How to use this Page

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.

Today kicks off first day of National Library Legislative Day and your ALSC Advocacy and Legislative Committee has made it easier than ever this year for YOU to participate from home!

Explore the Everyday Advocacy website to find fantastic resources so you can tell law makers why libraries are important to your community.

Find talking points and contact information so you can tell your Congressmen and Senator what libraries are doing in their own district. Download and personalize a letter template to send to your lawmakers asking them to support library funding through LSTA, Innovative Approaches to Literacy (IAL), and other important bills.

The website also has ready to go tweets like the ones found below that allow you to just click and tweet!

• Tweet 1: It pays 2 support #libraries! Investment in libraries = investment in education & lifelong learning #VLLD14
• Tweet 2: Using <2% of tax dollars #libraries provide services to 2/3 of public! Support Libraries! #VLLD14

Advocating for libraries has never been easier! Make sure you take action this week for your library and your community!

At least, if you get them from CafeScribe.

Apparently they plan to issue scratch-n-sniff stickers with their eBooks?
Read all about it in Wired Campus.

Also in today's NYT. If you think library fund-raising is bad, at least we're not cleaning bleachers. (At least, I hope you're not having to clean bleachers to keep the doors open!)

And good news for Jackson Conty, OR: looks like the may get to re-open after all. With shorter hours and less qualified staff. Hmm. What I didn't realize, was that Jackson County would be joining a group of libraries already under management by LSSI:

NYC game developers Large Animal Games have created a downloadable PC video game based on bird sounds and expertise provided by the Macaulay Library at Cornell’s Lab of Ornithology.

Which is where I work.

The game is called Snapshot Adventures. It was recently was acquired by Yahoo! games, which is a great for both the Lab and for environmental education, since part of the money it earns will directly fund our ecology work.

You can play it for free here.

We are having such a gorgeously warm day here. I couldn't resist taking a break from the task list to say hello and check in with IAG readers. Like everyone lately, I've been on the road.

I did a presentation on "How to Market the Archives" at the MAC/SOA conference in Columbus, OH last week. It was really fun to think about archivists for a bit (as opposed to my usual dominant thought-audience, librarians). Note to self: Archivists Do Not Necessarily Identify with Librarians.

The Brand is not necessarily the same, and the public's perceptions of the Archives are not necessarily the same. It sparked a really good conversation about what IS the Archive Brand, and how is it differentiated from libraries, museums or historical societies. And how is it relevant to today's users (esp. if the original source materials are NOT digitized!)?

Any archivists or would-be archivists, chime in here.

What else have I been doing? I spent about a week and a half crossing the country from east coast to west for our National Library Advocacy project, listening to people talk about libraries, their library experience and what they think about library funding.

The results have been very very interesting. We did indeed go to Jackson County, Oregon, to hear what people had to say. We also went to Minneapolis, Minnesota--because the library funding there has been a hot topic for the community and community leaders. We went to small towns, big towns, and many places in between.

In reflecting back on it, many people in this country deeply value what the Library has to offer, and the richness that librarians bring to their knowledge-seeking endeavors. Of course, many people wonder what the right answer is, for library funding in their communities, too.

Next week I am off to Dublin and then Maryland, to talk about DataSPIKE and more DataSPIKE with the UpCounty Libraries. Should be fun!

Lots going on, it seems. I have smattering on unrelated items you may find of interest:

Farecast. An online tool to help you know whether to buy those tickets to Aruba now, or wait until next week. Very easy to use with nice information design.

Social Issues portal. News of this site came out a couple of days ago...put out by Gale. Nice for a snapshot of "current hot topics" of the sort that PAIS is so good at. Makes sense to include Crime, Animal rights, Genetic engineering, Islamic fundamentalism...but working women? That one was new to me, as far as a controversial topic. But my Americanism may be showing...

New York City Council has proposed the library stay open for 6 days a week. News clip from LJ. And Hennepin County recommends a merger with Minneapolis library system. We're headed to Minneapolis next week, to visit my brother and their family... (thanks to our awesome reference librarian on staff for the link.)

And we are all hats in hand for Mr. Vonnegut today. 624 works in WorldCat.

Eric has been good enough to send me two media video clips in as many days, and I'd like to share them with you.

The first is a touching, heartwarming story that just about brought me to tears. It's a woman from Jackson County, Oregon who describes what an emotional, transformative experience the library and library staff have been for her, in her life.

Her article led me to the Jackson County blog--which I had read before but it's worth reading again now, as closure time nears.

Concerned citizens have started the Save Our Library Political Action Committee. This is way cool but too bad it had to come to this...

A TV clip from the CBS Early Show that looks at positive (Princeton, NJ) and negative (Jackson Co.) library funding areas. Nice plug from Leslie Burger in there. Their overall report saying library funding is up...which I am not sure jives with the recent LJ article. But mainstream media...that there was coverage at all is something.

And speaking of, Katie Couric did a page in her online notebook about libraries recently. Her message reinforced that libraries=books, but she did have good mentions of the additional materials you'll find there like DVDs, internet access and more.

Funny how no one mentions the marvelous electronic databases you can gain access to? Or more importantly, the wonderful, kind and caring librarians who can help kids discover magical new lands and help adults continue to grow and expand their world-views? It seems like mainstream media is focused on the stuff--but Meghan O'Flaherty's connection is clearly with the people first and the stuff second....

It makes me think that the people in the library--librarians, paraprofessionals, volunteer help--are even more important than your collection, in terms of helping people connect with (and support) your library.

Being the up-to-date librarians you are, I am sure you've already heard about the Jackson County Library's closing.
NPR covered it this morning. Listen to the story from Jeff Brady. National media is great for raising national attention.

Of course I, in my rose-colored-glasses world, wish the national media would pay attention when things are going great and we're serving more people than ever before in more ways than ever before...but I guess headlines like LIBRARY THREATENED TO CLOSE sells more papers/attracts more listeners than LIBRARY CREATES SMARTER CITIZENRY. Which headline inspires you to read it?

Incidentally, the Jackson County Library created a nice calculator page on their site to help you put a dollar value on their services. I am sure they would be happy to share the back-end of their coding with your library's Webmaster, should you want to implement a tool like this on YOUR site.

Their blog is also well worth reading. Especially see the "My Library" stories from library users.

I hope our National Advocacy project with the Gates Foundation can help raise awareness about the importance of library funding, with both consumers and elected officials. That's the idea, anyway. Did I mention I am the project manager for this, on the OCLC side?

Side note: As part of our project, we actually talked to State Librarian of Oregon, Jim Scheppke.