Overview

· The U.S. Dept. of Agriculture has designated approximately $100 million in grants and loans (texas state library blog says they’ve learned it’s mostly loans and “a much smaller number of grants”) from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) to support public libraries in rural areas or small towns. Loans can be repaid over 40 years, and are available to institutions who can’t otherwise get credit.

· Definition of rural is serving under 20,000 (similar to WJ definition of a small/rural library serving < 25,000).

· Administered through the Rural Development Housing and Community Facilities Programs, the funds will support the construction, enlargement, or improvement of public library facilities along with the purchase of facility equipment.

· Depending on funding availability, RD plans to provide up to $500,000 in additional grant funds to each State Office through the Community Facilities American Recovery Reinvestment Act grant account for library projects.

· Funds may be used for costs to acquire land needed for a facility, pay necessary professional fees, and purchase equipment required for a facility’s operation.  Funds can be used to purchase shelving, furniture, computers, audio-visual equipment, distance learning equipment, and bookmobiles.

· Applications will be accepted through the USDA Rural Development regional field offices (different for every state) http://www.rurdev.usda.gov/rhs

· Community Facilities Grants are authorized on a graduated scale. Applicants located in smaller communities with low populations and low incomes will receive a higher percentage of grants. Grant funding limitations are based on population and income, economic feasibility, and availability of funds

Links to more info

· USDA fact sheet on the program (PDF): http://www.wo.ala.org/districtdispatch/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/USDA.pdf

· ALA Washington Office press release: http://www.ala.org/ala/newspresscenter/news/pressreleases2010/january2010/usdadesignates_wo.cfm
The Secretary of Agriculture has allocated $100 million in United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development Community Facilities funding for public libraries to provide educational opportunities and improve public services in rural communities. The funding will be provided primarily through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. In 78 percent of rural communities, the library is the sole provider of no-fee Internet access,” Emily Sheketoff, executive director of the ALA Washington Office, said. “This funding specifically set aside for rural libraries is a lifeline for communities across the country who depend on their local libraries for basic needs such as Internet access as well as assistance with e-government services, literacy and homework programs, and much more. We thank the USDA for its recognition of the vital role libraries play in rural communities and their need for funding.” Funds may be used to construct, enlarge or improve public libraries. This can include costs to acquire land needed for a facility, pay necessary professional fees and purchase equipment required for operation. Funds can be used to purchase shelving, furniture, computers, audio-visual equipment, distance learning equipment and bookmobiles.

· Association for Small & Rural Libraries re-posted fact sheet information on their grants section: http://www.arsl.info/links/grant-news/usda-funds/

Selected blog mentions
These posts mostly repost the info; a few other state libraries, systems, or associations posted as well but this gives you a good sense for who picked it up.

· WebJunction: http://www.google.com/reader/view/?hl=en&tab=wy#search/agriculture/1

· Marshall Breeding: http://www.librarytechnology.org/ltg-displaytext.pl?RC=14494

· TX state library: http://www.tsl.state.tx.us/ld/librarydevelopments/?p=2374

· Resource Shelf: http://www.resourceshelf.com/2010/01/27/100-million-dollars-allocated-for-rural-libraries-from-united-states-department-of-agriculture-usda/

· Libraries in the News: http://www.ilovelibraries.ala.org/news/?p=686

· Peter Scott: http://xrefer.blogspot.com/2010/01/united-states-department-of-agriculture.html

· Southern Adirondack Library System: http://salsblog.sals.edu/index.php/2010/01/27/money-for-rural-libraries/comment-page-1/ (this post does offer a local contact for assistance)

· Gale: http://blog.gale.com/sizzle/library-advocacy/library-funding-now-available-through-department-of-agriculture/

To those of you who are investigating these loan and grant options and application process, is there anything that WebJunction can do to support this process for everyone? It might be helpful to share applications, tips or tricks for going through the process, or lessons learned once awards are made. Let us know what you’d like to see or how we can help.

John Windhausen, consultant to ALA’s Washington Office and president of Telepoly, and Christopher Mclean, Principal of e-Copernicus and former Administrator of the Rural Utilities Service (RUS), will provide more in depth information about Round II of  BTOP and BIP — the federal broadband stimulus programs at the Departments of Commerce and Agriculture.  Included will be a brief discussion of key suggestions for making your application successful made at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and Rural Utilities Service (RUS) Denver workshop.

Title: BTOP & BIP:  How to Connect
Date: Friday, February 5, 2010
Time: 1:30 PM – 2:30 AM EST

After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.

System Requirements

PC-based attendees
Required: Windows® 2000, XP Home, XP Pro, 2003 Server, Vista<

Macintosh®-based attendees
Required: Mac OS® X 10.4 (Tiger®) or newer

For additional information or assistance with your application, please contact Valerie Malinowski, Webjunction-Drexel Online partnership liaison, at (215) 895-0915 or vm97@drexel.edu.

For more information on the program and how to apply, see the USDA Rural Development fact sheet.

Applications are handled by USDA Rural Development field offices. To reach the USDA Rural Development contact for a specific state, visit www.rurdev.usda.gov/ – adding the two-letter initial of the state to the end of the URL.

New:

• Economic Gardening: libraries help to grow local economies
  Find out how libraries can nurture this exciting idea.
• Community and Library Services Analysis Tools
  Analysis worksheets created by Kitty Yancheff of the Humboldt County Library in Eureka, California to assess community and library services to triage social services.
• Speaking of Kitty, she is one of the presenters in Thursday’s (Jan 28) webinar on Libraries and Workforce Recovery. If you miss it, there will be an archive.
• In fact, there’s a collection of links to Webinar Archives related to Economic Recovery.
• There is a new addition to the Impact Studies and Reports document— a link to ALA’s report A Perfect Storm Brewing: Budget cuts threaten public library services at time of increased demand.

Workforce Resources will continue to grow. We welcome your contributions. Tell us what your library is doing to guide patrons toward recovery. Share your stories of patrons who were steered toward success with the help of the library.

David says, “Google Wave is a collaborative, instant messaging service which began in a preview (alpha) edition in 2009. Google Wave may change the very face of virtual reference. This group is for libraries/librarians and others who wish to connect with one another outside of Wave and share ideas, projects and tools about and for Wave”.

And he’s already started 3 great discussions: Google Wave Resources, Books about Google Wave, and Are you Waving?

Stop on by the new group or browse other WebJunction Groups.

1. Pick which sessions you most wish to attend: You aren’t required to attend every session. You will be able to re-enter sessions as your schedule permits, and the sessions will be archived so you can catch up on those you missed.

2. Make it a team event: Set up a computer for your staff to drop in as they’re able. Or, invite your colleagues to each attend one session and share what they learned in a follow-up session.

3. Bring your success stories: We’ll invite folks to ask lots of questions via chat, but please come ready to share stories and links to relevant resources. This online format provides a multitude of ways to exchange ideas and experiences!

Conference details »
Register now »

I’d even go so far as to say that even though it took me two days to get to my secondary post-ALA-MW destination of Dublin, OH (to OCLC HQ don’t you know:), and I only got 90 minutes of sleep during that trip to Dublin from Boston, it was still, without a doubt, worth the trip. Sure, that was a brutal travel experience, but it was totally worth it. Why? Here are a couple of the things that stood out for me:

First, and this also isn’t really about libraries or WebJunction, but Boston is a great city to visit! I imagine lots of you know that already, but what I saw of it really made me want to see more and maybe even go back for a long weekend vacation some time. When I became a librarian I sure didn’t expect that a fringe benefit would be to sometimes get to see new cities! The taxi and shuttle rides, meals and evenings out for Libraryland social events at Midwinter this year provided the opportunity to see incredibly historic locale after incredibly historic locale….and now I want to go back, you know, when you aren’t rushing between meetings and events. If you had a chance to see any stand out libraries in Boston it would be great to hear your story and add it to the list of things to see next time a trip to Boston rolls around.

Another really nice thing at the conference was the humble, but very enjoyable little WebJunction reception. We got to visit with some old and new friends and folks from some of our partner orgs. About 35 of us got together for a nice, relaxed visit where we could all meet face to face, chat and snack a bit. We also held that meeting at 3:00, which seemed like a welcome time for many folks who were tired from a very active string of days and appreciated a chance to chill out a bit and chat in such a friendly environment. Since we are planning more, similar events both for PLA and ALA Annual, if that timing sounds either good or bad to you, please drop a line. We’re always hoping to make these events as useful as they can be and timing is part of that.

The OCLC Symposium was also very interesting, with the CityYear information really jumping out in particular for me (btw, Chrystie stepped in to do some mic work during this event and you can see here in the photo below). Some quality notes for the symposium are here:

It seemed to me that the booth/exhibit hall was a little quieter than usual this year, but I may have been visiting during more quiet times. Did you think the exhibits were quieter this year? I just read this afternoon that attendance was up from Denver, so maybe that impression isn’t spot on?

I snuck in to a smattering of ALA meetings and saw some great presentations as well, but since this post is getting long I’ll cut myself off here. I will say that some of the larger after hours events like the LITA get together, the Tweetup and the facebook meeting were really great opportunities to connect with smart, friendly, funny people. I’d encourage more folks to attend of come up with similar meetings like these in the future. They are later in the day, but even hitting one or two of them can be quite useful. And if you can’t find out where those gatherings are, you can drop me a line and I’ll get you all connected. Then while your there, we can talk libraries! 

We’d love to hear any observations about ALA Midwinter that you have…even if you didn’t attend you may have seen some interesting tidbits fly by. It seems like you could consume more things for the event whether you were there or not, thanks to so many of us being connected online now, in so many ways. So feel free to leave a comment and share your thoughts and observations on ALA Midwinter 2010.

An Overview of Website Accessibility
Thursday, January 14, 11 am PST/ 2 pm EST
http://techsoupforlibraries.org/blog/webinar-coming-up-website-accessibility

If you’ve heard of “accessibility” and want your site to be usable for all people, but aren’t sure where to start, this webinar is for you. Mark your calendars!

• Sandra Nelson with The Planning Puzzle: Integrating your Strategic Plan and your Technology Plan
• Stephanie Gerding with Library Grants 101
• Joshua Dodson and Laura Slavin with WordPress for Library 2.0 and Beyond
• Pat Carterette with Learning When There’s No Time (or Money) to Learn
• Karen McCoy with Implementing Reliable Instant Messaging at Your Library.

You won’t want to miss this valuable learning opportunity for you and your staff. Full program and speaker information is now available and registration is free and open to all.