The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) is granting the iSchool $100,000 to invite 60 librarians, researchers, and innovators to a national leadership forum in October on digital youth. The inaugural Digital Youth (DY) iLab will strengthen the emerging interdisciplinary community of digital youth researchers, designers, industry leaders, professionals, and policymakers and help position library and information science disciplines as leading voices within this community. Eliza ​Dresang, Beverly Cleary Professor of children and youth services, is the project director. 

In announcing the award, IMLS notes that "Digital youth is an emergent research area focused on how people from birth through young adulthood engage with technology and how technology is being shaped by their needs and demands." 

IMLS is also funding projects at the American Library Association and Chief Officers of State Library Agencies. “These grants get at the heart of the type of forward thinking we strive for at IMLS,” said IMLS Director Susan H. Hildreth. “The meetings, papers, and partnerships that result from these projects of COSLA, the University of Washington, and ALA will help propel libraries forward in ways that ensure their relevancy for many years to come.”