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Appropriations Request

For Fiscal Year 2020

Submitted to Congress

March 2019
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INSTITUTE OF MUSEUM AND LIBRARY SERVICES

Fiscal Year 2020 Appropriations Request

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

I. INTRODUCTIONS.................................................. 1

II. IMLS GRANT PROGRAMS...................................... 3

III. BUDGET REQUEST TABLE.................................... 7

IV. ASSUMPTIONS AND ESTIMATED COSTS FOR AGENCY

SHUTDOWN BEGINNING IN FY 2020..................... 9

V. FY19 PROGRAM & PERFORMANCE HIGHLIGHTS 10

VI. AUTHORIZING FRAMEWORK................................. 16
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IMLS Introduction

The Institute of Museum and Library Services is the primary source of federal support for the 

nation’s libraries and museums. We advance, support, and empower America’s museums, 

libraries, and related organizations through grantmaking, research, and policy development–all to 

meet the essential information, research and education, economic, cultural, and civic needs of the 

public. Our vision is a nation where museums and libraries work together to transform the lives 

of individuals and communities.

IMLS carries out federal library programs that date back to 1956 (with a special emphasis on 

reaching rural and underserved communities), along with federal museum programs established 

in 1976. The Agency was created with the passage of the Museum and Library Services Act of 

1996, which, as amended, authorizes IMLS to award financial assistance, collect data, form 

strategic partnerships, and advise the President, Congress and other federal agencies on museum, 

library and information services. In 2007, the Bush Administration and Congress transferred 

library data collection programs and advisory functions to IMLS to strengthen the federal 

government’s efficiency and effectiveness in meeting the needs of the public. On December 31, 

2018, President Trump signed the Museum and Library Services Act of 2018, further 

strengthening the Agency’s capacity to serve the public, including through emergency situations. 

Today, the Agency is responsive to the needs expressed by communities through their libraries 

and museums and brings cutting edge approaches to curating essential information within cities, 

regions, and the nation.

The Agency has an expansive reach across the country and into a large variety of institutions. Its 

discretionary grants are selected through a highly respected and competitive peer review process, 

drawing on professionals located across the nation. IMLS builds capacity within the museum and 

library fields to enable better service to communities and to enhance community decisionmaking by sharing trends and data.

The new IMLS Strategic Plan 2018-2022, Transforming Communities, focuses the Agency’s 

financial, knowledge, and relationship assets on four key areas: 

1. Promote Lifelong Learning: IMLS supports learning and literacy for people of all ages 

through museums and libraries.

2. Build Capacity: IMLS strengthens the capacity of museums and libraries to improve the 

well-being of their communities.

3. Increase Public Access: IMLS makes strategic investments that increase access to 

information, ideas, and networks through libraries and museums.

4. Achieve Excellence: IMLS strategically aligns its resources and relationships to support 

libraries and museums nationwide
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IMLS Grant Programs

IMLS grants programs support a wide range of museum, library, and information services that 

benefit millions of Americans each year. The Agency’s grants support museums of all 

disciplines, including zoos, children’s museums, science centers, botanical gardens, and nature 

centers, as well as libraries and archives of all types, including public, research, academic, and 

tribal. IMLS builds capacity among museums and libraries to help them address the unique 

economic, information, education, and civic needs of their communities. 

In FY 2019, the Notices of Funding Opportunity incorporated several strategic changes,

including: 

• Alignment with the Agency’s new five-year strategic plan goals: Lifelong Learning, 

Increase Public Access, Build Capacity, and Achieve Excellence.

• Incorporation of current priorities among the museum and library sectors, such as: 

o Investing in digital infrastructures, platforms and educational tools;

o Increasing accessibility to address technology, financial or physical limitations;

o Enhancing communities’ social and economic wellbeing; 

o Collections stewardship; 

o Diversity and inclusion; 

o Broadband and digital literacy; and

o Family and adult learning.

• Encouragement for applicants to build upon prior IMLS-funded research or exploratory 

work to extend those investments into more widely accessible practices or tools through 

piloting or scaling projects.

• Greater emphasis on professional development; organizational capacity-building and 

training; and assessment and evaluation.

Having a good funding opportunity available is not effective if the intended audience does not 

hear about it. In 2019, the Agency engaged in targeted outreach to motivate submissions from 

new applicant institutions, as well as those who have not applied for several years. Also targeted 

were institutions located in geographically diverse regions, including those serving rural areas,

which have been under represented in the Agency’s applicant pools. IMLS also designed two 

new library and museum funding opportunities to better serve the needs of smaller institutions

and their communities.

Library Grants

The Grants to States Program is the largest source of federal funding support for library 

services in the United States. Using a population based formula, more than $160 million was

awarded in FY 2018 to the State Library Administrative Agencies (SLAAs) located in each of 
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the 50 states, the District of Columbia, the United States Territories, and the Freely Associated 

States. Moreover, IMLS support leveraged more than $455 million in State funds.

SLAAs use the funds to support statewide initiatives and services, as well as more than 1,500 

projects each year, which are directly carried out by public, academic, research, school, and 

special libraries. States use the funds to address the statutory purposes and priorities in the 

Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA), ensuring the availability of library services by 

providing access to electronic databases, computer instruction, homework centers, summer 

reading programs, digitization of special collections, access to e-books and adaptive technology, 

bookmobile service, and tools supporting workforce development. This program is critical to 

ensuring digital access for everyone in the United States, wherever located.

As one priority of the program is to address underserved communities and persons having 

difficulty using a library, more than ten percent of grant funds in recent years has supported 

library services for individuals who are blind, visually impaired, or who have other disabilities. 

National Leadership Grants for Libraries (NLG-L) support projects that address significant 

challenges and opportunities facing the library and archive fields and that have the potential for 

far‐reaching impact. By generating new tools, research, and practice models that can be widely 

replicated, NLG-L projects influence theory and practice throughout the library and archival 

communities. These investments ultimately support students, educators, families, and at-risk 

individuals by providing easier access to information and skill-building resources.

The Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program (LB21) supports professional 

development, graduate education, and continuing education to help libraries and archives 

develop a better equipped and more diverse workforce to more strategically meet the changing 

learning and information needs of the American public. LB21 investments cross a wide range of 

practice areas—from early learning to digital literacy—that reach into communities both urban 

and rural. 

Native American/Native Hawaiian Library Services (NANH) grants build capacity among 

native communities to meet the educational needs of their populations. It offers three categories 

of grants to libraries or organizations serving the needs of federally recognized Indian tribes and 

Native Hawaiians. 

• Basic tribal grants to support existing library operations and maintain core library 

services, including purchasing collection materials, computers, and Internet connectivity

to provide access to online resources;

• Tribal enhancement grants to expand and enhance existing library services or implement 

new library services including partnerships for learning and access. This includes support 

for literacy initiatives, language preservation and revitalization, and oral history projects.

• Native Hawaiian grants to enhance existing or to support new services in organizations 

that serve native Hawaiians. This includes support for development of K-12 teaching 

materials, language preservation and revitalization, and oral history projects.
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Museum Grants

These investments cross all types of museums, including children’s museums, science centers, 

history museums, art museums, historic houses, zoos, aquaria, planetariums, botanical gardens,

and general museums supporting lifelong learning, community engagement, preservation, and 

access to collections and stories. 

National Leadership Grants for Museums (NLG-M) support projects that address critical 

needs of the museum field and that have the potential to advance professional practice that spur 

museums to improve services for the American public. NLG-M projects support novel 

approaches, new research, techniques, models, common and shared platforms, and collaborative 

processes, all with the potential for far-reaching impact within the museum field.

IMLS staff share information about NLG-M funded projects through the IMLS website, blogs,

and case study discussions on panels at national and state conferences so that the whole museum 

sector to learn from, adopt, and adapt these models.

Museums for America Program (MFA) grants support projects that strengthen an individual

museum’s ability to serve its public. The program supports a wide spectrum of museums of all 

sizes and geographic locations, building capacity and helping improving services in local 

communities. MFA projects demonstrate institutional impact, addressing a key goal identified in 

the institution’s strategic plan with project elements designed to generate measurable results. 

They support museums in preserving the artifacts that are essential to community identity, as 

well as offering valued programs and exhibits to meet local needs and drive economic activity.

Museums Empowered: Professional Development and Capacity Building Opportunities for 

Museums is a special MFA initiative, introduced in FY 2017 and continued in FY 2018 and FY 

2019 that provides professional development and capacity-building opportunities. This enables 

museums to address relevant needs of their local communities in four areas: Digital Technology; 

Diversity and Inclusion; Evaluation; or Organizational Management. Funded projects are 

designed to bring about transformative and systemic change in the recipient institutions and also 

impact the communities they serve.

Museum Grants for African American History and Culture Program (AAHC) grants 

support projects that improve the operations, care of collections, and development of 

professional management at museums of African American history and culture. 

Native American/Native Hawaiian Museum Services (NANH) grants support federally 

recognized Indian tribes and organizations that primarily serve Native Hawaiians. NANH grants 

help sustain heritage, culture, and knowledge through various initiatives, including exhibitions, 

educational services and programming, professional development, and collections stewardship, 

including the collection and preservation of oral history traditions. Grant-supported activities 

demonstrate institutional impact by addressing an identified need or challenge facing an 

organization.
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BUDGET REQUEST TABLE

The President’s budget has proposed eliminating funding for the Institute of Museum and 

Library Services (IMLS) in FY 2020. As a result, IMLS requests $23.0M to begin the orderly 

closure of the Agency. The request reflects current ongoing activities that will extend into FY 

2020, those that are legislatively-mandated, such as the library data collections and analysis, and 

those other areas and activities that may transition to other federal partners. Estimates provided 

assume enacted legislation to terminate funding for IMLS on October 1, 2019. 

Summary Table

Budget Category President’s Budget Request 

Personnel Compensation & Benefits $14,000,000

Rent, Communication Services, and Utilities $2,000,000

Contractual Services, Interagency 

Agreements, and other expenses

$7,000,000

TOTAL $23,000,000

Details of Cost Estimates by Budget Category

Personnel Compensation & Benefits

These object classes fund the salaries and benefits of all employees, including full-time, parttime, temporary, and intermittent appointments (for example, the National Museum and Library 

Services Board [NMLSB]), and consultants. To minimize personnel costs, the salary for the 

NMLSB will remain at $100/day. The personnel benefits provide estimated contributions toward 

employees’ retirement, health, and life insurance plans, as well as costs for unemployment 

benefits and any injuries sustained in the workplace. Additionally, costs associated with public 

transportation subsidies afforded to the Agency’s employees are included in this category. This 

funding request will provide for 71 full-time employees during FY 2020, with reduced staff 

occurring in the last quarter to begin procedures and activities for an orderly Agency shutdown.

Additionally, funding in this category includes leave and severance payouts, COLA, and 

unemployment costs.

Real Estate (Rent for GSA space), Communications and Utilities, Equipment Rental, 

Telephone Services, Postage

This object class includes funding for the Agency’s office space through GSA; communication 

technology services, including data, voice, and cable services; equipment rental; and postage. 

Contractual Services, Interagency Agreements, Equipment, Data Collection & 

Warehousing

This object class supports a wide range of contractual services and federal interagency 

agreements that are not covered in any of the preceding categories, as well as any termination 
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costs that would be associated with preparing for an orderly Agency shutdown. All interagency 

agreements would be required to continue in FY 2020 to begin the orderly shutdown of the 

Agency, with increased costs in certain areas such as records management and NARA 

requirements, data migration activities, financial closeouts, and the disposal of furniture, fixtures 

and equipment. Covered areas and activities include: 

• The support and maintenance of Agency information technology (IT) systems, including 

cyber-security activities, the IMLS website, and the State Program Reporting System, 

among others;

• IT software licenses and incidentals;

• Cleaning and disposing of computers and servers;

• Data archiving and documentation management and/or transfers to other federal partners 

for historical purposes and public use;

• Ongoing data collection activities, including the Public Library Survey and the State 

Library Administrative Survey;

• Partnerships and interagency agreements with and for:

o Federal Aviation Administration - Enterprise Services Center (ESC) for financial 

management and reporting, financial system maintenance, and full accounting 

services;

o Department of Interior (DOI) – National Business Center (NBC) for full payroll 

services and reporting;

o Department of Transportation – E2 Solutions – for travel processing;

o Department of Interior for indirect grant cost proposal services,

o General Services Administration (GSA) and Department of Treasury for Data Act 

requirements and HSPD-12 maintenance;

o Federal Protective Services (FPS) for building security;

o Office of Personnel Management (OPM) for personnel investigations, credit 

monitoring, and electronic personnel filing; 

o Department of Census for grant audit clearinghouse services;

o Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for staff health services;

o Equal Employment Opportunities (EEO); and

o Other required government services. 

• Independent financial and IT-related audits;

• Grants Management Line of Business and Grants.gov related expenses;

• National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) management and disposition; 

• Agency contracts for temporary personnel assistance; 

• General supplies;

• Required travel for Board meetings, Grants to States site visits per legislation, final Data 

Coordinators’ meeting, other meetings and conferences for the Director and other senior 

staff for grant monitoring and closure activities. 
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Assumptions and Estimated Costs for Agency Shutdown Beginning in FY 

2020

The IMLS will fulfill its Federal responsibilities for grants and essential contracts prior to FY 

2020. While no new applications will be accepted, nor awards made, beginning in FY 2020, 

IMLS will require administrative funding to support a reduced workforce and related costs to 

effectively terminate all Agency operations. All current awards will remain active until their 

already established end dates, many of which go beyond FY 2020. The following assumptions 

have been made in estimating the costs of shutting down the Agency. 

• Current grantees will be notified that a reduced number of IMLS staff will be available to 

monitor, administer, and close out existing grants.

• Current vendors will be notified that their contracts will be terminated if their services are 

no longer required to perform an orderly shutdown of the Agency.

• Prospective applicants will be notified on the termination of the Agency’s grant 

programs. The public will be notified via the IMLS website.

• Federal partners will be notified that current interagency agreements will be terminated as 

deemed necessary. 

• IMLS private-sector partners will be notified that any partnership activities that were to 

be undertaken in FY 2020 will be terminated. 

• IMLS will continue to reduce staff during the orderly shutdown. Those staff remaining on 

board will be responsible for conducting the necessary oversight and proper closeout 

activities of open grant awards, contracts, and interagency agreements. Others will 

provide the necessary oversight for these employees, while initiating the logical 

shutdown of IMLS systems, financial reporting, building operations, publications, and 

mandatory personnel-related work for these activities.

• For discontinued employees, all appropriate compensation will be provided, including but 

not limited to severance pay, lump-sum payments for unused annual leave, and 

performance bonuses generated by eligible employees’ closeout performance appraisals.
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IMLS FY 2019 PROGRAMMATIC AND PERFORMANCE HIGHLIGHTS

The Agency’s overarching programmatic approach employs three key and intentionally interrelated 

currents to achieve impact. 

• Supporting individual grantees’ programmatic services that allows the Agency to sustain and test 

both recognized and emerging approaches;

• Investing to strengthen systems-support efforts to scale programmatic solutions, improve public 

policy and infrastructure, and drive other funders, providers, and public leaders to invest 

resources and improve efficiencies toward shared goals;

• Developing knowledge from both direct grantee programs and system-strengthening efforts, 

integrating this knowledge with what was known before, and disseminating current knowledge 

thus creating a culture of continuous learning and inquiry and supporting the application of such 

knowledge in each area where the Agency works.

FY 2019 funding allowed the Agency to enhance the ability to reach underserved library users by 

providing reading materials in alternate formats (Talking Books), as well as strengthening services to 

rural areas, enhancing broadband offerings, and providing workforce development support. Funding also 

provided support for a greater number of Native America and Native Hawaiian communities and enabled 

more museums to receive Museums for America competitive grants and special grants for institutional 

capacity-building through our Museums Empowered initiative.

IMLS also awarded a record number of African American History and Culture grants this year. Current 

appropriations allowed IMLS to support a total of 26 projects in 18 states, with 11 of the 26 receiving 

IMLS assistance for the first time. 

A few FY 2019 highlights across the Agency’s four strategic goals illustrate the various ways that IMLS 

uniquely accomplishes its work in partnership with the museum and library sectors: through capacitybuilding; strategic learning and evaluation; leveraging synergy with others’ efforts; professional 

development for museum and library practitioners; dissemination of findings; elevation of current and 

new practices; and enhancing access for all Americans to essential information and informal learning 

opportunities.

The examples below range in scale and conceptual maturity: exploratory data analysis and evaluation; 

locally-based projects aimed at enhancing the ability of one institution to better achieve its mission, thus 

enhancing service its local constituents; piloting promising practices to advance the sector’s effectiveness 

and understand how to better service a broader range of museum and library practitioners’ needs; and 

scaling up proven practices through partnerships, shared technology, training and networks.

Goal 1: Promote Lifelong Learning—IMLS supports learning and literacy for people of all ages 

through museums and libraries. Example projects that were recently awarded supporting this goal include: 

STEM: ECHO, Leahy Center for Lake Champlain will launch the Partners in School Science 

Excellence (SciExcel) project, designed to deliver high-quality STEM opportunities to lowresourced students by growing the capacity of northwestern Vermont schools that lack science 

subject specialists. The project will allow the museum to strengthen its existing relationships with 

low performing primary schools and Head Start preschools while expanding its geographic reach 

to rural service areas. 
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Rural K-3: Syracuse University is supporting the development of literacy and innovation skills 

in children grades K-3 by creating and evaluating a replicable after-school project in six rural 

public libraries designed to prepare youth from an early age to contribute to the future economic 

viability of their communities. This program will emphasize the importance of family literacy, 

acknowledging the positive role parents and caretakers can play in shaping children’s attitudes 

towards learning and literacy. Resources will be disseminated via The Innovation Destination, an 

existing web resource, expanding the site’s current focus of grades 4-8 to include the elementary 

and middle years. 

Teens and Computer Science: The Young Adult Library Services Association, in partnership 

with the Chief Officers of State Library Agencies, will train 11,000 library staff across all 50 

states and the five U.S. territories to facilitate computer science and computational thinking 

through the lens of connected learning. Computational thinking is increasingly recognized as an 

essential skill to prepare teens for personal and professional success in the increasingly the digital 

and global economy.

Adult Learning: Propagating Promising Practices for Literacy and Workforce Development at 

Libraries is undertaken by the Providence Public Library with Chicago Public Library, Los 

Angeles Public Library and other national advisors. The intended audience for the activities are 

un- and underemployed adults with low skill levels-- from low language literacy, numeracy and 

problem-solving skills to low digital literacy and lack of workforce readiness. The project will 

position public libraries as effective and welcoming community hubs for lifelong learning, digital 

inclusion, and economic empowerment. 

Diversifying the Workforce: The Mentored Internships for Diversity cooperative agreement 

with the American Library Association’s Public Library Association (PLA) will offer a third year 

of its Inclusive Internship Initiative to provide 79 public libraries in 40 states with the opportunity 

to offer paid, mentored internships to high school students from diverse backgrounds. 

Goal 2: Build Capacity—IMLS strengthens the capacity of museums and libraries to improve the 

wellbeing of their communities. Example projects that were recently awarded supporting this goal 

include: 

Wellbeing Impacts: Understanding the Social Wellbeing Impacts of the Nation’s Libraries and 

Museums, launched in August 2018, is underway, and will provide a better understanding on a 

national level of the conditions under which museums and libraries contribute to quality of life 

and wellbeing in the communities they serve. This new study focuses on these institutions’ 

essential roles within communities to help them demonstrate the impact of their programs and 

services. 

Community Development: Through evaluation of the multi-year Community Catalyst Initiative, 

IMLS will be able to assess the effectiveness of targeted capacity-building (through Technical 

Assistance trainings and tools) with a focus on using Asset-Based Community Development 

approaches. The goal of such investments is to enable museums and libraries to more deeply 

engage communities and their stakeholders as part of community development efforts and change 

staff members’ abilities to embrace their diverse communities.

Collections Stewardship: IMLS reached 81 museums in 44 states and territories through its

Collections Assessment for Preservation (CAP) program, administered by Foundation of the 

American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works. Through this program, IMLS 
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provides small and mid-sized museums with an assessment of the institution’s collections, 

buildings, and building systems, as well as policies and procedures relating to collections care. In 

order to be responsive to communities impacted by national disasters, CAP provided emergency 

assistance for museums in Florida, California, the Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico. 

Early Learning: The Children’s Museum of Houston, Houston Health Department, and partners

including the Houston Public Library will advance the vision of two Houston collective impact 

initiatives with the project “Houston Basics Complete Communities.” The collaborators will 

establish demonstration projects supporting parents in two low-income neighborhoods with early 

learning strategies they can use with their children during the first three years of life. The project 

will change iteratively as determined through community and partner input, resulting in an 

expansion model for replication and will be shared with other libraries, archives, and museums. 

Autism: Explora Science Center & Children’s Museum of Albuquerque is partnering with the 

New Mexico Autism Society in a three-year project to develop new resources to help children 

and families affected by autism use the museum’s STEM exhibits and programs more effectively. 

The project is creating a toolkit, including social stories, visual schedules, sensory maps, and 

suggestions for tools such as visual timers and noise-canceling headphones. The toolkit is 

intended for small museums to adapt for use in their communities. 

Goal 3: Increase Public Access—IMLS makes strategic investments that increase access to information, 

ideas, and networks through libraries and museums. Example projects that were recently awarded 

supporting this goal include:

E-rate: The State Library of Louisiana is training public library staff on the E-Rate program and 

other Internet resources. In a state where 25 percent of households do not have Internet access, 

the project helps ensure that all of the main libraries in the state have a connection of at least 

10mbps.

Visually Impaired: IMLS, partnering with the National Library Services for the Blind (NLS), 

will host a convening about increasing the accessibility of e-content, especially e-books. 

Participants from NLS, publishers, technologists, and state library-managed Talking Book 

libraries will discuss and create an action plan to drive best practices, discover and address 

licensing and technological barriers, identify capacity building needs, and digital infrastructure 

needs that will lead to the creation or publication of e-books that are accessible to all.

Open Educational Resources (OER): With Grants to States funds, Pennsylvania is developing 

and supporting a community of practice among the state’s academic libraries to improve textbook 

affordability for students through the use of open educational resources (OER). The project’s 

planning activities, workshops, and train-the-trainer model helped establish a network of liaisons 

and partners at more than 35 Pennsylvania campus libraries. It serves as an exemplary partnership 

model between the academic libraries and faculty, the Pennsylvania Department of Education’s 

Office of Post-Secondary Education, and the Office of Commonwealth Libraries to achieve 

mutual goals. 

Tribal Literacy: The Yakama Nation Library, in collaboration with the Yakama Nation 

Childcare Program, is developing a Bookmobile service to help with reading literacy issues 

affecting Native American students. The Yakama Nation Library and Childcare Program have 

both recognized the need to address reading literacy issues for Yakama Nation youth of all ages 

and the project is designed to expand outreach to rural and isolated community members. The 
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Bookmobile will provide books, computer access, and reading programming to the surrounding 

community so community members will have access to the Library’s Resources, address 

Kindergarten Readiness, and become more aware about the importance of reading to children at 

an early age. 

Museum Access: Museums for All, a partnership with the Association of Children’s Museums, is 

a unique access program that enables low-income families to visit museums and build lifelong 

museum habits. Participating museums offer free or greatly reduced admission fees year-round to 

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) 

cardholders. The program has progressed since 2014, with more than 340 participating museums 

who have provided access to 1.6 million families. The goal continues to make this initiative a 

movement with thousands of museums of all types serving millions of families who would 

otherwise not have access to museums. 

Goal 4: Achieve Excellence—IMLS strategically aligns its resources and relationships to support 

libraries and museums nationwide. 

The Agency is examining the outputs of its activities each year leading towards longer term outcomes to 

support the capacity of museums and libraries nationwide to serve their communities. Following the 

example of OPM, USAID, and other agencies and funders, IMLS is adopting an approach that articulates

the anticipated effects of our various investments (i.e., Logic Model, Theory of Change). The Agency also 

looks across its investments in grantmaking, research and data collection, policy, convening’s, and 

publications to find the right mix and balance of risk, reward, effort, and maturity of the concept or 

approach.

Increasingly, IMLS is examining opportunities to learn from prior grantmaking to inform thinking about 

how best to support and share information with museum and library practitioners and their partners and 

stakeholders. To encourage the adoption and spread of grantees’ innovations, IMLS is exploring how 

work and ideas are more widely prototyped and then scaled up across the library and museum fields.

IMLS has continued its commitment to improving efficiencies in systems and processes while 

maintaining compliance in grants policy and management, risk management, ethics, and records 

management programs, among other areas.

Highlights include:

• IMLS’s Risk Management Council (RMC) established an IMLS-wide Enterprise Risk 

Management program and have been providing strategic advice to the director and senior 

leadership on ongoing opportunities for improvement in strategic, operational, compliance, and 

reporting activities. The RMC’s work has moved from a focus on information technology to risk 

analysis and process improvement in the areas of finance and grants administration.

• IMLS has expanded its reach nationwide, responding to the evolving needs of the museum and 

library sectors, and leveraging state and local investments: 

o IMLS’s Grants to States Program, which supports library services through the Nation, 

requires a 34 percent match, which totaled $82,506,932 in 2019. With approximately 

$160 million in federal funds, this program leverages additional state investment of 

approximately $510 million through the Maintenance of Effort (MOE) provision. In FY 

2018, the Agency updated its MOE protocols and provided training to enhance 
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understanding of this mechanism for encouraging states to invest in library services. 

Further development continues in FY 2019.

o IMLS launched new categories for the FY 2019 National Leadership Grants for Museums 

Program to solicit comprehensive proposals that address major needs of the field—

Collections Care and Public Access; Data, Analysis, and Assessment; Digital Platforms 

and Applications; Diversity and Inclusion; and Professional Development. 

o The Agency identified six internal portfolio thematic areas (Museum Professional 

Development, Collections, Community, Learning, Digital Technology and Diversity and 

Inclusion) in the Office of Museum Services, and is conducting multi-year internal scans 

to get insights on best practices, gaps, and opportunities in order to make informed 

decisions on future investments.

o To expand its reach to smaller institutions that do not typically apply to IMLS, the 

Agency launched two new funding opportunities—Accelerating Promising Practices for

Small Libraries and Inspire! Grants for Small Museums.

o To encourage small and rural library applicants, IMLS issued a new grant opportunity for 

capacity-building—Accelerating Promising Practices for Small Libraries—to support 

projects in rural and smaller institutions in the areas of school library practice, 

community memory, or digital inclusion that are clearly linked to an individual 

institution’s broader community needs. Mentor organizations will help contribute 

expertise to build strength in grantees’ projects in these areas.

• IMLS has been utilizing a more diverse set of approaches to investigate opportunities, understand 

the results and impact of its investments, and build momentum with the museum and library 

fields around evaluation and assessment. A few examples include: 

• IMLS's annual Public Library Survey and the new study Understanding the Social 

Wellbeing Impacts of the Nation’s Libraries and Museums that standardize and analyze 

large data sets to identify correlations and trends for further investigation

• Measures That Matter, a multi-year, national effort to improve libraries’ capacity to 

collect meaningful and actionable data by prioritizing process enhancements to the 

annual Public Libraries Survey. IMLS funded a second phase of implementation work 

through a cooperative agreement with the Chief Officers of State Library Agencies. This 

work will result in field-wide improvements that ultimately support both individual and 

collective library decision-making and policy at all levels

• Employing adaptable approaches that are appropriate to the Agency’s learning goals and 

grantees’ capacity-building needs such developmental evaluation to identify changes in 

practices during the life of applicant projects, case studies to understand why a strong 

correlation may be happening within the institutional and community contexts, or cohortlevel evaluations across a group of grantees.

• A new IMLS Rural Libraries Brief will identify statistics and trends relating to public 

libraries in rural communities. With updated information, IMLS will be able to enhance 

the current understanding of library services in rural areas, understand how such rural 

services differ from those in the more general population, and provides analysis to 

support enhanced effectiveness of other IMLS activities.
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• The recurring State Library Administrative Agency (SLAA) Survey is the definitive 

source of information on the state of SLAAs in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. 

To report out on the impact of IMLS’ largest grant program (Grants to States), IMLS 

staff synthesized the SLAAs’ five-year evaluations for 2013–2017 and five-year plans for 

2018–2022 and shared national-level findings with state library stakeholders and the 

general public. Among other findings, goals aligned with “civic engagement” saw the 

greatest increase (74 percent) compared to the 2013–2017 plans. Other highlights 

included: project partners most often included local government (28 percent), followed 

by non-profits (22 percent), and state government (20 percent). States also invested in 

building capacity by targeting the library workforce in 40 percent of project activities.

• IT Modernization, Cybersecurity, and Customer Service: Efforts in FY 2019 focused on 

achieving cost savings associated with migration to cloud computing and building on the 

foundation laid by the internal IMLS 2018 CIO function risk management review, which will 

continue in FY 2020. 

• IMLS is driving towards greater accountability by implementing the FY 2019 and FY 2020 data 

strategy for measurement, indicator, and dashboard reporting support to Agency-wide 

performance management. An initial set of baseline indicators is under development, based on 

Logic Models, to ensure that all key goals of the IMLS strategic plan are clearly connected to 

short-term outputs and medium-term outcomes measurements. As a result of this foundational 

work, IMLS will more effectively measure, analyze, and communicate performance information, 

as well as identify successful Agency practices to disseminate or scale, or those that require 

further refinement, piloting, and evaluation.

• IMLS anticipates improved efficiencies, customer service, transparency, and reporting for 

Agency analyses through the lifecycle of its grantmaking as a result of the transition that is 

underway from the Agency’s legacy (1998) Application and Award Management System 

(AAMS) to the Electronic Grants Management System (eGMS) developed by the National 

Endowment for the Humanities. The expected transition will take place in FY 2019 and continue 

into FY 2020. In addition, the eGMS platform’s future modules will provide a more integrated 

experience for our peer reviewers who are essential to the quality of our grantmaking.
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Authorizing Framework

The Museum and Library Services Act (MLSA) of 2018 was signed into law (PL 115-410) on 

December 31, 2018 by President Trump. The Act amends 20 USC Chapter 72, the statutory 

authorization of most IMLS activities, and authorizes appropriations for the Agency through FY 

2025. In reauthorizing the MLSA, Congress and the Administration reaffirmed the essential role 

of the federal government in promoting access to information and educational resources to better 

serve the people of the United States and cultivate an educated and informed citizenry. The 

reauthorization also recognizes the special role of museums and libraries in promoting the 

information and educational needs of a democratic society. The reauthorization language calls 

upon IMLS to enhance policy research, data collection, analysis and modeling, and evaluation to 

enhance museum, library, and information services for all Americans. The new provisions build 

upon responsibilities that were previously carried out by the former National Commission on 

Libraries and Information Sciences and the National Center for Education Statistics in the U.S. 

Department of Education.

The Agency’s programs are also authorized by the National Museum for African American 

History and Culture Act, 20 USC 80r-5.

This section provides highlights of the Museum and Library Services Act and the African 

American History and Culture Act.

Museum and Library Services Act (Library Services and Technology Act)

All IMLS library programs support the following goals (20 U.S.C. 9121):

• To enhance coordination among Federal programs that relate to library and information 

services; 

• To facilitate access to resources in all types of libraries for the purpose of cultivating an 

educated and informed citizenry; 

• To encourage resource sharing among all types of libraries for the purpose of achieving 

economical and efficient delivery of library services to the public; 

• To promote literacy, education, and lifelong learning and to enhance and expand the 

services and resources provided by libraries, including those services and resources 

relating to workforce development, 21st century skills, and digital literacy skills; 

• To enhance the skills of the current library workforce and to recruit future professionals 

to the field of library and information services; 

• To ensure the preservation of knowledge and library collections in all formats and to 

enable libraries to serve their communities during disasters; 

• To enhance the role of libraries within the information infrastructure of the United States 

in order to support research, education, and innovation; and 

• To promote library services that provide users with access to information through 

national, State, local, regional, and international collaborations and networks.
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LSTA Library Grants to States (20 USC 9141)

SLAAs may use IMLS funds for statewide initiatives and activities such as:

• expanding services for learning and access to information and educational resources in a variety 

of formats (including new and emerging technology), in all types of libraries, for individuals of all 

ages in order to support such individuals’ needs for education, lifelong learning, workforce 

development, economic and business development, health information, critical thinking skills, 

digital literacy skills, and financial literacy and other types of literacy skills; 

• establishing or enhancing electronic and other linkages and improved coordination among and 

between libraries and other organizations for the purpose of improving the quality of and access 

to library and information services;

• providing training and professional development, including continuing education, to enhance the 

skills of the current library workforce and leadership, and advance the delivery of library and 

information services; and enhancing efforts to recruit future professionals, including those from 

diverse and underrepresented backgrounds, to the field of library and information services;

• developing public and private partnerships with other agencies, tribes, and community-based 

organizations;

• targeting library services to individuals of diverse geographic, cultural, and socioeconomic 

backgrounds, to individuals with disabilities, and to individuals with limited functional literacy or 

information skills;

• targeting library and information services to persons having difficulty using a library and to 

underserved urban and rural communities, including children (from birth through age 17) from 

families with incomes below the poverty line (as defined by the Office of Management and Budget 

and revised annually in accordance with section 9902(2) of title 42) applicable to a family of the 

size involved; and

• developing library services that provide all users access to information through local, State, 

regional, national, and international collaborations and networks.

Library Discretionary Grants 

Through its National Leadership Grants Program (20 USC 9162), Laura Bush 21st Century 

Librarian Program (20 USC 9165), and Services for Native Americans and Hawaiians (2 USC 

9161), IMLS grants are used for:

• building workforce and institutional capacity for managing the national information infrastructure 

and serving the information and education needs of the public;

• research and demonstration projects related to the improvement of libraries or the enhancement

of library and information services through effective and efficient use of new and emerging 

technologies, including projects that enable library users to acquire digital literacy skills and that 

make information resources more accessible and available; and dissemination of information 

derived from such projects;

• conserving, preserving, and digitizing library materials and resources, giving priority to projects 

emphasizing coordination, optimizing conditions for storage and future use, offering staff training, 

avoiding duplication, and providing access by researchers beyond the institution or library entity 

undertaking the project; and
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• enhancing the ability of libraries to provide services to affected communities in the event of an 

emergency or disaster through: (1) the development of national, regional, statewide, or local 

emergency and disaster management plans that address communication and coordination of 

information and services for affected communities and ensure the preservation of knowledge and 

library collections; and (2) the implementation of the emergency and disaster management plans 

described or otherwise enabling libraries to provide services to affected communities in the event 

of an emergency or disaster.

Museum Discretionary Grants (Museum Services Act)

All IMLS museum programs support the following goals (20 USC §9171):

• To encourage and support museums in carrying out their educational role, as core providers of 

learning and in conjunction with schools, families, and communities; 

• To encourage and support museums in carrying out their public service role of connecting the 

whole of society to the cultural, artistic, historical, natural, and scientific understandings that 

constitute our diverse heritage;

• To encourage leadership, innovation, and applications of the most current technologies and 

practices to enhance museum services through international, national, regional, State, and local 

networks and partnerships;

• To assist, encourage, and support museums in carrying out their stewardship responsibilities to 

achieve the highest standards in conservation and care of the diverse cultural, historic, natural, 

and scientific heritage of the United States to benefit future generations;

• To assist, encourage, and support museums in achieving the highest standards of management and 

service to the public, and to ease the financial burden borne by museums as they serve their 

communities in new and different ways; 

• To support resource sharing and partnerships among museums, libraries, schools, and other 

community organizations; and

• To encourage and support museums as a part of economic development and revitalization in 

communities;

• To ensure museums of various types and sizes in diverse geographic regions of the United States 

are afforded attention and support;

• To support efforts at the State and regional levels to leverage museum resources and maximize 

museum services; and

• To assist museums in their civic engagement efforts to ensure that every person in the United States 

has access to high-quality museum services.
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Policy Research, Data Collection, Analysis and Modeling, Evaluation, and Dissemination

Section 9018 of Title 20 authorizes the Director of IMLS to support and conduct policy 

research, data collection, analysis and modeling, evaluation, and dissemination of information 

to carry out the following objectives:

• enhance and expand the capacity of museums, libraries, and information services to anticipate, 

respond to, and meet the evolving needs of communities and the public, including by identifying 

trends and developments that may impact the need for and delivery of services;

• provide information and data on the role, value, and impact of museum, library, and information 

resources, including the identification of trends and potential gaps in the availability and use of 

museum and library services by their communities and the public;

• measure the effectiveness of museums, libraries, and information services throughout the United 

States, including the impact of Federal programs;

• identify indicators and outcomes that can be used to create enhancements to the efficiency and 

efficacy of museum, library, and information services;

• promote advancement and growth in museum, library, and information services through sharing 

of best practices and effective strategies in order to better serve the people of the United States;

• facilitate planning for, and building of, institutional capacity in order to improve museum, 

library, and information services at the national, State, local, and regional levels; and 

international communications and cooperative networks; and

• support and enhance collaborative professional networks and consortia that use shared, 

meaningful, and actionable data analysis and modeling to advance museum, library, and 

information services and address community needs.

The National Museum of African American History and Culture Act (20 USC 80r-5)

Under this Act, IMLS is authorized to carry out:

• a grant program with the purpose of improving operations, care of collections, and 

development of professional management at African American museums;

• a grant program with the purpose of providing internship and fellowship 

opportunities at African American museums;

• a scholarship program with the purpose of assisting individuals who are pursuing 

careers or carrying out studies in the arts, humanities, and sciences in the study of 

African American life, art, history, and culture.