Grants for Librarians

Everyday Advocacy You’re in an elevator with the Board president. Or the Mayor. Or the Chairperson of the city’s Youth Commission. You have one minute before the elevator opens and you go your separate ways. Writing Grant Applications The ALA Public Programs Office offers grants for several different programs from traveling exhibitions to discussion programs involving books, film, and cassette tapes to literary programs and other forms of library cultural programs for adults. All of these programs have different requirements and different goals, but their main purpose is to help libraries become centers for culture in their communities. Participation in all Public Programs Office programs is open to libraries in the U.S. and its territories through a competitive application process.

*Advocate This, Not That! Illustration by James Yang “A university is just a group of buildings gathered around a library,” wrote the historian and novelist Shelby Foote. Consider a corollary to this quote—a school is just a group of buildings gathered around a library—and whether it aptly describes how important your school library is to the overall function of your institution. Too often, school libraries are seen as peripheral, not central, to teaching and learning.

*Advocacy - NYC School Librarian Advocating for Your Library and Its Program The structure for this LibGuide was inspired by Barbara Stripling's September/October 2014 American Libraries Magazine article: Reimagining Advocacy for School Libraries: Creating a strategy for getting out your message. In order to get the most out of this LibGuide, we suggest accessing and reading the article. In Reimagining Advocacy for School Libraries, Barbara Stripling identifies five pillars of library services around which all strong school library programs are built:

Book Grants A wide variety of grants are available at national, state, and local levels to bolster the development of collections like yours. Get more ‘wish list’ books onto your shelves and make your budget go further with these grant and funding options for libraries. The Dollar General Youth Literacy Grants

Advocating for the Library You Want to Become Three years ago I enrolled in the University of Toronto’s Library Advocacy Unshushed MOOC. The online course description was a simple premise or perhaps a call to arms of “How can we strengthen libraries and librarians in the advancement of knowledge, creativity, and literacy in the 21st century? Though libraries have been loved for over 3,600 years, their relevance in the digital age is being questioned, and their economic and social impacts are poorly understood. What is really essential about libraries and librarians, today and tomorrow?” School and public librarians deal with these over-riding questions every day. When magazine articles like the recent one suggesting that Amazon stores replace libraries come out, we all cringe.

* AASL One-Pagers for Stakeholders One-Pagers for Stakeholders Your School Library in the Learning Community Understanding the National School Library Standards Grant Funding Sources Following is a selected list of organizations and institutions that have funded library programs for adults or worked as partners with libraries for programs. Have you approached similar groups in your community for funding or in-kind support? Get your programming off the ground by reaching out to organizations for grant opportunities. …Foundations, library friends groups, chambers of commerce, banks, church groups, retirement centers, book stores, service and civic groups, radio and TV stations, cable companies, newspapers, artists and writers clubs or centers, museums, businesses, park districts, unions, colleges and universities, high schools, ethnic or special interest clubs, women’s groups, historical societies, restaurants and cafes, health clubs, supermarkets, hotels… State Humanities and Arts Councils

The Time for Advocacy Is Now: Why Telling Your Story Is So Important. Having been a lifelong reader and library user, I had all sorts of assumptions about school libraries in general. First, I thought that stakeholders would instinctively know the value of an effective school library. Secondly, I had always been under the impression that school libraries in general were adequately funded and that budgets were never in question. Third, I never thought I would see the day that school libraries would be considered dispensable. Boy, was I wrong.