IMLS Awards $18.2 Mil. to Libraries, Others

• Salinas library will work to restore civic life
• University of Michigan to explore copyright issues
• Two LIS schools to look into disaster response 

The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) has awarded national leadership grants totaling $18.2 million to libraries, library schools, museums, and other cultural institutions. In almost all cases, recipients are responsible for raising additional funds.

Among the grants are support for a project by the Salinas Public Library, which narrowly escaped closure in 2004; copyright review management system for the University of Michigan library, which is involved in the Google Books digitization project, and a grant to two LIS schools to investigate how public libraries’ might better work with government agencies in times of disaster or crisis.

Public library grants
Salinas Public Library, CA, will use $713,899 (matching amount $1,109,668) together with the National Steinbeck Center and other Salinas to explore ways to revive Salinas’ civic life, promote lifelong learning among children and adults, and support community development efforts. The project involves preserving aspects of local history via digitization and collecting new personal and organizational histories.

Orange County Library System, Orlando, FL, will use $120,603 (matching amount $123,784) to create a U.S. citizenship program that addresses all kinds of learning experiences—one-on-one learning, group learning, live online learning, and self-paced online tutorials.

Hennepin County Library, Minnetonka, MN, was awarded $271,391 (matching amount $117,499) to work in partnership with the Science Museum of Minnesota, Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County, Free Library of Philadelphia, Seattle Public Library, Memphis Public Library, and the Wilmette Public Library, IL, to evaluate literacy skills—higher-order problem solving, collaboration, and risk taking—developed by youth participating in innovative technology programs.

The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh will use $600,000 (matching amount $718,361) for "The Legacy of Iron and Steel Production Modernized Through Social Networking," an effort to bring the historic Iron and Steel Heritage Collection online, encouraging users to “add personalized meaning and contribute important contextual information” to digitized items.

The New York Public Library, Queens Library, and Brooklyn Public Library will use $378,525 (matching amount $391,674) to develop digital homework help tools—Homework NYC Widgets—responsive to young people’s information-gathering tendencies, research needs, and expectations.

Academic library grants
The University of Michigan University Library, Ann Arbor, was awarded $578,955 (matching amount $655,898) to create a copyright review management system to increase the reliability of determining copyright status of books published between 1923-1963. This apparently is related to the Google Books digitization effort.

Florida State University College of Information, Talahassee, will use $415,673 (matching amount $207,557) to partner with neighboring Chipola College and Tallahassee Community College to identify ways for students with various proficiency levels to develop information literacy skills in both traditional and distance environment.

The University of Oregon Libraries, Eugene, and other members of the Orbis Cascade Alliance were awarded $38,844 (matching amount $21,094) to continue the planning process for a 31-member archives consortium. Academic libraries in Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington are the beneficiaries.

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA, will use $250,000 (matching amount $123,236) to further develop its LibX tool in use by more than 277 libraries. This technology platform offers developers a way to create and deliver library services and prototype new ones.

LIS investigations
San Jose State University, School of Library and Information Studies, CA, will use $39,826 (matching amount: $20,042) to collect and analyze data regarding Young Adult (YA) spaces in libraries. The aim is to help library professionals design YA spaces that are “developmentally appropriate and responsive to how today’s youth.”

The University of Maryland College of Information Studies, College Park, and the University of Alabama School of Library and Information Studies, Tuscaloosa, will use $39,955 (matching amount $39,942) to work with libraries in Maryland and Alabama to create a model to strengthen public libraries’ capacity to work with government agencies in times of disaster or crisis.