The new Continuing Education Scholarship Grant program is now open, made possible through the generosity of a Kansas Family Foundation. As shared in the May/June Newsletter, this first grant will fund 10 Continuing Education Scholarships of $500 per semester with a maximum of $1,500 per student. The scholarship will support tuition and fees for coursework at an in-district or in-state Community College or University, or an ALA-accredited master’s degree program in library science. This is an extension of the System’s internal tuition support program, but open to a wider range of formal education opportunities. The guidelines, policy, and application are available for your review.
This document provides an Overview of all three grants awarded to the Southeast Kansas Library System by an anonymous Kansas Family Foundation.
From the June 2026 Newsletter:
Kansas Family Foundation Grant Awarded to SEKLS
Starting in August, the System will administer three grants totaling $100,000 on behalf of a Kansas family foundation.
The first grant will fund 10 Continuing Education Scholarships of $500 per semester with a maximum of $1,500 per student. The scholarship will support tuition and fees for coursework at an in-district or in-state Community College or University, or an ALA-accredited master’s degree program in library science. This is an extension of the System’s internal tuition support program, but open to a wider range of formal education opportunities. For example, this scholarship could be used in the Spring of 2027 to take a
new “Introduction to Library Services” course “designed to provide the student with a broad overview of the library profession” at Independence Community College! You can contact Sarah Owen (sowen@indycc.edu) for details.The second grant supports the establishment of a new “Library of Things” collection, based on a community needs assessment. Libraries have been adding inventive non-traditional materials to their collections for decades, but the trend has expanded in recent years to meet the unique needs of local communities. This is a competitive grant with SEKLS staff serving as the review committee to award 10 grants of $750 to libraries in communities under 1,000 people and 15 grants of $500 to Service Center I and II libraries. We are planning targeted training on how to create and administer a simple community needs assessment to support this grant.
The last grant will distribute $70,000 to support the “Library as Community Hub,” helping the library be a community meeting place with enhanced spaces, programs, and services. This grant is also tiered based on population and requires letters of support from community organizations that will benefit from using the library enhancements outlined in the grant application. This grant will open in 2027 and be administered in parallel with the Furnishings and Facility Improvement competitive grant. A library may use this funding to enrich all aspects of hosting, from improving the physical space to providing supplies and food for programs that encourage gathering at the library.
Additional criteria, eligibility requirements, policies, and applications will be added to the website closer to the launch date, with the Continuing Education and Library of Things grants open this fall. We are honored to partner with this Kansas family foundation and look forward to seeing what SEKLS libraries accomplish with this generous support.