Library Sciences


Library Sciences

Sparks! Ignition Grants for Libraries and Museums – FY12 Guidelines
Application Deadline: February 1, 2012
(Projects must begin August 1, September 1, or October 1, 2012.)

Website: http://www.imls.gov/applicants/sparks_ignition_grants_guidelines.aspx

Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) Number: 45.312

What are Sparks! Ignition Grants for Libraries and Museums?

The Sparks Grants are a special funding opportunity within the IMLS National Leadership
Grants program. These small grants encourage libraries, museums, and archives to test and
evaluate specific innovations in the ways they operate and the services they provide. Sparks
Grants support the deployment, testing, and evaluation of promising and groundbreaking new
tools, products, services, or organizational practices. You may propose activities or approaches
that involve risk, as long as the risk is balanced by significant potential for improvement.
Eligible institutions of all sizes and types are encouraged to apply.
Successful proposals will address problems, challenges, or needs of broad relevance to libraries,
museums, and/or archives. A proposed project should test and evaluate a specific, innovative
response to the identified problem and present a plan to make the findings widely and openly
accessible.
To maximize the public benefit from federal investments in these grants, the Sparks Grants will
fund only projects with the following characteristics:
Broad Potential Impact - You should identify a specific problem or need that is relevant to
many libraries, archives, and/or museums, and propose a testable and measurable solution.
Proposals must demonstrate a thorough understanding of current issues and practices in the
project’s focus area and discuss its potential impact within libraries, archives, and/or museums.
Proposed innovations should be widely adoptable or adaptable.
Significant Innovation—The proposed solution to the identified problem must offer strong
potential for non-incremental, significant advancement in the operation of libraries, archives,
and/or museums. You must explain how the proposed activity differs from current practices or
exploits an unexplored opportunity, and the potential benefit to be gained by this innovation.
The Sparks Grants are designed to foster broad sharing of information about project findings.
Successful proposals are expected to include communication plans that exploit multiple media
and technologies to share project information with targeted audiences.

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