Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program

Program objective

The Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian (LB21) grant progam supports the recruitment, development, and retention of library and archives professionals to meet the information needs of their communities. GOAL 1: Recruit and educate future library and archives professionals, faculty, and staff. Obj. 1.1: Develop or enhance practices, programs, or initiatives encouraging students to pursue careers in library and information science. Obj. 1.2: Develop or enhance initiatives, programs, or curricula to increase to increase the capacity of institutions to educate or retain library and information science students. GOAL 2: Train and retain current library and archives professionals, faculty, and staff. Obj. 2.1: Develop or enhance professional development and training programs to enable the library and archival workforce to meet the needs of their communities. Obj. 2.2: Support the research of untenured, tenure-track library and information science faculty, furthering the faculty member’s long-term research agenda, career trajectory, and professional development.

As published in the SAM.gov Assistance Listing.

Eligible applicants (program level)

• ✓Department or Agency of a U.S. State Government
• ✓Municipality or Township government (inclusive of cities, towns, boroughs (except in Alaska), and villages)
• ✓County Government (inclusive of boroughs in Alaska, parishes and other governmental entities with geographic regional control and authority)
• ✓Local
• ✓Other Local Government Consortium, Regional Organization (Intrastate), or Other Local Government Combination
• ✓State
• ✓Tribal
• ✓Not-for-Profit Organization
• ✓Nonprofit Organization
• ✓Federally Recognized Indian/Native American/Alaska Native Tribal Government
• ✓U.S. Territory (or Possession) Government (including freely-associated states)
• ✓Department or Agency of a U.S. Territorial Government
• ✓U.S. State Government (including the District of Columbia)

An applicant must meet geographic and governance criteria and qualify as one of the following six types of organizations: 1. A library or a parent organization, such as a school district, a municipality, a State agency, or an academic institution, that is responsible for the administration of a library; 2. An academic or administrative unit, such as a graduate school of library and information science that is part of an institution of higher education through which it would apply; 3. A digital library or archives, if it makes materials publicly available and provides library or archival services, including selection, organization, description, reference, and preservation, under the supervision of at least one permanent professional staff librarian/archivist; 4. A library or archival agency that is an official agency of a State, tribal, or other unit of government and is charged by the law governing it with the extension and development of public library services within its jurisdiction; 5. A library or archives consortium that is a local, statewide, regional, interstate, or international cooperative association of library entities that provides for the systematic and effective coordination of the resources of eligible libraries or archives, as defined above, and information centers that work to improve the services delivered to the clientele of these libraries or archives; or 6. A library or archives association that exists on a permanent basis; serves libraries, archives, or library or archival professionals on a national, regional, State, or local level; and engages in activities designed to advance the well-being of libraries and the library profession.

Program-level eligibility from SAM.gov. Each funding notice sets its own requirements.

Recently closed under 45.313

Frequently asked questions