NASA Space Shuttle Artifacts Available for Libraries

The Institute of Museum and Library Services invites museums and libraries to apply for free NASA space shuttle artifacts, including small items such as astronaut helmets, gloves, and boots, and large items such as shuttle motion-based simulators and crew compartment trainers. NASA will retire the Space Shuttle Program at the end of 2010, and seeks to help the public learn about space exploration through museum and library exhibitions.

The artifacts are free, but eligible recipients must cover shipping and special handling fees. Shipping fees on smaller items will be relatively inexpensive, while larger items may involve extensive disassembly, preparation, shipping, and reassembly costs.

Date due: November 29, 2009; January 2010 (TBD)

For more information, click here.

Digital Humanities Start-Up Grants

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) invites applications to the Digital Humanities Start-Up Grants program. These grants should result in plans, prototypes, or proofs of concept for long-term digital humanities projects prior to implementation.

Amount: $5,000 - $25,000 (Level I); $25,001 - $50,000 (Level II)

Date due: March 23, 2010

Two levels of awards are available: (1) Level I awards are small grants designed to fund brainstorming sessions, workshops, early alpha-level prototypes, and initial planning; (2) Level II awards are larger grants that can be used for more fully-formed projects that are ready to begin implementation or the creation of working prototypes.

For more information, click here.

Institutes for Advanced Topics in Digital Humanities

These NEH grants support national or regional (multistate) training programs for scholars and advanced graduate students to broaden and extend their knowledge of digital humanities. Through these programs, NEH seeks to increase the number of humanities scholars using digital technology in their research and to broadly disseminate knowledge about advanced technology tools and methodologies relevant to the humanities.

Amount: $50,000 - $250,000

Date due: February 17, 2010

The projects may be a single opportunity or offered multiple times to different audiences. Institutes may be as short as a few days and held at multiple locations or as long as six weeks at a single site. The duration of a program should allow for full and thorough treatment of the topic.

For more information, click here.

National Museum of the American Indian Grants Programs

The National Museum of the American Indian's Indigenous Contemporary Arts Programoffers support to a wide range of arts activities with the goal of increasing the knowledge, understanding, and appreciation of contemporary Native American arts. The NMAI considers the recognition of living artists of the Western Hemisphere and Hawaii to be of primary importance and will give awards to projects that strengthen the scholarship in this underserved field and create opportunities for new and innovative work.

Amount: $7,500 - $15,000

Date due: January 11, 2010

NMAI's Exhibitions and Publications program awards grants of $7,500 to $15,000 to support exhibitions, installations, publications, and critical writing that interpret and present the work of contemporary Native visual artists to the public and encourage dialogue and critical commentary. At least one-half of the proposed project team (artists, authors, curators, etc.) must be Native American or Native Hawaiian.

NMAI's Expressive Arts program awards grants of up to $10,000 to support the creation and presentation of new works through the collaboration of two or more Native artists. Awards will specifically support the creation of new works for public performance that may include, but is not limited to, music, dance, spoken word, electronic media, costume design, mask making, set design, performance art, photography, painting, and other forms of expressive culture. The award is open to all indigenous peoples who hold citizenship in the Americas.

For more information, click here.

Interpreting America's Historic Places: Planning Grants

Interpreting America’s Historic Places grants support public humanities projects that exploit the evocative power of historic places to explore stories, ideas, and beliefs that deepen our understanding of our lives and our world. The Division of Public Programs supports the development of humanities content and interactivity that excite, inform, and stir thoughtful reflection upon culture, identity, and history in creative and new ways. Interpreting America’s Historic Places projects may interpret a single historic site or house, a series of sites, an entire neighborhood, a town or community, or a larger geographical region. Grants for Interpreting America’s Historic Places should encourage dialogue, discussion, and civic engagement, and they should foster learning among people of all ages. To that end, the Division of Public Programs urges applicants to consider more than one format for presenting humanities ideas to the public.

Amount: $40,000 - $75,000

Date due: January 13, 2010

Planning grants are available for those projects that may need further development before applying for implementation. This planning can include the identification and refinement of the project’s main humanities ideas and questions, consultation with scholars in order to strengthen the humanities content, preliminary audience evaluation, preliminary design of the proposed interpretive formats, beta testing of digital formats, development of complementary programming, research at archives or sites whose resources might be used, or the drafting of interpretive materials.

For more information, click here.

National Leadership Grants (Libraries)

National Leadership Grants support projects that have the potential to elevate museum and library practice. The Institute seeks to advance the ability of museums and libraries to preserve culture, heritage and knowledge while enhancing learning. IMLS welcomes proposals that promote the skills necessary to develop 21st century communities, citizens, and workers. Successful proposals will have national impact and generate results—new tools, research, models, services, practices, or alliances—that can be widely adapted or replicated to extend the benefit of federal investment.

Amount: $50,000 - $1m (3 years)

Date due: February 1, 2010

Competitive applications describe projects that will produce programs, collections, research findings, and/or tools that will have strategic impact, demonstrate innovation, produce models for collaboration, and actively disseminate project results.  Four categories are represented: advancing digital resources, research, demonstration, and library-museum collaboration.


For more information, click here.

ALA Research Grant

The American Library Association's Office for Research and Statistics is accepting applications for the Carroll Preston Baber Research Grant. The grant is given to one or more librarians or library educators conducting innovative research that could lead to an improvement in services to any specified group of people.

Amount: $3,000

Date due: December 1, 2009

A grant of up to $3,000 will be given to a proposed project that aims to answer a question of vital importance to the national library community. Any ALA member may apply, and the jury welcomes projects that involve both a practicing librarian and a researcher.

For more information, click here.

Big Read Program Offers Grants

The Big Read, a program of the National Endowment for the Arts, is accepting applications from nonprofit organizations to conduct month-long community-wide reads between September 2010 and June 2011. The Big Read is a national program designed to revitalize the role of literature in American culture.

Amount: $2,500 to $20,000

Date due: February 2, 2010

Organizations selected to participate in the program will receive a grant ranging from $2,500 to $20,000 each, access to online training resources, educational and promotional materials, inclusion of the organization and activities on the Big Read Web site, and the prestige of participating in a highly visible national program. Approximately seventy-five organizations from across the United States will be selected to participate.

Grants must be matched at least one-to-one with non-federal funds. Grant funds may be used for expenses such as book purchases, speaker fees and travel, salaries, advertising, and venue rental. Applicants can select one of the thirty-one available reading choices.

For more information, click here.

Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program

This program supports projects to develop faculty and library leaders, to recruit and educate the next generation of librarians, to conduct research on the library profession, and to support early career research on any area of library and information science by tenure-track, untenured faculty in graduate schools of library and information science. It also supports projects to attract high school and college students to consider careers in libraries, to build institutional capacity in graduate schools of library and information science, and to assist in the professional development of librarians and library staff.

Amount: $50,000 - $1m (across 4 years)

Date due: December 15, 2009

Program aims to recruit future professionals in library and information science. In particular, to attract promising junior high, high school of college students to consider careers in library and information science through statewide or regional pilot projects employing recruitment strategies that are cost-effective and measurable.

For more information, click here.

American Heritage Preservation Grants

Bank of America has partnered with the American Heritage Institute to provide grants to raise awareness and preserve items held in small museums, libraries and archives.

Amount: $3,000

Due: September 15, 2009

Grants will help to preserve specific items including works of art, artifacts, and historical documents that are in need of conservation.

For more information, click here.

Digital Humanities Start-Up Grants

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) invites applications to the Digital Humanities Start-Up Grants program. This program is designed to encourage innovations in the digital humanities. By awarding relatively small grants to support the planning stages, NEH aims to encourage the development of innovative projects that promise to benefit the humanities.

Amount: $50,000

Due: October 6, 2009

Two levels of awards will be made in this program. Level I awards are small grants designed to fund brainstorming sessions, workshops, early alpha-level prototypes, and initial planning. Level II awards are larger grants that can be used formore fully-formed projects that are ready to begin implementation or the creation of working prototypes.

For more information, click here.