Grant Agencies
The Foundation Grant CD lists 12 foundations with a national geographic focus and activities that include “higher education” and “libraries/library science”. Of those, some do not accept applications but contribute only to pre-selected organizations; some foundations only donate in states in which they operate businesses. Very few national private foundations have grant programs that might be relevant to the University of Hawaii Libraries. All of them require or recommend that a 1-2 page proposal or inquiry letter be sent to them prior to application.
National library associations (e.g. ALA and subunits ACRL, LITA, ALCTS or RLG) give awards, scholarships or fellowships to individuals. One exception is the Carnegie-Whitney Award, a $5,000 grant for production of guides to library resources.
Federal Grants
Grants from Federal agencies are currently available from only four sources:
IMLS and NEH are the most generally applicable programs, which many different grant opportunities. NARA/NHPRC is more focused on "real archives". NSF grants are heavily, almost exclusively, weighted to big-time research and development, military/DOD and/or very specific or esoteric applications of information technology.
Institute for Museum and Library Services – IMLS5
http://www.imls.gov/grants/library/lib_nlgl.asp
The "Building Digital Resources" category is most appropriate for our projects. This category is the same for Museums and for Libraries and Museum/Library partnerships. UHM Library would only qualify for the "Native Hawaiian Library Services" category http://www.imls.gov/grants/library/lib_nhls.asp if we were in partnership with a "nonprofit organizations that primarily serve and represent Native Hawaiians" which would be Alu Like, or *possibly* the Hawaiian Studies program at UHM or UHH.
The IMLS now offers an online tutorial to assist would-be National Leadership Grant applicants (http://e-services.imls.gov/project_planning/). Advice in email correspondence from an IMLS program officer:
You must show that the project would have national impact, not just local impact. In addressing the evaluation criterion of Sustainability, any documentation that you can include that would show continuing university commitment to keeping the program going and sustaining the material created would be beneficial.
NARA (National Historical Publications and Records Commission – NHPRC)6
http://www.archives.gov/grants/about_nhprc/grant_programs.html
The categories that might possibly be appropriate include:
- Working with the State Historical Records Advisory Boards (with State Archives?)
- Publishing Historically Significant Records Relating to the History of the United States
- Preserving and Providing Access to Records They have 2 deadlines per year - June 1 and October 1
National Endowment for the Humanities - NEH
http://www.neh.gov/grants/grants.html7 (and it’s local affiliate Hawaii Council for the Humanities - HCH)
The 2 most relevant programs are: Grants to Preserve and Create Access to Humanities Collections and Implementation Grants for Humanities Projects in Libraries and Archives. We might also want to consider applying first for one of their small Consultation Grants for Libraries, Museums, or Special Projects.
National Science Foundation – NSF8
http://www.nsf.gov/home/grants.htm
The most relevant funding opportunity listed recently: "Library of Congress partners with National Science Foundation to fund advanced research into preservation of digital materials" requested proposals on the topics of:
* Digital repository models
* Tools, technologies and processes
* Organizational, economic and policy issues and proposals are no longer being accepted.
Virtually all of the grant programs of the federal agencies listed require a matching contribution from the requesting institution – generally 33-50 percent. Application requirements are complex, elaborate and exacting. The process is recognized even by the agencies themselves as perplexing and convoluted, in fact the IMLS now offers an online tutorial to assist would-be National Leadership Grant applicants (http://e-services.imls.gov/project_planning/).
The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation
Recipient: University of California Santa Cruz, CA
Grant amount: $14,000
Year authorized: 1999
Description: For preservation, digitizing, and cataloguing of slides from Branson DeCou Collection at the University Library
The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation
521 5th Ave., Ste. 1612
New York, NY 10175-1699
Telephone: (212) 687-0011
FAX: (212) 687-8877
E-mail: info@Delmas.org
URL: http://www.delmas.org
John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
Recipient: American Library Association Washington, DC
Type of recipient: Education, association; Libraries/library science
Grant amount: $100,000
Year authorized: 2000
Description: For Office for Information Technology Policy
John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
140 S. Dearborn St., Ste. 1100
Chicago, IL 60603-5285
Telephone: (312) 726-8000
FAX: (312) 920-6258
TDD: (312) 920-6285
E-mail: 4answers@macfdn.org
URL: http://www.macfdn.org
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
Recipient: University of California Berkeley, CA
Grant amount: $670,000
Year authorized: 2000
Description: For Journal Management Initiative
Recipient: University of Michigan Ann Arbor, MI
Grant amount: $27,000
Year authorized: 2000
Description: For Digital Image Management and Access Systems
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
140 E. 62nd St.
New York, NY 10021
Telephone: (212) 838-8400
URL: http://www.mellon.org
The Knapp Foundation, Inc.
P.O. Box O
St. Michaels, MD 21663
Telephone: (410) 745-5660
Purpose and activities: Grants primarily for conservation and preservation of wildlife and wildfowl, and for assistance to college and university libraries in the purchasing of reading materials and equipment to improve education.
Types of support: Equipment, Matching/challenge support.
Limitations: Giving limited to the U.S., primarily in the eastern region, including CT, FL, GA, MA, MD, ME, NC, NH, NJ, NY, PA, RI, SC, VA, and VT. No support for foreign projects.
Application information: Application form not required.
Initial approach: Letter
The following grants were reported in 2000.
$250,000 to Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Annapolis, MD, For habitat restoration program.
$250,000 to Ducks Unlimited, Memphis, TN, For habitat restoration program.
$100,000 to Salisbury State University, Salisbury, MD, For equipment.
$63,000 to National Aquarium in Baltimore, Baltimore, MD, For diagnostic equipment.
$29,500 to Currituck County Public Schools, Currituck, NC, For renovations.
$25,000 to Duke University Library, Durham, NC, For collections - The Center for Women's History & Culture.
$20,000 to Clarion University, Clarion, PA, For computer equipment for writing center.
$20,000 to Clarke School for the Deaf, Northampton, MA, For equipment for Audiology Research Center.
$20,000 to Wilderness Society, DC, For computer equipment.
$10,000 to East Coast Greenway Alliance, Wakefield, RI, For equipment.
The H. W. Wilson Foundation, Inc.
950 University Ave.
Bronx, NY 10452
Contact: William E. Stanton, Secy.
Tel.: (718) 588-8400, ext. 2205
Purpose and activities: Grants largely to accredited library schools for scholarships; support also for cultural programs, including historical societies, and library associations.
Types of support: Research, Scholarship funds.
Limitations: Giving on a national basis. No grants for building or endowment funds or operating budgets.
Application information: Application form not required.
Initial approach: Proposal
A search in the COS Funding Oportunities database using the term "digitization" returns only these 2 relevant listings (discussed above):
* National Leadership Grants for Libraries, National Foundation for the Arts and the Humanities Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS)
* Grants to Preserve and Create Access to Humanities Collections, National Foundation for the Arts
1 A GLBT archive topic might fit within their current initiatives
2 UH projects might squeeze into their “Research in Information Technology” program (“providing access to scholarly resources, further development of digital libraries…”)
3 Giving limited to primarily eastern region of U.S. – a missionary or whaling connected project might be considered
4 Recent centennial grant to Kansas State Univ. – UH centennial related project might be considered
5 2004 application deadlines have passed; 2005 program priorities have not been published
6 Two deadlines per year: June 1 (projects that “enable the nation's archivists, records managers, and documentary editors to overcome the obstacles and take advantage of the opportunities posed by electronic technologies by provid[ing] leadership in funding research-and-development on appraising, preserving, disseminating, and providing access to important documentary sources in electronic form”) and October 1 (“projects in archival preservation, processing, and description, and projects to develop archival tools and techniques”)
7 Many grant categories require the applicant to be doing new research and/or development; deadlines for 2004 span May – November with categories most relevant to UH Libraries falling in July.
8 The program area where UH Library falls is the National Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Education Digital Library (NSDL) – 2004 Pathways proposals are due April 14; Sci/Tech is already participating in a Pathways project. http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2004/nsf04542/nsf04542.htm
