Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program

Deadline: September 20, 2024
Application: The FY 2025 Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) (PDF, 1MB) is now available.

Program Overview: The Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program (LB21) supports the training and professional development of library and archives professionals; developing faculty and information leaders; and recruiting, educating, and retaining the next generation of library and archives professionals in order to develop a diverse library and archival workforce and meet the information needs of their communities.

The program supports projects that:

• Develop or enhance practices, programs, or initiatives encouraging diverse or underrepresented students to pursue careers in library and information science;
• Develop or enhance initiatives, programs, or curricula to increase the capacity of institutions to educate or retain diverse or underrepresented library and information science students;
• Develop or enhance professional development and training programs to enable the library and archival workforce to meet the needs of their communities; or
• Support the research of untenured, tenure-track library and information science faculty, furthering the faculty member’s long-term research agenda, career trajectory, and professional development.

Application Process: The application process for the LB21 program has two phases; applicants must begin by applying for Phase I. For Phase I, all applicants must submit Preliminary Proposals by the September 20th deadline listed for this Notice of Funding Opportunity. For Phase II, only selected applicants will be invited to submit Full Proposals, and only those Invited Full Proposals will be considered for funding. Invited Full Proposals will be due March 10, 2025*.

Award Amount and Cost Share Requirement: Award amounts and cost share requirements are as follows:

Cost sharing is not considered in the peer review of applications but is an eligibility criterion for certain LB21 project types. See the Notice of Funding Opportunity for further information on cost share.

Grant Period: One to two years for Planning Grants, Forum Grants, and Community-Centered Implementation Grants. One to three years for National Implementation Grants, Applied Research Grants, and Early Career Research Grants.

Eligibility: See the Notice of Funding Opportunity for eligibility criteria for this program.

Program Contacts: We encourage all applicants to contact the member of our team whose portfolio most closely aligns with your proposal. In order for us to best support you, please be in touch early in the application process and prior to submitting an application. We also encourage all applicants to view the IMLS Awarded Grants database to see projects IMLS has recently funded in this program.

If you have general questions, please contact imls-librarygrants@imls.gov. Download the Quick Guide to IMLS Library Grants - Discretionary Programs.

Grant Program Webinar: We invite you to watch a pre-application webinar to learn more about the program.

*All grant programs are subject to the availability of funds and IMLS discretion.