Column | LIBRARIES
Which is why I find reading grant
announcements and applications so
revealing. No one completes a grant
application on a whim. Tedious and labor
intensive, grant applications are a
response to real needs in one’s community, or within one’s profession. Grants
are meant to address the future we want
to create tomorrow.
And no one provides more grants to
libraries than the federal Institute of
Museum and Library Services (IMLS),
through several grant programs, with
awards ranging from $5,000 to $2 mil-
lion. Though the IMLS provides priorities
for each grant cycle—for example,
building a national digital platform, or
programs for learning in libraries—there
is enough latitude to submit applications
that, in the words of the IMLS, “will move
library and archival services... forward.”
So what do the 80-plus library grants
funded by the IMLS in 2016 tell us about
the library’s role in the near future?
Broadly speaking, that libraries are
actively addressing a wide range of chal-
lenges within their communities. And
long gone are the days when a library’s
solution to a challenge would be to
develop a collection of books and wait for
people to discover it.
What’s Happening
No surprise, digital is a big area of support
for IMLS. In 2016, over a third of IMLS
Today, there’s perhaps more interest than ever before in the future of libraries. I see this at my own library, the White Plains (N. Y.) Public
Library, where we have begun a large-scale renovation that’s required us to
close off most of our first floor. If I stand
in my library lobby for five minutes, I
end up fielding questions from patrons.
Many are expected: What have you done
with the new mysteries? Where are the
computers? Who’s paying for this?
But other questions are more re;ec-tive: What sort of a library are you
building when so much content is available digitally? Will there still be books?
What about more space for meetings and
workshops? Will food be available? The
public, it turns out, is trying to ;gure
out our future right along with us.
Community Support
I admit, I’m no Marshall McLuhan. But
as a library director, I do try to track the
changing environment libraries are
living in, often through the weekly Read
for Later newsletter from the American
Library Association’s Center for the
Future of Libraries. But I’m more keenly
interested in the decisions my colleagues
from across the country are making for
their libraries right now—I’m most
interested in what the next five years will
bring, not the next 15.
Follow the (Grant) Money
What the 2016 IMLS grants can tell us about the future of libraries
Brian Kenney
“Libraries are actively addressing a
wide range of challenges within their
communities. And long gone are the days
when a library’s solution to a challenge
would be to develop a collection of books
and wait for people to discover it.”
grants went to digital library projects. But
unlike in previous years, the 2016 grants
didn’t necessarily support content creation, or even metadata. They mostly
sought to improve the connection among
existing tools, services, and content collections. Creating a national digital platform is a major stated priority for the
IMLS. And we can expect more funding
in the future that will seek to connect the
various far-flung parts of our digital
library infrastructure and improving
discoverability.
Education and learning is also a key priority for libraries, and the IMLS. On that
front, the 2016 IMLS grants suggest that
school librarians are eager to integrate
maker activities into their communities
through the school library. In Utah, for
example, a junior high school and a public
library are seeking to develop a program
for rural, small-town public and school
librarians, to teach them the skills required
to initiate maker programming.
In Norman, Okla., a joint effort
between the public schools and the
University of Oklahoma is looking to
design and test a “learning by making”
program, which focuses on creative
problem solving. Engaging more than
570 students over three years, that program seeks to transform the role of the
school librarian in K– 12 learning.
A number of projects seek to help
refugees. Project Welcome, from the
Mortenson Center at the University of
Illinois and ALA, is a program to help
libraries support the various organizations providing resettlement and integration services to refugees. And in
Hartford, Conn., young adult librarians
are launching a three-year project for
immigrant and refugee youth that
focuses on language learning, digital
literacy skills, leadership development,
cultural competency, and social action.
