NLG change 2nd deadline NOFO

Justification for Change

3137-0029 General Clearance Grant Application and Post-Award Processes

IMLS is requesting a change to a previously approved clearance in order to change the grant program, National Leadership Grants for Libraries. This new grant is requesting the same expiration date of 07/31/2018.

Previous request abstract:

IMLS requests delegation of authority to review and approve all agency information collection requests (excluding surveys, evaluations, and data calls used for policy-making purposes, under the Paperwork Reduction Act. The information collections in this package include all of the guidelines and instructions to (1) apply for IMLS support, (2) identify grant reviewers, and (3) complete post-award reports for the agency's grant programs. In a separate clearance submission (3137-0071) and justification, IMLS is requesting a three-year generic clearance for all forms used in its grant programs, including application materials and post-award reports.

Justification for the National Leadership Grants for Libraries

National Leadership Grants for Libraries (NLG) support projects that address challenges faced by the library and archive fields and that have the potential to advance practice in those fields. Successful proposals will generate results such as new tools, research findings, models, services, practices, or alliances that can be widely used, adapted, scaled, or replicated to extend the benefits of federal investment.

In FY2014, the agency moved to two funding deadlines per fiscal year for the National Leadership Grants for Libraries. Because the first NOFO contained only deadlines for the first cycle of deadlines, this NOFO has corrected deadlines reflecting the new set of deadlines for preliminary proposals and full proposals (if invited), new dates for notification of grant awards and new possible grant start dates, as well as adjusted Funding Opportunity Numbers to reflect the second cycle. One small clarification was added to potential grant start dates to clarify that grants must start on the first day of the month in one of the three months following the award dates. This is consistent with IMLS regulations and this phrase had been lost in the web upload process in August. All other content remains the same as previous. We have been instructed that all NOFOs need to be resubmitted, even for date changes associated with different deadlines, we now anticipate submitting NOFOs for non-substantive changes twice per year.

The respondent burden should remain the same.