these libraries will reimagine and reconfigure their spaces to support socially engaging and active programming. Resources, process, and experiences of the cohort will be evaluated for effectiveness and scalability; case studies and associated content will be shared broadly on WebJunction.
Free Library of Philadelphia (Free Library Foundation) - Transforming Library Services to the Jobseeker through Collective Impact
(LG-80-16-0061-16)
$543,618.00
The Free Library of Philadelphia, in partnership with nine community agencies, will develop a model for how public libraries can fully integrate their work with the broader systems of workforce development and adult education. The project will utilize a collective impact approach, emphasizing mutually reinforcing activities, shared measurement systems, and continuous communication, to drive social change. The work of the partners will be centered in the Paschalville neighborhood in Southwest Philadelphia, which is characterized by extreme poverty, high unemployment, and low levels of educational obtainment. The project will have a special focus on serving the needs of residents from immigrant/refugee communities or who have a history of incarceration. Building on a prior planning grant, the Free Library and its partners will share the model nationally with the library profession and social service sector.
Editor’s Note: Tim Carrigan is a senior program officer in the IMLS Office of Library Services. He can be reached at tcarrigan@imls.gov