Learning Services: Library Journal Grant

All staff who are regularly employed by an MLS member library are eligible to apply.  

Both full time and part time staff are eligible to apply. Substitutes are not eligible to apply.  

You must be regularly employed by an MLS member library both at the time you apply for a grant and the time that that your course begins.  

Unpaid library workers and supporters (including trustees, friends of the library, retirees, and volunteers) are not eligible to apply.

If you are unsure whether your library is an MLS member, check the MBLC Library Database. All of the libraries listed in this database are members of MLS.

Library Journal Grants allow MLS member library staff to take Library Journal online courses at no cost to them. 

For purposes of the grant, any online course that is offered by Library Journal is eligible, provided:

• It has seats available,
• It has not passed, and
• It is scheduled to begin in the next four months. 

Click on the following link to view all upcoming online courses currently being offered by Library Journal. 

MLS will not approve online courses that do not have seats available, have passed, or are scheduled to begin more than four months in the future.  

Use the following chart to determine whether the course you are interested in taking is scheduled to begin in the next four months:

If you need to enroll in a course that is scheduled to begin more than four months out, you must contact Sarah Donnelly (MLS' Event & Project Manager), sdonnelly@masslibsystem.org, and receive approval before submitting your application, otherwise your application will be denied.

You must submit a complete Library Journal Grant Application at least 10 business days before the start of the online course you are interested in taking. Applications will not be considered complete until all required information is received by MLS.

Applications that are submitted or completed with fewer than 10 business days before the start of the online course will be considered at the sole discretion of MLS.

Applications that are submitted or completed after the start of the online course will not be considered.

MLS will review timely submitted complete applications on a rolling basis. These applications will typically be approved or denied within 10 business days. If you do not hear from us within 10 business days after you submit a complete application, please contact Sarah Donnelly (MLS' Event & Project Manager), at sdonnelly@masslibsystem.org, to check on the status of your application.

The decision to approve or deny an application is made at the sole discretion of MLS and is based upon the criteria set forth in these Conditions for the Library Journal Grant.

If your application is approved, MLS will send you an email to let you know that we will enroll you in your Library Journal online course. You will then receive two additional emails:

1. Eventbrite: this email signifies that you have been enrolled in your course (it will come from eventbrite.com).
2. Edmaker: this email contains instructions on how to log into the Library Journal online classroom (it will come from edmaker.co [not .com]).

Please add these two domain names to your Safe Senders List to ensure that notifications do not end up in your junk folder.

Please note: You should not register directly through Library Journal. Individuals who register through Library Journal will not be reimbursed under this grant. MLS will work directly with Library Journal to enroll you in the course and handle payment on your behalf.  

Approval is based on a first-come, first-served, non-competitive basis.

You may take one Library Journal online course at a time. If you wish to apply for approval to take an additional online course, you may submit your application before your current online course has ended. However, your application will not be considered for approval until after you have completed the survey for your current online course. The survey must be completed before the start of the subsequent online course for which you are applying.

You may receive approval to take up to six Library Journal online courses every fiscal year (July 1 - June 30).

Once the funding budgeted for the Library Journal Grant program has has been spent for the fiscal year (July 1 – June 30), no additional Library Journal Grants will be considered during that fiscal year.

After your application has been approved, if you are unable to take the online course for any reason, you must inform MLS as soon as possible.

Within 30 days of the end of the Library Journal online course, you must complete a Library Journal Grant Survey. This survey helps MLS understand the impact of the grants and should take 5-10 minutes to complete. Completion of this survey is a requirement of the grant. 

Failure to complete the survey will result in MLS declining any application you submit for any grant funds for the next two fiscal years or until you complete the survey, whichever comes first.

Information from completed surveys will be anonymized and may be used by MLS to continuously improve the Library Journal Grant program and for reporting and marketing purposes.