Sparks! Ignition Grants for Libraries (Sparks Grants) are a special funding opportunity within the IMLS National Leadership Grants for Libraries program. These small grants encourage libraries and archives to prototype and evaluate specific innovations in the ways they operate and the services they provide resulting in new tools, products, services, or organizational practices. You may propose activities or approaches that involve risk, but the project results – be they success, failure, or a combination thereof – must offer valuable information to the library or archives fields, promise an impact beyond the applicant's institution and provide the potential for improvement in the ways libraries and archives serve their communities. You are required to submit a short white paper, which will be publicly posted and shared.
In FY2016, each award under this program will support one of the following three goals of the IMLS Strategic Plan, Creating a Nation of Learners:
- IMLS places the learner at the center and supports engaging experiences in libraries and museums that prepare people to be full participants in their local communities and our global society.
- IMLS promotes museums and libraries as strong community anchors that enhance civic engagement, cultural opportunities, and economic vitality.
- IMLS supports exemplary stewardship of museum and library collections and promotes the use of technology to facilitate discovery of knowledge and cultural heritage.
The goals focus on achieving positive public outcomes for communities and individuals; supporting the unique role of museums and libraries in preserving and providing access to collections and content; and promoting library, museum, and information service policies that ensure access to information for all Americans.
Examples of activities that may be funded by this program include but are not limited to the following:
- Rapid prototyping and testing of new ways to engage learners
- Offering innovative new types of services or new service options
- Exploring the potential of highly original, experimental collaborations
- Implementing new workflows or processes with potential for substantial cost savings
- Addressing community challenges through new types of partnerships, services, processes, or practices
- Developing and testing new tools or services that facilitate access, presentation, management, preservation, sharing, or use of library and/or archival collection