Purposes Open for Games and Gaming Round Table 2026 “Game On!” Grant

The Games and Gaming Round Table of the American Library Association is proud to sponsor its annual grant program to allow libraries to develop gaming packages or collections for his or her  patrons. This 12 months’s grant will fund $2,000 in awards, as both a single $2,000 award or two $1,000 awards.

This 12 months’s award features a $1000 donation match from Cards Against Humanity, who additionally launched their CAH Loves Libraries website in 2024. Their help will maintain $1,000 in grant funds for awards from 2025-2029. In 2024, Eliot Weinstein, co-creator of Cards Against Humanity, mentioned “We were able to see for ourselves the great work GameRT and the other divisions of the ALA do! Unfortunately, the idea of libraries as a place of intellectual growth, the safety and livelihood of librarians, and the freedom to read itself, are all currently under attack in many parts of our country. There’s no better time to send a message to librarians (and the organizations that support them) that we’ve got your back.”

Rebecca Strang, 2025 Game On! Grant Committee Chair, mentioned of the grant, “Each year I serve on the grant committee is another year I get to see libraries doing amazing things for their communities with games. Seeing games as a catalyst for community building, recreation, and education is a balm during stressful times. The GameRT grant committee looks forward to another round of applications! If you’re applying and wondering how to make sure your submission stands out, remember that library folks love to hear the story behind why you’re building your gaming program.”

ALA members in good standing at present employed at a public, college, tutorial, or particular library within the United States or Canada are eligible to use. Libraries might want to illustrate a plan for a sustainable gaming program created with the funds in addition to monetary want and institutional help for the proposed program. Grant candidates can discover extra particulars about eligibility and standards, together with analysis rubric on the Game On! Grant page of the GameRT website.

The deadline for purposes is March 15, 2026, and the grant winner will probably be introduced at GameRT’s “ALA Play” occasion on the 2026 ALA Annual convention in Chicago this June. Additional data and an utility may be discovered on-line at https://games.ala.org/game-on-grant/.

About the Games and Gaming Round Table

The Games and Gaming Round Table (GameRT) of the American Library Association gives a venue for librarians all in favour of using video games and gaming in libraries of every kind a spot to collect and share. GameRT was fashioned in 2011, changing and lengthening the pre-existing gaming member curiosity group. As a spherical desk, GameRT is constructed round our shared ardour for video games and using gaming inside libraries. With members from all varieties of libraries, GameRT encompasses all kinds of viewpoints, conditions, and person sorts. Look for extra data on the GameRT blog.

About ALA

Established in 1876, the American Library Association (ALA) is a non-profit 501(c)(3) group created to offer management for the event, promotion, and enchancment of library and data companies and the occupation of librarianship as a way to improve studying and guarantee entry to data for all.