Tuesday, May 12, 2020
IMLS CARES Act Grants to Libraries, Consortia, and Related Organizations
On Friday, May 8, the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) announced how it would distributed $15 million of the remaining $20 million of CARES Act funding the agency received. IMLS will directly award competitive grants through Grants.gov to eligible public libraries, public school libraries, academic libraries, research libraries, private or special libraries, academic or administrative units of an institution of higher education, digital libraries, the state library administrative agency (DPI), library consortia, and library associations (see the IMLS CARES Act Grants for Museums and Libraries Fiscal Year (FY) 2020 Notice of Funding Opportunity for details regarding eligibility). In addition, IMLS has allocated $1.2 million of these funds to directly grant to Native American tribes and organizations for Native American/Native Hawaiian museum and library services.
Division for Libraries and Technology staff have added this information to the Division for Libraries and Technology’s Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) for Wisconsin Libraries page in order to connect you with this information and to compile CARES Act information for libraries in one place. Questions about these IMLS grant opportunities should be directed to the IMLS program contact Anthony D. Smith, Associate Deputy Director, Office of Library Services, asmith@imls.gov, (202) 653-4716. IMLS welcome calls from applicants and is happy to answer any questions about the grant application and review process.
COVID-19 Responsive Funding Opportunities
In addition to the IMLS CARES Act grants above, there have been a lot of other funding opportunities recently, including those listed in the recent Grant Opportunities for Wisconsin Libraries blog post from last week. In an effort to make these opportunities a little easier to find, Division for Libraries and Technology staff compiled a list of known funding opportunities in this COVID-19 Responsive Grant Funding: LSTA, CARES, State, and Third-party/Private Funds sheet.
We encourage you to review the opportunities and wish your library the best of luck should your library choose to apply. These many funding opportunities provide Wisconsin libraries a great opportunity to join together, collaborate, and apply for needed funding during this pandemic.