'Big Read' Grants Applications Are Now Available

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SLJ Staff -- School Library Journal, 12/4/2007 2:10:00 PM

Thinking of applying for a grant from the Big Read? You’d better hurry: February 12 is the rapidly approaching deadline. The Big Read, a program in which libraries collaborate with local community organizations, aims to encourage the pursuit of reading for pleasure as well as knowledge.

The grants, which range from $2,500 to $20,000, are courtesy of the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services and the National Endowment for the Arts, in partnership with Arts Midwest, a Minneapolis-based group that connects Midwest audiences to the arts.

Big Read grants require the participation of a public library. In the past, grant-receiving libraries have partnered with botanical gardens, zoos, nature centers, aquariums, historical centers, and children's museums. In Illinois, for example, the Oak Park Public Library teamed up with the local Ernest Hemingway Foundation to celebrate the author’s novel A Farewell to Arms. The event featured book discussions and costumed tours of the Hemingway museum and his childhood home.