Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program - century 21 century

Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program - century 21 century
By Iola Bonggay

The Institute of Museum and Library Services(IMLS) is an independent agency of the US federal government. The IMLS is especially responsible for providing federal support to over 100,000 museums and about 17,000 libraries located in the US.

The effort of IMLS is primarily geared towards the creation of strong libraries and museums which would hopefully bridge connections between people, ideas and knowledge.

In line with its goals and mission, the IMLS has recently established a funding opportunity to support the Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program.

The Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program involves improving then country's information infrastructure through the utilization of funding projects that are designed to address the education and training needs of certain experts who help build, maintain and give the public immediate access to many of the world's vast and wide-ranging information systems and resources.

The main objective of Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program is to hone and develop the potential of faculty and library leaders, to encourage and recruit future librarians and archivists, to enable professionals to conduct research studies, in order to build institutional capacity in graduate schools of library and information science education, and ultimately, so as to offer assistance in the professional continuing development of librarians and archivists.

The IMLS is set out to administer grant amounts that range between $50,000 to $500,000 to a few selected applicants who are permitted to participate in this program.

In order to be deemed qualified to submit an application for the Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program, you need to:

a) belong to either a unit of State or local government or a private nonprofit organization that has tax-exempt status under the Internal Revenue Code;

b) be located in one of the 50 States of the United States of America, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the Virgin Islands, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, or the Republic of Palau;

c) qualify as one of the following organizations: a library or a parent organization, an academic or administrative unit, a digital library, a library agency that is an official agency of a state or other unit of government, a library consortium that is a local, statewide, regional, interstate, or international cooperative association of library entities, and finally, a library association that exists on a permanent basis.

The Institute of Museum and Library Services, the principal agency funding the Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program, is the nation's primary source of federal support to libraries and museums. Furthermore, it's also the country's leader in providing services that are geared toward enhancing learning, sustaining cultural heritage and increasing civic participation.