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Have you already started planning for your big Día Turns 20 Celebration? April 30 of 2016 marks 20 years of the celebration of Día as the connection of children and books, so ALSC has a funding opportunity to make the celebration even bigger!

Applications for 20 mini-grants of $2,000 are now available. ALSC members in public libraries within 20 miles of a Dollar General retail or corporate location are welcome to apply. Start thinking about how your library would like to celebrate 20 years of connecting children with diverse books and apply now!

Applications are due Monday, February 22, 2016.

The post Apply Now for Día Turns 20 Mini-Grants appeared first on ALSC Blog.

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It’s grant writing time, and for many public libraries, grants are the main driver of funding for new and existing programs. It’s a stressful time, both for those writing the grants, and those awarding them.
The best advice I can give is to be selective! Research what grants are available to you, and make sure what you’re asking for fits the selection criteria of the grant being awarded. Once you’ve identified a grant that matches your needs, review previous grant winners to see if you can identify what made that winning program stand out from the rest of the applicants. Also, work with your program staff to be sure your information is up to date and relevant. Avoid rhetoric and hyperbole. Try to provide anecdotes and testimonies that demonstrate need or previous success. Be specific about outputs and outcomes. The proposal should explicitly state expected practical, tangible outputs. Don’t be afraid to be realistic about your expectations! Make sure to adhere to the formatting and content requirements laid out in the grant application instructions. Proposals not meeting these requirements will often not be considered.

We are looking forward to reading your submissions! The ALSC Library Service to Special Population Children and Their Caregivers Committee will select the winner of  our “Light the Way” award based on the application process. Special population children may include but isn’t limited to: those who have learning or physical differences, those who speak English as a second language, those who are in a non-traditional school environment, those who live in foster care settings, those who are in the juvenile justice system, those who live in non-traditional families, and those who need accommodation services. The winner of this award will be announced at ALA’s Midwinter Meeting. The award consists of a $3,000 grant to assist in conducting exemplary outreach to under-served populations through a new program or an expansion of work already being done.

Not sure if this is the right grant for you? Review these other amazing opportunities!

The “Autism Welcome Here: Library Programs, Services and More” grant.

Looking to expand your collection? The Libri Foundation can help, so can The Lisa Libraries.

Do you need a wide variety of books for your collection? Ask the Library of Congress.

Are you working on a program that needs audio books or videos?

Best of luck to you during the grant writing season!

Lesley Mason is the Youth Services Manager at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library, the DC Public Library’s central branch. She is currently the chair of the ALCS’s Library Service to Special Population Children and Their Caregivers Committee. She earned her Master’s Degree in Library Science from Clarion University. She specializes in Early Literacy and can be reached at [email protected].

The post The ALSC/Candlewick Press “Light the Way: Outreach to the Underserved” Grant is now live! appeared first on ALSC Blog.

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Read It!

The most important thing when applying for a grant is to read the fine print. Knowing what will be expected will protect you from signing up for something that is unachievable. Below are several questions to ask when reviewing the guidelines of a grant.

1. What do you have to provide?
   • Is this a match grant?
   • Do you have to provide volunteer opportunities?
2. If a grant is through an organization, such as the ALA, do you have to be a member?
3.  Do you have to advertise? If so, in what ways?
   • Your library may have policy about how they advertise funding sources, such as corporations or for-profit institutions.
   • Some grants require recognition on all publicity materials, including print and digital materials. This may or may not be feasible for you to do.
4. What statistics will you have to collect?
   • Be sure that you can collect the statistics that are required. It is best to figure out ahead of time how you will collect all necessary stats.
5. What do you have to document in the final report?
   • If you know ahead of time, it is so much easier!
6. What is the project’s timeline going to look like?
   • Will this conflict with other responsibilities? Be sure to find out when application and final reports are due.
7. Is the effort and time worth the outcomes?
   • You know better than anyone if you can handle a project of this scope. Measure whether or not this will be worth it!

After assessing all these factors, one can knowledgably decide whether a particular grant is a good fit for your project. In next week’s post, using statistics in grant applications will be discussed. The hard facts can say it all, so statistics can really illustrate why your project is needed in the community. Stay tuned!

Jaclyn Lewis Anderson is the youth services director at the Madison County Library System.

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Plan It!

The best way to figure out how to get your project funded is to plan out all its details. I like to think of it as "the five W’s”: the who, what, where, when, and why. By thinking through all the details, you kill two birds with one stone.  You end up strategizing how to have successful outcomes, as well as gather all the information typically asked when seeking outside funding.

Who?

•       What age group or demographics will benefit?
•       What evidence shows how target audience will be affected?
•       What staff will be needed?

What?

•    What supplies, equipment, & training are needed?
•    Of these, what does the library already own?
•    What needs to be purchased? How much do these cost?

Where?

•    What is the general timeline?
•    Where will project take place?
•    Do you have the space that is needed?

When?

•    What are the start and end dates?
•    What days and times, if applicable?

Why?

•    Why is this project needed?
•    What are the expected outcomes?

It may seem tedious, but if you can answer these questions, then you are ready to write a grant. Next week, we will learn how to navigate all the details specific to each individual grant.

Jaclyn Lewis Anderson is the youth services director at the Madison County Library System.

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November 1 is a significant deadline for three ALSC professional awards. Fall is professional award season for ALSC. Every year, more than $100,000 is given away through ALSC’s professional awards, grants, and scholarships. These funds are awarded to deserving individuals and libraries across the country. Submit your application or nomination for one of these great awards soon:

Applications open!

• Louise Seaman Bechtel Fellowship – Due Nov. 1, 2015
• ALSC Baker & Taylor Summer Reading Grant – Due Nov. 1, 2015
• The Maureen Hayes Author/Illustrator Award – Due Nov. 1, 2015
• ALSC Distinguished Service Award – Due Dec. 1, 2015
• Light the Way: Library Outreach to the Underserved Grant – Due Dec. 1, 2015

Opening soon!

• Bookapalooza

The post Final Week to Apply for Three ALSC Professional Awards appeared first on ALSC Blog.

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The First Step

Are you interested in applying for grants, but don’t know how to begin? This is a series of weekly posts that will make the grant writing process more transparent. Grants can give you the funds you need for a variety of projects. Creating a new Teen Space, buying additional shelving, investing in technologies, and funding a series of programs are all viable projects for grants.

Before investing a ton of time, check in with your supervisor! See if your project is something that your supervisor will support. Even if your supervisor supports the idea of the project, be sure to convey that you want to seek outside funding and that you are interested in writing a grant. You may or may not be allowed to write a grant, so this bit of clearance is crucial! Once you get the green flag, then you can get started.

This first post will review what types of outside funding are available. By knowing more about the options, you can find the funding that best suits your project. There are two major types of funding outside of a library’s operating budget: grants and sponsorships. Within those options are a variety of subsets.

Table 1:

Although there is always the exception, there are basic differences between grants and sponsorships. Knowing these differences will also help you better decide which path to take.

Table 2: Grants vs. Sponsorships

Grants	Sponsorships
Applications typically must be turned in months in advance	Depends on the sponsor, but can usually be requested a few weeks in advance
Applications can be long and tedious	Can be as simple as writing a letter of request or attending a board meeting
Almost always needs supporting statistics	Sometimes will require supporting statistics
Almost always requires a detailed final report, documenting expenses and results	Letting sponsors know the results of funding is always a good idea, but not always required.
Can provide amounts of funding that are larger than what most sponsors can provide	Can be for large or small amounts, depending on the sponsor.

Great way to obtain small amounts of funding without too much trouble.

Is a great option when sponsors have no additional funding available Is a great way to bring in community groups (FOL, DAR, Rotary Clubs, etc.)

After reviewing which types of funding are available, you may decide that a grant is best for you. Next week, we will review how to lay out all the details of your project. Knowing these details are imperative in the actual grant writing process. Even if you decide to go with a sponsor, this information is still very helpful! See you next week!

Jaclyn Lewis Anderson is the youth services director at the Madison County Library System. 

 

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As of this morning, YALSA is $205 away from reaching our end-of-the year fundraising goal of $1,000. If we hit our goal, a donor has agreed to match it with a $1,000 donation of their own! Please consider making a donation to Friends of YALSA, which supports $16,000 worth of grants, scholarships and awards each year for library staff. Donations can be made online, and details are here: http://www.ala.org/yalsa/givetoyalsa/give. Donations can also be made via text message. Simply, text ALA TEENALA to this number: 41518 to make a $10 donation to YALSA. Thank you for your support and have a wonderful new year!

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ALSA and Baker and Taylor are proud to support the continuing education endeavors of librarians across the country. They offer not one, not two, but three great scholarships to help YALSA members who have never attended ALA Annual the opportunity to do so. And it is a wonderful opportunity. I was lucky enough to win in 2011 and be able to attend Annual in New Orleans. It was a very satisfying experience and allowed me to connect with my teen librarian colleagues and YALSA members in a way I never had via the online environments of list-servs and websites. That one conference gave me the confidence to continue to volunteer for YALSA committees and taskforces, Since 2011, I have had the opportunity to help YALSA’s strategic goals by serving on several different process and selection committees and it has been incredibly rewarding.

The criteria for these grants are pretty simple and available on the website. To paraphrase: you need to be a member of ALA/YALSA, one to ten years experience working with teens (for the Baker and Taylor scholarships only), and you have never attended an ALA Annual conference. For the Broderick scholarship (which is open to MLIS students), you must be currently enrolled in ALA accredited graduate MLIS program. The deadline for applying is December 1. Still not convinced that attending Annual is worth it? Here is what some of the previous years winners have to say.

Julia Hutchins, winner of the Broderick Student scholarship says:

Last year when I was asked to participate in a program at the ALA Annual Conference I was hesitant to say yes, knowing my library could never afford to send me all the way to Las Vegas for this opportunity. I applied for every scholarship and funding opportunity I could find. Amazingly, I won a YALSA scholarship to attend. I had just finished my MLIS from Florida State University the month before the conference. What better way to celebrate finishing library school than at a conference with more than 10,000 of my peers? Not only did YALSA’s scholarship make it possible for me to participate in the “Programs Gone Wrong” panel, but to attend many informative events such as a technology petting zoo and collection development panels. I also met numerous authors and was even able to get autographed books for Summer Reading prizes for teens at my library. The teen who won the autographed copy of The Book Thief will treasure it for years to come. Author Markus Zusak even wrote “Congratulations” inside the cover.   

Heather Schubert, a winner in 2012, states:

I was the recipient of two ALA awards/grants that allotted me the opportunity to attend ALA for the first time. The ALA events I was invited to and the people that I met because of these awards have broadened my horizons as a librarian. I was able to meet librarians from all over the country, whom I still collaborate with to this day. 

Susan Smallsreed, another 2012 recipient says:

Thanks to the YALSA Baker & Taylor Scholarship, I attended my first and only ALA Annual Conference in sunny Anaheim in June of 2012.  Without the grant, I could not have afforded to attend a pre-conference, workshops, all the award banquets, several author events (Libba Bray and Kazo Kibuishi!) and the orgy of the exhibit room floor (Can you say “swag”?) Oh! And don’t forget the great YALSA happy hour and membership meeting  It was an amazing opportunity to completely indulge in my library geek-i-ness.  Thank you, YALSA and Baker & Taylor! 

Finally, Juanita Lamalipour, a 2013 recipient says: I also learned of many new career opportunities available throughout the country.

YALSA and Baker and Taylor and the Broderick scholarship for students are the perfect opportunities to kick your YALSA membership into gear. Apply today! Applications due by December.

—

Sarah Wethern is a youth librarian in Minnesota and is the current chair for the 2015 YALSA Conference Travel Scholarships jury. She is greatly assisted by four hardworking and dedicated librarians across the country.

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The National Program Registry opens for Día on November 1st, so make sure to mark your calendars! The registry serves two purposes. First, your library will be recognized as participating in the El día de los niños/El día de los libros events on April 30, 2015. Additionally, by joining the registry, your library’s program will be part of a national searchable database in which other librarians can peruse your program ideas, get inspired, and hopefully design their own programs around diversity in literature. As a bonus, the registry also increases your library’s publicity and gives you some bragging rights.

I regularly check ALA’s Día website for program ideas, book lists, book club kit ideas, and free downloads. It’s where you can register your 2015 program and become part of the growing Día community. The Día booklist this year will have a STEAM focus, providing enticing possibilities of integrating STEAM content into your programs, displays, or book clubs. The booklist will be out in December, and I’m already anticipating it. I have in mind several STEAM-related programs or displays, including a scientist display honoring minorities in the field; a program on using technology to discover your own unique background and heritage (genealogy); and a program using blown-up prints of various engineering feats for children to guess which counties or persons designed them. The possibilities are endless!

Don’t forget that there are mini-grants available this year. You can check out more information on how to apply for one, and the approaching deadline, via the Día website or the Día Facebook Page. In previous years, libraries across the country have hosted everything from poetry readings, border dances, festivals and food tastings as Día events. We can’t wait to see what you all come up with for 2015! Start thinking about Día now. Remember to put your program in the database so we can all be amazed at what you’re doing for your diverse and dynamic communities!

Reminder! ALSC is now accepting mini-grant applications for libraries through the Día initiative. Mini-grants will be used to initiate a Building STEAM with Día program in libraries. Up to 20 mini-grants will be awarded at $1,500 each. Applications are due Friday, October 17 at 5pm Central.

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Emily Scherrer is the Library Administrator for Sierra Vista Public Library, Arizona and is writing this post for the Public Awareness Committee. As a librarian living and working in a “border town,” she is a big advocate for diverse programming and collections.  You can contact her at [email protected]

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ALSC is now accepting mini-grant applications for libraries through the Día initiative. Mini-grants will be used to initiate a Building STEAM with Día program in libraries. Programs will focus on bringing culturally diverse and appropriate STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math) activities to awarded communities. Up to 20 mini-grants will be awarded at $1,500 each.

Mini-grant awardees will also be invited to attend ALSC’s Diversity Forum which will be held at the American Library Association Midwinter Meeting on Friday, January 30, 2015 in Chicago. Awardees will receive a $500 travel stipend to attend.

Intended as an expansion of El día de los niños/El día de los libros (Día), the mini-grants will be awarded to libraries that demonstrate a need to better address the diverse backgrounds within their communities and demonstrate interest in hosting culturally diverse and appropriate STEAM programs.

The mini-grants are part of the Everyone Reads @ your library grant awarded to ALSC from the Dollar General Literacy Foundation. In addition to these mini-grants, funding from this grant will also allow ALSC to host a National Diversity Forum and create additional resources including a Building STEAM with Día Booklist and Toolkit.

The application deadline is 5pm CST on Wednesday, October 17, 2014.

Please review the below documents prior to applying to this grant.

Grant Fact Sheet
Grant Requirements and Guidelines
Grant Application

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BY CRISTIN O’KEEFE APTOWICZ

In the summer of 2010, I gave up what were the defining elements of my life for over a decade—my New York City apartment, my arts-related job in Soho and my role as host of a popular Lower East Side reading series—all to pursue my dream of writing the biography of 19th century collector of medical oddities.

More than a few people in my life thought I was crazy. Sometimes the person staring back at me from the mirror thought I was crazy too. But I knew that the idea couldn’t be completely insane because of one reason: I had earned a yearlong residency at an Ivy League university to do it.

To confirm, I was not the likeliest candidate to receive such a residency. I didn’t (and still don’t) have a MFA, nor did I study nonfiction writing as an undergrad. The vast majority of my arts career had been developed within the New York City poetry slam community, about as far from academia as you can get. My earliest poetry collections were self-published, and had titles like Dear Future Boyfriend: This is What I Sound Like and Hot Teen Slut, a “memoir-in-verse” about the year I spent writing and editing erotica.

But even from the earliest parts of my career, I understand that the biggest obstacle between me and the writing grants, fellowships or residencies I coveted was myself. After all, the only true way to guarantee you won’t get a grant is by not applying for it.

And so, it is in that spirit that I present to you a brief guide to submitting for grants (which typically provide writers with financial support), residencies (which offer writers a work and/or living space to create for little or no cost) or fellowship (often times a hybrid of grant and residency, where a writer receives ongoing support in someway) with the hope that it will inspire you to put yourself out – no matter how new or established you are – and challenge yourself and your art for the better.

1. Believe in yourself. That might sound silly to state, but it’s important. You need to realize that you are talent worth rewarding, and that your ideas deserve attention and support. Believe in yourself, and go to Step Two.

2. Evaluate Yourself. Note I did not say “Cast Judgment on Yourself.” No, evaluate yourself means looking at everything you bring to your art. Be specific and catalogue it all. Please know that every perceived minus you feel you have, can be a plus. There are just as many grants and fellowships for new/emerging artists (for which artists already knee-deep in their career cannot apply) as there are for more established artists. Where ever you are in your career, there are grants and funding opportunities for you!

3. Figure Out What You Want To Do. What do you need to help you take your art to the next level? Would it be funding, to help buy supplies? If so, how much (or really, how little) money would it take to make a real difference? Would you prefer a residency, to give you time and focus? If so, how long could you leave your life to participate in a residency: two weeks? two months? a year? Be honest and specific, but don’t be afraid to be ambitious too!

4. Research Opportunities. Too often, artists will get overwhelmed at this stage, but that’s because they put too much pressure on themselves to get started on grants immediately. Instead, I would suggest making it a two week long game for yourself, where you collect as much information on grants, residencies and fellowships as you can which fit you and your vision of where you can go with your art (now, or in the future). It’s as easy as creating a Word doc, and copy & pasting information. The name of the grant or fellowship, a sentence-long descriptor, a URL and the deadline date is really all you need. Put the information in chronological order, closest deadline date to farthest, and pretty soon you’ve created a pretty spectacular to-do list.

“But how do we find about grants, residencies and fellowships?” you are probably asking.

The easiest answer is the most obvious one: search. Just plug in your chosen art form (“writing,” “fiction,” “playwriting,” etc…) and the word “grants” (or “residencies” or “fellowships”) and see what comes up. However, please take into consideration that the smaller the pool of applicants, the greater your chance at a success. So instead of just searching “writing grants,” try searching “poetry grants.” Another tip: searching grants that are just within your state or your city (the name of your city or state with the phrase “arts council” can yield great results).

Another way to discover grants, fellowships and residencies is to look up the bios of writers you admire to see what funding they’ve received when they were at your stage in their career.

And lastly, another incredible resource is NYFA National Artists Grants. It’s the largest of its kind in the county, and it’s absolutely free to use:

And now the big one, Step 5.

5. Just Do It. Don’t overthink the applications. As long as you qualify at the basest level, submit. The first application you do will be the hardest, as you will likely creating everything you need from scratch: bios, artistic resumes, samples, project summaries, etc. But once these have been created once, you’ll be able to repurpose them for every future application. So don’t let the first one scare you.

And if you freeze up in the middle of your application, try thinking about what the granting organization NEEDS to hear from you, instead of what you WANT to say. It’s basic enough advice, but you’ll be surprised how often artists get caught up polishing the bells & whistles of their application, and ignore its heart: who are you, and how will awarding you this opportunity ultimately benefit you (the artist) and the organization (whose mission is to help artists just like you).

6. Be Proud of Yourself. The moment you submit an application, you’ll immediately be obsessed with knowing if you’ve won or not. That’s natural, so be forgiving. But also be proud. The moment you submit your application is the moment that you prove to yourself that your work is worthy and deserving. Regardless if you win or if you lose, that new sense of self is something you should honor and celebrate.

7. Spread the Word. This is the final step, but in many ways, it’s one of the most important. As writers, we need to empower each other to take these steps forward, and the best way I’ve found is to match artist friends we believe in with grants that would make good fits for them. It’s natural to feel territorial about grants you yourself are applying to, but if you stumble across a good grant that you can’t (or aren’t) applying for, try to find to match it with another writer you know. Even artists who seem more established and in the know may be extremely grateful at your thoughtfulness, and poets who are peers (or are even less established than you) will surely be heartened and inspired by your attention.

And that’s it. The first few times you submit can be rocky, but as you get more comfortable with the process, you might even find yourself looking forward to it. Grant applications can be interesting new ways for you to examine your art and your process. They can ask you questions about your projects that you’ve never thought of, and force you to create things (budgets, time lines, etc…) that will only help you and your project in the long run, regardless if you get the funding or not.

Before I wrap this up, I want to tell you two short personal stories about me and grants.

I was 23-years-old when I received my first book contract to write a history of the poetry slam movement. I immediately set about applying for funding to help me with what I knew would be the enormous costs of tackling such a project. Over the course of three years, I applied for several dozen different funding opportunities. I got exactly zero of them.

However, I can also say—with absolute honesty—that I would never have finished the book without that relentless parade of (unsuccessful) applications. Each one helped me better understand my project, and the steps that it would take to cross the finish line with it. The applications asked me questions about timelines, budgets, whom I imagined the audience would be. It asked me if it could be taught in the classroom, if it would appeal to people outside of my community, if it helped shine a positive spotlight on any under-represented communities. It asked me about me: where I had as a writer to actually finish the project I was pitching.

With each application, I grew a deeper understanding of the book I was writing, and grew more and more determined to do it regardless if I received the funding I once thought was so necessary. And soon—with zero funding and a lot of hard work—my book, Words In Your Face: A Guided Tour Through Twenty Years of the New York City Poetry Slam, came out in the Fall of 2007.

When it was time to write my second nonfiction book, I knew exactly what to do. I searched for appropriate grants, residencies and fellowships, lined-up my recommendation writers, and prepared my CV, artist statements and summaries of the project. And then I began applying. I applied to everything I could, and shortly after submitting my first batch of applications, I received my first rejection. And then another. And then another. Soon I had wracked up an entire year’s worth of rejection. I had reached the point where the very next application I was slated to start was the very first one I applied for the previous year.

But then I opened my email’s spam folder and found an email from the University of Pennsylvania. Certain that it was rejection, I opened it up to read without even removing from the spam folder. You can imagine my surprise when the first sentence congratulated me for being named the 2010-2011 ArtEdge Writer-in-Residence at the University of Pennsylvania, and I knew in an instant that leaving my comfortable life in New York City was the choice I had to make. A year’s worth of applications had forged in me a deep need to write this book, and the greenlight that UPenn had given me was the last piece of the puzzle. I knew I could do it, and know—with UPenn’s residency—I knew how I would do it as well.The UPenn residency turned out to be the first of several fellowships and residencies I would receive, each one absolutely instrumental to the creation of my resulting book, Dr Mütter’s Marvels: A True Tale of Intrigue and Innovation at the Dawn of Modern Medicine, which was published in Fall 2014 by Gotham Books / Penguin.

When young writers ask me for my advice about how they can secure funding for their own projects, I tell them the stories of both my books. Because to me the value of these applications isn’t just the financial support they can provide if you win one. No, there is a lot to be gleaned from those first steps too: to find yourself and your project worthy enough to put in an application. That, my friends, can be the real game-changer.

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Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz (@coaptowicz) is the author of six books of poetry (including Dear Future Boyfriend, Hot Teen Slut,Working Class Represent, Oh, Terrible Youth and Everything is Everything) as well as the nonfiction book, Words In Your Face: A Guided Tour Through Twenty Years of the New York City Poetry Slam.

Cristin’s most recent awards include the ArtsEdge Writer-In-Residency at the University of Pennsylvania (2010-2011), a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Poetry (2011) and the Amy Clampitt Residency (2013). Her sixth book of poetry, The Year of No Mistakes, will be released by Write Bloody Publishing in Fall 2013 and her second nonfiction book, Dr. Mütter’s Marvels: A True Tale of Intrigue and Innovation at the Dawn of Modern Medicine, was released by Gotham Books (Penguin) in September 4, 2014

 

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Need some new books for your YA collection? Consider applying for the Great Books Giveaway administered by YALSA. Each year, the YALSA office receives approximately 2000 newly published books, videos, CDs and other materials targeted primarily towards young adults. These are awarded to libraries that submit winning applications to the Great Books Giveaway. For more information, visit this page and review the guidelines below.
Guidelines

1. Applicants must be personal members of YALSA as well as ALA. Organizational members are not eligible.
2. All applications must be received complete in the YALSA office no later than December 1.
3. All entries must include the cover sheet provided by YALSA.
4. The application must be signed by the director of the public library, the superintendent of schools, the building-level administrator or the director of the institution.
5. Applicants must agree to accept all the materials, understanding this collection is material targeted primarily for young adults, ages 12-18.
6. The cover sheet, supplementary materials and an electronic copy of the current, board-approved collection development policy must be submitted via email by December 1. Incomplete applications will not be considered.
7. Shipping and handling charges are the responsibility of the institution selected to receive the award.

This content originally appeared in an email from YALSA.

Filed under: Grants Tagged: free books, yalsa

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“Applications are now being accepted for the Annual Virginia Hamilton and Arnold Adoff Creative Outreach Grants for Teachers and Librarians. Two grants up to $1,000 each will be given. One grant will be given to a teacher and another to a librarian for proposals to develop new classroom or library programs that raise awareness of multicultural literature among young people; particularly but not exclusively through the works of Virginia Hamilton. The application deadline is Feb. 28 for that year’s award. Complete instructions and proposal guidelines are available on the Grant Application.”

http://www.kent.edu/virginiahamiltonconference/awards/upload/grant_application-new.pdf

Filed under: Diversity Issues, Grants, Opportunities Tagged: grant, Virginia Hamilton Conference

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Today is Giving Tuesday, a day for us all to take a time to remember the non-profits. I’m a bit tired of the gimmicky ways to help me spend money. Cyber Monday is silly because we don’t need to go to work anymore to have internet access for online shopping. Opening stores on holidays defeats the purpose of the holiday. There may be fewer days between Thanksgiving and Christmas, but the amount of money people have to spend is fixed as is the number of people we have to shop for. So much pressure to spend!!

Maybe someone will get creative and come up with Travel Thursday, a day for deep discounted travel. Perhaps I could then afford a midwinter vacation to Fiji to relax, to Jo’burg to explore or to Kaoshiung to visit old friends.

Do you take advantage of the “sales” on these days? Or use the reminder today to support a non-profit?

There does happen to be a lot of good stuff going on this week that won’t cost you a penny!

In the spirit of Giving Tuesday, YALSA is pleased to announce that from January 1, 2014, forward, all live webinars will be free to YALSA members!  To participate in the Jan. 16^th webinar, “What’s Next for Teen Services,” sign up at https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/TBTFQ56.  Thank you for all that you do for YALSA and have a great day!

NPR is running #NPRBlacksinTech from 2-20 December to call attention to the small number of Blacks who currently work in the technology field, A mere 5% of America’s scientists and engineers are Black, according to a 2010 study by the National Science Foundation.  Follow the discussion on Twitter, on NPR’s Tell Me More Blog or on Flipboard (I follow it here on my cell phone.) Last night, the conversation was about how to raise a coder.

I bet the @BlackGirlNerds are following this convo!! I recently discovered this group on Twitter and was introduced to so many new and interesting activities and events! I searched to see if there was a Latina and Asian girl nerd group. Though I did not see one, I did notice names that would imply not everyone following @BlackGirlNerds is Black. Nerds rock!

I will post a December list of new releases, please be warned that it is EXTREMELY short!! While I don’t post self published on the list (too many, too hard to find them all) I do have to mention that Zetta Elliott has gone back to self publishing and yesterday released “The Deep”. I’ve purchased my copy and I’ll review it here once I’m done with BFYA.

Speaking of BFYA, I’ve received a grant through the Indiana State University Center for Community Engagement that will provide funds for me to distribute over 700 books published from late 2012-2013 to needy high school libraries throughout the state of Indiana. If you are an IN high school librarian/media specialist, please apply! And, please spread the word!

Do you need great learning apps for your children or students? Check out these apps for recording learning.

Lawrence Public Schools is looking for America’s Outstanding Urban Educators.The Sontag Prize in Urban Education recognizes outstanding teaching in Mathematics, English Language Arts (ELA) and other disciplines. Educators chosen for the Sontag Prize will lead classes as part of the LPS Acceleration Academy, a program designed to provide targeted small group support for students. Not only is this an rare way to recognize outstanding educators, it’s also a good way for Lawrence Public Schools to attract quality educators.

A new feature on Google Scholar is Google Library.

You can save articles right from the search page, organize them by topic, and use the power of Google  Scholar’s full-text search & ranking to quickly find just the one you want – at any time and from anywhere. You decide what goes into your library and we’ll provide all the goodies that come with Scholar search results – up to date article links, citing articles, related articles, formatted citations, links to your university’s subscriptions, and more. And if you have a public Scholar profile, it’s easy to quickly set up your library with the articles you want – with a single click, you can import all the articles in your profile as well as all the articles they cite.

In the Margins committee will select and review the best books of the year for: multicultural youth (primarily African-American and Latino) from a street culture in restrictive custody  who may be reluctant readers.  Titles of interest will be unusual, possibly un-reviewed, have multicultural characters, dealing with difficult situations including (but not limited to) street life, marginalized populations, crime, justice, war, violence, abuse, addiction, etc.

Find more information about the committee here: http://www.youthlibraries.org/margins-committee

To nominate a title, nominate here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dERfNlAwOXMxSVJtbWw3amo2RXo0a2c6MQ

To apply to be on the committee next year, sign up here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dDZqR1RIQ0FQOGJkVTRJcmZoVWVfN1E6MQ

In the Margins Official Nominations, 2013

Asante, M.K. Buck. Spiegel & Grau. August 2013. 272p. HC $25.00. ISBN 9780812993417. A broken family and community are where he’s from;  poetry and music get him to where he wants to be.

Chris, Terry L. Zero Fade. Curbside Splender Publishing. September 2013. 294p. PB $12.00 ISBN 978-0988480438. How’s Kevin ever going to figure out his problems with girls, bullies, friends and the angst of seventh grade if his wise-assed mouth keeps getting him grounded?

Coley, Liz. Pretty Girl 13. Harper Collins. March 2013. 352p.HC $17.99. ISBN 9780062127372. She’s 16 but she can’t remember what happened the last 3 years.

Gagnon, Michelle. Don’t Turn Around. HarperCollins. August 2012. 320p. HC $17.99. ISBN 9780062102904. If you run, they will find you.

Goodman, Shawn. Kindness for Weakness. Delacorte. May 2013. 272p. HC $16.99. 9780385743242.

Greene, Robert and 50 Cent. 50th Law.  Smarter Comics. October 2012. 80p. PB $14.95. ISBN 9781610820066. Keys to power and words of wisdom.

Jacobs, John Horner. The Twelve-Fingered Boy.Carolrhoda Books.February 2013. 280p.  HC $17.95. ISBN 9780761390077. Jack’s hands aren’t the only things that hold secrets.

Johnson, Albert. H.N.I.C. Infamous Books. July 2013.128p. HC $11.95 ISBN 9781617752322. Will Black let Pappy get out alive?

Jones, Marilyn Denise. From Crack to College and Vice Versa. June 2013. 105p. ebook $9.99. ASIN: B00DH82HIA. The title says it all.

Kowalski, William. Just Gone. Raven Books. September 2013. 128p. $9.99 ISBN 9781459803275. The world contains strange truths.

Langan, Paul.  Promises to Keep. Townsend Press. January 2013. 151p. PB $5.95. ISBN 9781591943037.  Keeping his promise just might save his life.

Langan, Paul.  Survivor. Townsend Press. January 2013. 138p. PB $5.95. ISBN 9781591943044. Avoiding the past is not an option.

Lewis, John.  March Book 1 Top Shelf Productions.  August 2013. 128p. PB $14.99. ISBN 978-1603093002. ANNOTATION

Little, Ashley. The New Normal. Orca. March 2013. 232p. PB $12.95. ISBN 9781459800748. No hair, no sisters and stalked by a drug dealer. Where’s the upside to Tamar’s life?

McKay, Sharon E. War Brothers: The Graphic Novel. Illustrated by Lafance, Daniel.  Annick Press. 2013. PB $18.95. ISBN 9781554514885. Kidnapped and forced to kill for the Lord’s Resistance Army.

McVoy, Terra Elan. Criminal.  Simon Pulse. May, 2013. 288p. HC $16.99. ISBN 978144242622. Dee was everything to her. Until he killed a man for another girl.

Medina, Meg. Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass. Candlewick. March 2013. 260p. PB $16.99. ISBN 9780763658595. It’s gonna happen.

Miller, Kirsten. How to Lead a Life of Crime. Razorbill. February 2013. 434p. HC $18.99. ISBN 9781595145185.  Can Flick stay alive long enough to find out what’s really happening at Mandel Academy?

Nussbaum, Susan. Good Kings, Bad Kings. Algonquin Books. May 2013. 304p. HC $23.95.  ISBN 9781616202637.  Most of them could make it on their own – if they could get out of lockdown.

Rivera, Jeff. No Matter What. CreateSpace. October 2013. 112p. PB $3.95. ISBN 9781493544141. Will Jennifer wait for Dio? Will Dio get it together?

Shantz-Hilkes, Chloe (ed.). Hooked: When Addiction Hits Home. Annick Pr. March 2013. 120p. HC $21.95. ISBN 9781554514755. PB $12.95. 9781554514748. Living with addiction can be just as painful as suffering from one.

Stella, Leslie. Permanent Record. Skyscape. March 2013. 282p. HC $17.99. ISBN 9781477816394.  New School. Will Badi revert to his destructive ways?

Van Diepen, Allison. Takedown. Simon Pulse. September 2013. 288p. HC $16.99. ISBN 9781442463110. How many losses before Darren can takedown Diamond Tony’s organization?

Young, Pamela Samuels. Anybody’s Daughter. Goldman House Publishing.  November 2013. 374p. PB $16.99. ISBN 9780989293501 When Brianna gets targeted and tricked into a sex trafficking ring, Uncle Dre using his connections as a former drug dealer fights against time to save her.

Youth Communications. Rage:True Stories by Teens About Anger. Free Spirit. July 2013.176p. PB $11.99. ISBN 9781575424149. How to manage your anger, create a life of control and a future with possibilities.

Wells, Polly (ed.). Freaking Out: Real-life Stories About Anxiety.Annick Press. June 2013. 136p. $12.95. ISBN 9781554515448. From phobias to PTSD, how can you get over Freaking Out?

Zambrano, Mario Alberto. Loteria. Harper. July 2013. 288p. $21.99. ISBN 9780062268549. The cards help Luz remember the hand she was dealt.

 

 

 

Filed under: Causes, Grants, Me Being Me Tagged: #NPRBlacksinTech, @blackgirlnerds, Giving Tuesday, Google Library, Google Scholar, In The Margins, Sontag Prize, yalsa

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Hows does the Public Awareness Committee help to promote library services and cultural diversity in programs to children? As youth services librarians, we are busy with the day to day task of providing wonderful reference service, homework help, book recommendations, and planning early literacy programs. At time we all feel overwhelmed and think, “How can we ever juggle one more responsibility?”. This is where the PAC come in with lots of ready-made ideas that an individual can evaluate and curtail to their unique library and community needs. Several of the tools shared below will be great jumping off points that are very accessible and will get your creative juices flowing!

One main initiative that PAC extends support for is the celebrating of El Día de los niños/El día de los libros, Children’s Book Day, which is traditionally celebrated on April 30. Founded by the children’s book author Pat Mora in 1996, Día honors the power and pleasure of books and reading all year long by promoting programs that honor multiculturalism, often culminating in a spring fiesta! As an expansion of this, libraries have an opportunity to participate in the Día Family Book Club. Up to 15 mini-grants of $2000 will be awarded by the Dollar General Literacy Foundation to public libraries who demonstrate a need to better address diversity within their community. For more information and the application form, visit our grant page here. The deadline for grant applications is November 30, 2013.

Whether you plan a big community extravaganza or just a small branch program, Día involves beginning somewhere! Here are a few places to look that would be most helpful in getting started. The very detailed ALSC Día website provides a wonderful booklist and lots of other great resources for programming.  The PAC is maintaining a great Pinterest presence with various boards categorized by country which provide suggestions for wonderful cultural crafts and cooking activities. Follow our pins on the Día: Diversity in Action page. Día also has a Facebook page which promotes multicultural book titles, extension activities and author interviews. Be sure to like us on Facebook here! Now all you have to do is get started!

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Debby Gold is a Librarian at the Parma Heights Branch of the Cuyahoga County Public Library in Ohio and is writing this post for the Public Awareness Committee. She is also the Public Awareness Commitee Chair. You can reach her at [email protected].

 

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BWI/YALSA Collection Development Grant:
Do you wish there was extra money to buy more items for your library’s teen section? Are your teens wishing they had a larger selection of materials at their public library? Then this might be your lucky day! The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) is now accepting applications for the BWI/YALSA Collection Development Grant. The $1,000 grant, made possible by BWI, will be awarded to up to two YALSA members to be used to support the purchase of new materials to support collection development in public libraries. The grant is also designed to recognize the excellent work of those YALSA members working directly with young adults ages 12-18 in a public library.

The committee is looking for proposals that present innovative ideas on how to expand young adult collections. Applicants will be judged on the basis of the degree of need for additional materials for young adults in their library, the degree of their current collection’s use, and the benefits this grant will bring to young adults. Other criteria, grant information and the application form can be found on the YALSA Awards and Grants website,http://www.ala.org/yalsa/awardsandgrants/bwi. Applications must be submitted online no later than December 1, 2013.

Filed under: Grants Tagged: Grants, yalsa

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In this series, I am looking at sustainability in our work. The first post addressed some larger issues and thoughts about costs of ongoing projects followed by a post on grant fails   Today, let's consider the sustainability factor of  successful grant-funded  projects.

So what are key components to create sustainability in grant-funded projects?

First don't write it if you can't see a way to sustain the project, keep it fresh or easily make changes to evolve it to meet changing community needs. Taking a pile of money, creating a thing and letting it languish seems to be wasteful. If, in your grant planning, you figure what you need to keep the initiative or service going beyond the grant, it means two things: the grant start-up money is well-used to kick things off and you actually need the service or initiative enough to justify putting future general budget funds into keeping it fresh.

Grant Wins
Here are two examples of sustainability thinking we used in creating and thinking about projects we wanted to continue beyond their initial grant cycle.

2nd Grade Library Stars
Based on meetings with our LMC colleagues who suggested we bring in one grade level for an introduction to the library, we decided to reach out to all second graders and offer a field trip adventure at our Main Library location.  The biggest expense for this was going to be transportation - only one school is in walking distance of our Youth Services Department.

We wrote a Community Foundation grant for buses for $1000 and looked at our program budget for the future to fund the project in ensuing years. If we didn't book three outside performers, we would have that money.

The tours were a huge hit with the teachers, kids and staff. The worth of them was so apparent that the schools funded the buses the second year. Now we are looking at adding seventh grade and kindergarten field trips annually and the schools have agreed to split the bus costs.  This makes these visits sustainable for both organizations.  And because of the impact of the visits and the positives that have resulted, if we needed to fund raise to keep them going, I believe we would have no trouble in gaining support.

Baby Book Bees
We offer our 1000 Books program to children ages 1-5 but really wanted to catch families with their children from birth. So we developed a pre-1000 BksB4K efforts asking parents to read 100 books to their baby before their first birthday.  We decided that offering a little bib at sign-up with the library name and a book as a culminating incentive would be swell.

We wrote a Target grant to fund these two pieces and we received that grant - for twice the amount we asked for! This allowed us to fund the effort beyond a year and get better pricing on the bibs and books.  And how will we maintain this effort beyond this grant funding? We plan to enfold this initiative into the funds for 1000 Books (that original $7000 raised). Once this money is expended, we'll look into using existing programming money to continue or do a special fundraising appeal.

I think, dear readers, you are starting to see how thread of funding for projects needs to be worked into the warp and weave of regular budgets for programs and collections if sustainability is a goal.

Next post, we'll leave special projects behind and look at the sustainability of our programs. See you then!

Part 1
Part 2
Part 4

Graphic courtesy of Pixabay

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In this series of blog posts, I am looking at sustainability in our work. The first post addressed some larger issues and thoughts about costs of ongoing projects.  Today, let's consider the pitfalls of grant-funded  projects.

It is exciting to plan, write and receive a grant - but the devil is in the details.  What will you do once the funds are expended to maintain, evolve or change the grant-funded project. How will you keep it fresh? How do you build in sustainability?

I have noticed a tendency to create the project or service or kit or thing. And then when it is done, it is done.  There is no money to add, enhance or change what has been created. The grant-funded initiative becomes static, dated and either reluctantly sunset long past it's usefulness or in place forever because it was...grant-funded!

Grant Fail
Two examples of this grant-funded ennui in our library collection were a set of middle grade book discussion kits and "Treasure Boxes"- themed tubs full of preschool books and manipulatives to rotate to daycares. Both were outstanding original ideas, well-executed and did exactly what the grant was intended to do - for a time.

Book Discussion Kits
The book discussion kits had ten books and a great discussion guide in special bags hung in a closet. As the years rolled on and the reading tastes of the target audience changed, the kits became less useful since no new ones were created or old ones withdrawn. Also compounding their decreased usefulness was difficulty in accessing them - both because they were out of browsing view in a closet and extremely tricky to find through the catalog.

The solution?  Let the old kits go. Create new kits of five books each and house them near the fiction collection and accessible to the public. Buy enough bags to ensure we can develop 2-3 new kits each year for ten years and use the existing book budget to fund the purchase of the books. Be prepared to do great PR, withdraw kits that don't move and continuously add to keep content fresh.

Unsustainable was changed to sustainable.

Treasure Boxes
Created almost fifteen years ago, these tubs were stuffed full of goodness - fifteen-twenty books, puppets, cassettes, teacher material, hands-on manipulatives. They rotated in our outreach visits to the daycares we visited.  Each daycare had a box for the month. All good you say?

The problem again was that the content of the boxes never changed. For years, our providers received the same books over and over again.  To me, the message we were sending was that these are the only books we had on popular themes. It was as if we were caught in a Groundhog Day time warp that no one could ever escape. While we are spending ten of thousands of dollars a year on new materials for the general public in YS, the daycares were only provided with the same 100-150 titles.

The solution? Let the Treasure boxes go. Begin new service to the same daycares - Books2Go. Ten books per classroom are selected, bagged and delivered monthly to daycares.  Each daycare then has 40-70 unique titles to share among the classrooms. We use our existing collection and a variety of titles pass through the hands of the providers to the kids.  For teachers interested in particular themes, we encourage them to contact us and pick up a collection of five books matching their theme that we pull on their behalf.

Static morphed into dynamic and the service is sustainable as long as our department aide can drive and deliver and our collection of picture books exists.

Next post, let's look at grant triumphs in terms of sustainability.

Part 1
Part 3
Part 4

Graphic courtesy of Pixabay

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The Coretta Scott King Book Awards Donation Grant was created to help build collections and bring books into the lives of children in latchkey, preschool programs, faith-based reading projects, homeless shelters, charter schools and underfunded libraries. An enduring message of the Committee’s Public Awareness Campaign is that books and reading can only add value to children’s lives if books are present with opportunities to read. The Coretta Scott King Book Awards Committee believes children lives must be saturated with books and reading opportunities. The Book Donation Grant addresses these objectives.

Though the grant is particularly interested in giving books to nontraditional institutions that provide both educational and custodial services to children and their families, under-funded libraries are welcome to apply.

Applications must be received by January 31, 2013.

For additional information, including background, criteria, guidelines, and application instructions, visit, www.ala.org/emiert/cskbookawards/bookgrant.

Filed under: Grants Tagged: The Coretta Scott King Book Awards Donation Grant

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The Coretta Scott King Book Awards Donation Grant was created to help build collections and bring books into the lives of children in latchkey, preschool programs, faith-based reading projects, homeless shelters, charter schools and underfunded libraries. An enduring message of the Committee’s Public Awareness Campaign is that books and reading can only add value to children’s lives if books are present with opportunities to read. The Coretta Scott King Book Awards Committee believes children lives must be saturated with books and reading opportunities. The Book Donation Grant addresses these objectives.

Though the grant is particularly interested in giving books to nontraditional institutions that provide both educational and custodial services to children and their families, under-funded libraries are welcome to apply.

Applications must be received by January 31, 2013.

For additional information, including background, criteria, guidelines, and application instructions, visit, www.ala.org/emiert/cskbookawards/bookgrant.

Filed under: Causes, Grants Tagged: Coretta Scott King Book Donation Grant

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I am stingy with my hard-earned money. So when I decide to donate to worthy organizations and causes you can be sure I feel confident my money will be used in a responsible manner, supporting causes that match my values and passions.

That is why I donate to Friends of YALSA every year. Like you, I am passionate about teens and teen library services. I actively seek out the ideas, inspiration, and motivation YALSA provides through blogs, listservs, publications, conferences, etc., etc. I also want to support my colleagues in their efforts to provide excellence for our young people. The grants, scholarships, and awards offered to members by YALSA enhance our entire profession.

I invite you to donate to Friends of YALSA along with me. Your support will be a positive influence for teens and those who serve them. Your money will indeed be used in a responsible manner as YALSA continues to give us the capacity to engage, serve and empower teens.

Please donate today. If we can raise $2000 by the end of August we will receive an additional $1000 from a generous donor. So each of your dollars will actually be worth $1.50!! What a great deal!!

Any amount is welcome, and it will only take a moment of your time to donate. The URL is: www.ala.org/yalsa/givetoyalsa/give

Thank you so much for your support.

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