Library Improvement Grant Program

1. Purposes

Indicate which of the following Purposes will be addressed by your project by checking one or more of the following:

Facilitate access to resources … for the purpose of cultivating an educated and informed citizenry;

Encourage resource sharing among … libraries for the purpose of achieving economical and efficient delivery of library services to the public;

Promote literacy, education, lifelong learning, and to enhance and expand the services and resources provided by libraries, including those services and resources relating to workforce development, 21st century skills, and digital literacy skills;

Ensure the preservation of knowledge and library collections in all formats and to enable libraries to serve their communities during disasters;

Promote library services that provide users with access to information through national, state, local, regional, and international collaborations and networks.

Executive Summary:

Summarize the essence of your Library Improvement Grant.
Strong Suggestion: Use the terminology and information from the rest of this grant application form as you write the Executive Summary. This means you should use the choices you make on this application form (Purposes, Project Intent, Activity, Beneficiaries, Formats of the Activity, Project Outcome — Expectations, and Project Budget) as you write the Executive Summary. You may wish to print out and complete your application form in preparation for writing the Executive Summary.

2. Project Intent

The Project Intent is the objective, intended result, or outcome of your project. Choose one or more of the following 13 boxes to indicate the Intent(s) of your project:

Lifelong Learning:

Improve users' formal education

Improve users' general knowledge and skills

Information Access:

Improve users' ability to discover information resources

Improve users' ability to obtain and/or use information resources

Institutional Capacity:

Improve the library's physical and technological infrastructure

Improve library operations

Economic & Employment Development:

Improve users' ability to use resources and apply information for employment support

Improve users' ability to use and apply business resources

Human Services:

Improve users' ability to apply information that furthers their personal, family or household finances

Improve users' ability to apply information that furthers their personal or family health & wellness

Improve users' ability to apply information that furthers their parenting and family skills

Civic Engagement:

Improve users' ability to participate in their community

Improve users' ability to participate in their community conversations around topics of concern

3. Activity

An Activity is an action or actions through which the Intent of a project is accomplished. An Activity accounts for at least 10% of the total amount of resources committed to the project. Choose the appropriate Activity areas below for your project. Then choose one or more of the Modes for the Activities you chose:

Note: A Mode is a characteristic of an Activity.

   Procurement — Involves purchasing facilities, equipment/supplies, hardware/software, or other materials
  (not content) that support general library infrastructure.

Mode: (not applicable)

  Planning/Evaluation — Involves design, development, or assessment of operations, services, or resources.

Mode — When information is collected, analyzed, and/or disseminated (choose one or more)

Retrospective — Research effort that involves historical assessment of the condition of a project, program, services, operation, resources and/or user group

Prospective — Research effort that involves assessments of a future condition of a project, program, services, operation, resources and/or user group

  Content — Involves the acquisition, development, or transfer of information

Mode — How the information is made accessible (choose one or more)

Acquisition — Selecting, ordering, and receiving materials for the library; may also include: procuring software or hardware for the purposes of storing or retrieving information or interacting with that information.

Creation — Design or production of an information tool or resources; includes digitization or the process of converting data to digital formal for processing by a computer.

Description — Apply standardized descriptive information to items in a collection for intellectual control, organization, and retrieval.

Lending — Provision of a library's resources and collections through circulation of materials; may also refer to the physical or electronic delivery of library documents to a residence or business.

Preservation — Effort that extends the life or useful life of a collection or of individual items by reducing the likelihood or speed of deterioration.

  Instruction — Involves an interaction for knowledge or skill transfer

Mode — How learning is delivered or experienced (choose one or more)

Program — Formal interaction and active user engagement (e.g., a class on computer skills)

Presentation — Formal interaction and passive user engagement (e.g., an author's talk)

Consultation/Drop-In/Referral — Informal interaction with an individual or group; the provision of expert advice or reference services to individuals, units, or organizations

4. Beneficiaries

Beneficiaries are the people who will use, visit, participate, or otherwise experience a project activity. Indicate who will benefit from this project. Choose one of those listed below as the primary beneficiary.

Is the activity for the general population or for a targeted group?

General Population

Targeted Group

5. Formats of the Activity

A Format is a characteristic of a Mode. Using the same Mode(s) as you chose in question #3 above, indicate which Formats the project will be using:

Activity: Procurement — Format (not applicable)

Activity: Planning/Evaluation Format

Prospective:

In-house

Third party

Retrospective:

In-house

Third party

Activity: Content — Format

Acquisition

Digital

Physical

Creation

Digital

Physical

Description

Digital

Physical

Lending

Digital

Physical

Preservation

Digital

Physical

Activity: Instruction — Format

Program

Virtual

In-person

Presentation/performance

Virtual

In-person

Consultation/Drop-in/Referral

Virtual

In-person

6. Project Outcomes — Expectations

What Outcomes do you anticipate from your project? What difference(s) do you think this project will make?

What methods do you anticipate using to determine or measure these Outcomes? Check all that apply:

Survey

Participant Observation

Review of Administrative Data

Interview/Focus Group

Other

Do you anticipate continuing the project after the current reporting period ends?

Yes

No

Do you anticipate any changes in the project's scope?

Yes

No

Do you anticipate any other changes in the project?

Yes

No

7. Project Budget

Please describe what you will do with each of the budget items and amounts listed:

8. Certification: