The Foundation's Innovations in Reading Prize recognizes exceptional initiatives and programs that have created and sustained a lifelong love of reading: thoughtful, groundbreaking projects that generate excitement and passion for literature and books. The Foundation is particularly interested in applications from those that have developed interdisciplinary approaches and incorporate innovative thinking in design, technology, social change, social entrepreneurship, or other fields. Potential candidates can enter themselves for consideration or be nominated by others. Winners receive $2,500 each and are featured prominently on the Foundation's website and in other digital publicity that reaches around the world.

We are pleased to announce that the new OARS website is up and running (although the new Research Compliance and Undergraduate Research sections are still in development).   If you haven't had a chance to check it out yet, we hope you will soon.  Once you've visited, we'd be grateful if you'd give us five minutes of your time to let us know how we're doing by completing a brief eight-question survey at https://miamioh.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_erhRsEFwwWVP6m1 Finally, don't forget to update any bookmarks you may have to material on our old website!

The University of Leicester is inviting applications for funded PhD studentships starting autumn 2014 in a range of arts and humanities disciplines.

Selected Fellows will participate in curatorial work and research for a period of four to twelve months at museums or art institutions (in China, Taiwan, Canada, Germany, U.K. or U.S.A.) outside their national borders. Young fellows with less experience will have the opportunities to work under leading curatorial professionals. Round-trip airfare, accommodation, and living expenses during the attachment period will be covered.

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, as long as the project results - be they success, failure, or a combination thereof - offer valuable information to the library field and the potential for improvement in the ways libraries serve their communities. You are required to submit a short white paper, with the results of your work to be publicly posted and shared with the field.

The Big Read supports organizations across the country in developing community-wide reading programs which encourage reading and participation by diverse audiences. These programs include activities such as author readings, book discussions, art exhibits, lectures, film series, music or dance events, theatrical performances, panel discussions, and other events and activities related to the community's chosen book or poet. Activities focus on one book or poet from The Big Read catalog.

The Sparks! Ignition Grants for Libraries are a special funding opportunity within the IMLS National Leadership Grants for Libraries program. These small grants encourage libraries and archives to test and evaluate specific innovations in the ways they operate and the services they provide. Sparks Grants support the deployment, testing, and evaluation of promising and groundbreaking new tools, products, services, or organizational practices. You may propose activities or approaches that involve risk, as long as the risk is balanced by significant potential for improvement in the ways libraries and museums serve their communities. Successful proposals will address problems, challenges, or needs of broad relevance to libraries and/or archives. A proposed project should test a specific, innovative response to the identified problem and present a plan to make the findings widely and openly accessible.

National Leadership Grants support projects that address challenges faced by the museum, library, and/or archive fields and that have the potential to advance practice in those fields. Successful proposals will seek innovative responses to the challenge(s) identified in the proposals, and will have national impact. IMLS invites libraries to address STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) in their programs and projects in order to advance learning and support the acquisition of STEM knowledge at all ages, but particularly for at-risk youth. Click here to learn more about IMLS's role in STEM initiatives. Projects addressing STEM learning should check the appropriate box on the Program Information Sheet component of the application.

Museums, Libraries, and Cultural Organizations grants provide support for museums, libraries, historic places, and other organizations that produce public programs in the humanities. Grants support the following formats:¿ exhibitions at museums, libraries, and other venues;¿ interpretations of historic places, sites, or regions;¿ book/film discussion programs; living history presentations; other face-to-face programs at libraries, community centers, and other public venues; and¿ interpretive websites and other digital formats.Types of Museums, Libraries, and Cultural Organizations awards Planning grants support the early stages of project development, including consultation with scholars, refinement of humanities themes, preliminary design, testing, and audience evaluation. Implementation grants support final scholarly research and consultation, design development, production, and installation of a project for presentation to the public.

National Leadership Grants support projects that address challenges faced by the museum, library, and/or archive fields and that have the potential to advance practice in those fields. Successful proposals will seek innovative responses to the challenge(s) identified in the proposals, and will have national impact. For FY2014, IMLS continues to pursue its commitment to early learning by seeking proposals addressing learners from ages 0-8 and their parents and caregivers. Library applicants are encouraged to partner with community organizations to address at least one of the challenges identified by the Campaign for Grade Level Reading including school readiness, summer reading loss, and chronic school absence. Click here to learn more about IMLS's role in this initiative. 

NEH is soliciting proposals from institutions to participate in the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP). NDNP is creating a national digital resource of historically significant newspapers published between 1836 and 1922, from all the states and U.S. territories. This searchable database will be permanently maintained at the Library of Congress (LC) and will be freely accessible via the Internet. (See the website, Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers.) An accompanying national newspaper directory of bibliographic and holdings information on the website directs users to newspaper titles available in all types of formats. During the course of its partnership with NEH, LC will also digitize and contribute to the NDNP database a significant number of newspaper pages drawn from its own collections. NEH intends to support projects in all states and U.S. territories, provided that sufficient funds allocated for this purpose are available. One organization within each U.S. state or territory will receive an award to collaborate with relevant state partners in this effort. 

To encourage and enrich international partnerships between art museums, and to enable curators outside the United States both to learn more about historical American art and to develop exhibitions of American art at their home institutions, the foundation offers two types of Exhibition Research and Development Grants: Convening Grants for Internationally Collaborative Exhibitions and Curatorial Travel Grants to the United States. Applications will be judged competitively on an annual basis beginning in spring 2011.

The Medici Archive Project (MAP) wishes to provide graduate and doctoral students from diverse disciplines with the opportunity to have exposure to original source materials and training in their use. For this reason MAP is offering five short-term fellowships sponsored by the SAMUEL FREEMAN CHARITABLE TRUST (SFCF) for graduate students in any field of the humanities or social sciences who are in the early stages of their dissertation work. The SFCF fellowships have been developed to enable students working on their dissertations to conduct primary research using the Mediceo del Principato and other collections housed in the Archivio di Stato in Florence. This scholarly residence will be of considerable benefit in helping the students to gain the necessary skills, experience and confidence to continue independent academic research in the later stages of their graduate trajectory. While undertaking primary research for their dissertation in the Florentine state archives, the Fellows will benefit from the supervision of the MAP Staff, academics drawn from a variety of disciplines who are experts in archival research, paleography and the digital humanities. The Fellows will also have the opportunity to expand their academic networks through contact with the many international scholars who regularly visit and collaborate with MAP. Finally, Fellows will be enrolled in the annual MAP Archival Studies Seminar. The fellowships last for an uninterrupted period of two-and-a-half months, taking place at any point between 1 January 2014 and 15 July 2014. The SFCT Fellows will undertake their dissertation research on-site in the Archivio di Stato. The candidates will have the following qualifications: a completed M.Phil (or equivalent) in any field of early modern humanities and fluency in English and Italian.

The ACRL Academic/Research Librarian of the Year Award recognizes an outstanding member of the library profession who has made a significant national or international contribution to academic or research librarianship and library development.

The Emerald Research Grant Award will be awarded to individuals seeking support to conduct research in business librarianship. The funds may be used at the discretion of the award recipients. Award recipient must be an ALA member or at least one member of a collaborative team must be an ALA member. Recipients may be asked to present their findings at a public BRASS event within two years of receiving the award (at the discretion of the BRASS Executive Committee). Recipients will also be required to acknowledge the Emerald Research Grant when publishing or presenting their research. One $5,000 award will be presented. The awards (check and citation) will be presented at the RUSA Awards Ceremony at the annual conferences each year. Recipients will be required to attend the RUSA Awards Ceremony.

National Leadership Grants (NLG) for Museums support projects that address critical needs of the museum field and that have the potential to advance practice in the profession so that museums can improve services for the American public. Successful proposals will generate results such as models, new tools, research findings, services, practices, and/or alliances that can be widely used, adapted, scaled, or replicated to extend and leverage the benefits of federal investment.

The Museums for America (MFA) program supports projects that strengthen the ability of an individual museum to serve its public. MFA grants support activities that strengthen museums as active resources for lifelong learning, as important institutions in the establishment of livable communities, and as good stewards of the nation's collections. MFA grants can fund both new and ongoing museum activities and programs. Examples include planning, managing and conserving collections, improving public access, training, conducting programmatic research, school and public programming, producing exhibitions, and integrating new or upgraded technologies into your operations. There are three categories within the MFA program: Learning Experiences IMLS places the learner at the center and supports engaging experiences in museums that prepare people to be full participants in their local communities and our global society.Projects should provide high-quality, inclusive, accessible, and audience-focused learning opportunities; provide access to collections, information, and educational resources; encourage the use of technologies; and develop programs for specific segments of the public. Community Anchors IMLS promotes museums as strong community anchors that enhance civic engagement, cultural opportunities, and economic vitality.Projects should harness a museum's expertise, knowledge, physical space, technology, or other resources in order to address a specific need originating in the community. Museums may undertake the project alone or in partnership with one or more community organizations. Collections Stewardship IMLS supports exemplary stewardship of museum collections and promotes the use of technology to facilitate discovery of knowledge and cultural heritage. Projects should address high priority collections care or conservation issues.

Established in 1990, the Gale Cengage Learning Award for Excellence in Reference and Adult Library Services is a citation and $3,000 monetary award presented to a library or library system for developing an imaginative and unique resource to meet patrons' reference needs. The resource can be a bibliography, a guide to the literature of a specific subject, a directory, a database, or any other project that has helped the library meet adult or children's reference needs. Tools, guides or databases that have been developed for reader's advisory or adult service questions and needs are also eligible for the award.

Loleta Fyan, 1951-52 ALA President, bequeathed funds to ALA with the intent that "these funds be used for the development and improvement of public libraries and the services they provide."

Sustaining Cultural Heritage Collections (SCHC) helps cultural institutions meet the complex challenge of preserving large and divrse holdings of humanities materials for future generations by supporting preventive conservation measures.