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Category Archives: Grants
Apply by Dec. 21 for Internship Grants
Accredited public libraries are invited to submit a proposal for a 2017 Nebraska Library Commission Internship Grant. Apply now to receive up to $1,000 to fund a high school or college intern in 2017. The final deadline to submit your application is Wednesday, December 21, 2016 at 5:00 p.m. Interns bring a wealth of ideas and enthusiasm to Nebraska library services–and as you can see in this photo of the Atkinson Public Library’s 2016 intern, they are often invaluable as library programming assistants.
Details about the 2017 Nebraska Library Internship Grant Program are available at: https://nlc.nebraska.gov/nowhiring/Internship-grants.aspx For more information contact: JoAnn McManus, Grants Program Manager, 402-471-4870 or 800-307-2665.
Posted in Education & Training, Grants, Youth Services
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Youth Grants for Excellence Applications due 10/5/16
The Nebraska Library Commission announces that grants are available to accredited public libraries and state-run institutional libraries for special projects in the area of children’s and young adult services. These grants are awarded to encourage innovation and expansion of public library services for youth and their parents or caregivers. Applications will be accepted for projects in an area that will benefit children and/or teens and which you see as a need in your community; for examples see the “Introduction” link below.
The minimum amount that will be awarded per grant is $250. The grants require a 25% match of the requested amount. The $250 minimum grant amount plus the required 25% local match ($63) combine for $313 as the lowest total project amount for a Youth Grant for Excellence. Use the Project Budget Form at the end of the application form to estimate the amount you will need and to itemize specific expenses. You are advised to be as precise and detailed as possible.
There are two different application forms. For projects requesting $250 – $1,000 in grant funds use the abbreviated, or short form. Applications requesting more than $1,000 must use the long form. Please be sure to use the correct form for your project. Please go to the “Introduction” page for links to the forms (at the bottom of the page).
Please note: AWE work stations, or similar stations of other companies, are no longer eligible for a youth grant.
You may also be interested in viewing the NCompass Live session from 8/20/14 titled “What You Need to Know to Apply for a Youth Grant.”
You are welcome to call or email Sally Snyder with questions or to ask for more information.
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Continuing Education Grants – ARSL 2016 Conference
Continuing Education Grants are now available! These grants are available for Nebraska public librarians to attend the Association for Rural & Small Libraries (ARSL) annual conference in Fargo, ND (October 27th-29th).
Applications must be submitted electronically by September 6th!
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NCompass Live: The Kreutz Bennett Donor-Advised Fund: Grants to Nebraska’s Small-Town Public Libraries
Join us for next week’s NCompass Live, “The Kreutz Bennett Donor-Advised Fund: Grants to Nebraska’s Small-Town Public Libraries”, on Wednesday, August 3, 10:00-11:00 am Central Time.
Since 2012 the Kreutz Bennett Donor-Advised Fund has granted over $330,000 to Nebraska’s small-town public libraries. Retired education professor Shirley Kreutz Bennett established this fund with Nebraska Community Foundation to benefit small Nebraska towns of the kind in which she grew up. Shirley’s nieces and nephews serve as Fund Advisory Committee members and meet each year with staff of Nebraska Community Foundation and of the Nebraska Library Commission to choose recipients. They make grants for planning (leading to accreditation); program and service enhancement; and facilities.
Join Reggi Carlson (Nebraska Community Foundation), Richard Miller, Jane Stone (a niece of Shirley Kreutz Bennett), and library directors from a number of grant-recipient libraries for this informative program.
Presenters: Richard Miller, Library Development Director, Nebraska Library Commission; Reggi Carlson, Communications Director, Nebraska Community Foundation; Jane Stone, Shirley Kreutz Bennett’s niece; Anne Quigley, Director, Valentine Public Library; Tammy Thiem, Director, Genoa Public Library.
Upcoming NCompass Live events:
- August 10 – Clouding Up: How to Use Cloud Storage
- August 17 – Nebraska 150 Books: Read Nebraska Authors!
- August 24 – Making the Most of Maker Camp at Your Library
- August 31 – Coding Corner @ Your Library
For more information, to register for NCompass Live, or to listen to recordings of past events, go to the NCompass Live webpage.
NCompass Live is broadcast live every Wednesday from 10am – 11am Central Time. Convert to your time zone on the Official U.S. Time website. The show is presented online using the GoToWebinar online meeting service. Before you attend a session, please see the NLC Online Sessions webpage for detailed information about GoToWebinar, including system requirements, firewall permissions, and equipment requirements for computer speakers and microphones.
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The Data Dude on Dollars for Data
Since 2005, the Library Commission has provided funding for the Dollar$ for Data program. In a nutshell, if an unaccredited library submits their annual statistics online using the Bibliostat tool, they are eligible for a $200 grant payment. This year, there are 49 unaccredited libraries who submitted their statistics and will receive the payment. Letters have been mailed to those libraries, but a complete list is also on the NLC website. The purpose of this program is to encourage unaccredited libraries to submit their data and encourage them to take the next step and apply for accreditation. The accreditation process begins in July, and more information can be found here. Shaka.
Posted in General, Grants, Library Management, Uncategorized
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USDA Seeks Applications for Nearly $12 Million in Broadband Grants for Rural Communities
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has announced that USDA is soliciting applications for grants to establish broadband in unserved rural communities through its Community Connect program. Community Connect is administered by USDA’s Rural Utilities Service and helps to fund broadband deployment into rural communities where it is not economically viable for private sector providers to provide service.
“Through Community Connect and our other telecommunications programs, USDA helps to ensure that rural residents have access to broadband to run businesses, get the most from their education and benefit from the infinite services that fast, reliable broadband provides,” Vilsack said. “USDA is committed to supporting America’s rural communities through targeted investments in our bioeconomy and renewable energy, local and regional food systems, conservation initiatives and rural development.”
USDA plans to award up to $11.7 million in grants through the Community Connect grant program. The grants fund broadband infrastructure to help foster economic growth by delivering connectivity to the global marketplace. The grants also fund broadband for community centers and public institutions.
USDA has invested $160 million in more than 240 projects to bring broadband to unserved rural communities since the Community Connect Program was created in 2002.
In 2009, the Wichita Online telecommunications company in Cooperton, Okla., received a Community Connect grant to build a community center with computers. The center serves as an Internet library for local residents and is used by several government agencies. The sheriff’s office and volunteer fire department coordinate their public safety, fire protection and other emergency services from the center. During harvest season, many farmworkers use the computers to communicate with their family members far away. Cooperton is a farming and ranching community between the Slick Hills and Wichita Mountains in Southwest Oklahoma.
The minimum grant is $100,000 for FY 2016. The maximum award is $3 million. USDA announced new rules in 2013 to better target Community Connect grants to areas where they are needed the most. To view the rules, go to http://www.rd.usda.gov/programs-services/community-connect-grants
Prior Community Connect grants cannot be renewed. However, existing Community Connect awardees may submit applications for new projects, which USDA will evaluate as new applications
This Community Connect round builds on USDA’s historic investments in rural America over the past seven years. Since 2009, USDA has worked to strengthen and support rural communities and American agriculture, an industry that supports one in 11 American jobs, provides American consumers with more than 80 percent of the food we consume, ensures that Americans spend less of their paychecks at the grocery store than most people in other countries, and supports markets for homegrown renewable energy and materials. USDA has provided $5.6 billion of disaster relief to farmers and ranchers; expanded risk management tools with products like to Whole Farm Revenue Protection; helped farm businesses grow with $36 billion in farm credit; provided $4.32 billion in critical agricultural research; established innovative public-private conservation partnerships such as the Regional Conservation Partnership Program; developed new markets for rural-made products, including more than 2,500 biobased products through USDA’s BioPreferred program; and invested $64 billion in infrastructure, housing and community facilities to help improve quality of life in rural America.
Since 2009, USDA Rural Development (#USDARD
) has invested $11 billion to start or expand 103,000 rural businesses; helped 1.1 million rural residents buy homes; funded nearly 7,000 community facilities such as schools, public safety and health care facilities; financed 180,000 miles of electric transmission and distribution lines; and helped bring high-speed Internet access to nearly 6 million rural residents and businesses. For more information, visit www.usda.gov/results.
$58,983 in Library Improvement Grants Awarded to Nebraska Public and Institutional Libraries
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
March 4, 2016
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Richard Miller
402 471 3175
800 307 2665
$58,983 in Library Improvement Grants Awarded to Nebraska Public and Institutional Libraries
The Nebraska Library Commission recently awarded Library Improvement Grants for 2016 totaling $58,983 to thirteen Nebraska public libraries, and a state-run institutional library. These competitive grants were funded with federal Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) monies from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). These Library Improvement Grants help to facilitate growth and development of library programs and services by supplementing local funding with federal funds designated for these purposes.
In order to be funded, projects had to meet one or more of the following LSTA Purposes listed in the Commission’s long-range plan:
• 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, and 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.
Local libraries also had to provide at least a 25% match in order to receive the funds.
The libraries receiving grants are:
• Axtell Public Library
• Beaver City Public Library
• Blue Hill Public Library
• Brunswick Public Library
• Fairbury Public Library
• Franklin Public Library
• Fullerton Public Library
• Lincoln City Libraries
• McCook Public Library
• Norfolk Regional Center Patient Library
• North Bend Public Library
• Plainview Public Library
• Springfield Memorial Library
• Yutan Public Library
The projects and services planned include: outdoor movie nights, AWE work stations (the last year of funding allowed for this purpose), iPod Touches, mobile Maker Spaces, computer classes, author visits, digitizing of historical photos, iPads, as well as three libraries either joining the Pioneer Consortium or initiating processes in order to join the consortium in the future.
As the state library agency, the Nebraska Library Commission is an advocate for the library and information needs of all Nebraskans. The mission of the Library Commission is statewide promotion, development, and coordination of library and information services, “bringing together people and information.”
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The most up-to-date news releases from the Nebraska Library Commission are always available on the Library Commission Website, http://nlc.nebraska.gov/publications/newsreleases.
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Library Improvement Grants Announced for 2016
Library Development Director Richard Miller announced today that 14 Nebraska libraries — 13 public libraries, and one state-run institutional library — would be receiving Library Improvement Grants this year. These grants are funded with federal Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) funds made available through the Institute of Museum and Library and Services and administered by the Nebraska Library Commission.. The grant review team consisted of Scott Childers (Southeast Library System), and, from the Commission, Rod Wagner, Allana Novotny, Christa Burns, and Richard Miller.
Here are the libraries, brief descriptions of their projects, and grant amounts. For those libraries receiving grants for AWE Work Stations, the amounts of those grants are pending, to be determined following discussions with the company which sells these work stations. (Note: As with the last round of Youth Grants for Excellence, this will be the last year AWE Work Stations will be eligible grant projects under the Library Improvement Grants.)
Axtell Public Library — Outdoor Movie Night — $2,013
Beaver City Public Library — AWE Work Station — TBD
Blue Hill Public Library — Central Nebraska Digital Consortium membership; iPod Touch units — $636
Brunswick Public Library — CatExpress; two computers — in preparation for joining the Pioneer Consortium — $4,359
Fairbury Public Library — AWE Work Station — Spanish-Language — TBD
Franklin Public Library — 2 computers; Pioneer Consortium membership preparation — $4,587
Fullerton Public Library — AWE Work Station — TBD
Lincoln City Libraries — Mobile Maker Spaces — $6,721
McCook Public Library — Join Pioneer Consortium — $8,657
Norfolk Regional Center Patient Library — Creation of reading/learning nook for patients — $500
North Bend Public Library — Computer classes; author visits; storytelling; ADA Update — $3,920
Plainview Public Library — Computers; whiteboard; smart TV for new library building — $13,500
Springfield Memorial Library — Digitizing of historical photos; scanner; cart; camera kit — $2,670
Yutan Public Library — IPads; technology & social media training; Maker Space activities — $2,416
For questions concerning the Library Improvement Grants, please contact Richard Miller.
Reminder: 21st Century Librarian Scholarship Applications Due Nov. 1, 2013
The Nebraska Library Commission announces the ninth cycle of its 21st Century Librarian Scholarship program (https://nlc.nebraska.gov/NowHiring/Scholarships.aspx). Legal residents of the state of Nebraska are eligible to apply. In this ninth cycle, online applications are due November 1, 2013; transcripts (as required) are due October 22, 2013; and letters of recommendation, if mailed, are due October 22, 2013. Scholarships of up to $3,500 will be awarded, depending on the degree or certificate the applicant is pursuing and the applicant’s course plan.
A former scholarship student recently said,
I really appreciate all this scholarship helped me to attain. I believe that because of this scholarship, I was able to attain knowledge that will help me throughout my library career.
Scholarships may be used for tuition (for coursework contributing toward a certificate or degree, including general education classes), course-required materials, and school-assessed fees at the following levels:
- Library and Information Science (LIS) Professional Certificate
- Associate of Arts or Science Degree in Library and Information Science (LIS)
- Bachelor of Arts or Science Degree/Endorsement with a major in Library and Information Science or Library Media
Scholarship recipients will be eligible to apply for stipends for such things as laptop or tablet computers, professional association dues, and regional or national conference attendance.
Through the associated stipends program, students have purchased laptop computers to use with their online classes, joined professional library associations, and attended regional and national conferences. For example, several scholarship students were awarded stipends to attend the ALA annual conference this past summer in Chicago.
Current scholarship recipients are participating and reporting on trainings such as hands-on eBook/eReader trainings, and live and recorded webinars about the latest Internet tools.
According to one scholarship student,
The e-reader classes allowed me to better understand the different e-readers available and how they worked. I also listened in on a couple of live webinars about customer relations and work related topics. It helped to better do my job.
Participants are networking with Nebraska librarians on the Nebraska Librarians Learning Together Facebook page, http://www.facebook.com/NebraskaLibrarians.
The scholarships, stipends, and value-added training are offered through the Nebraska Library Commission’s Cultivating Rural Librarians’ 21st Century Skills program, which is funded through a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program. For more information, contact Kathryn Brockmeier, Grant Program Manager, by e-mail or by phone, 402-471-4002 or 800-307-2665.
NOTE: Due to the significant number of applications for the Nebraska Library Commission master’s-level scholarships (funded through the Librarians for the 21st Century Program of the Institute of Museum and Library Services), as of July 1, 2012, graduate-level scholarships will no longer be available. Scholarships DO continue to be available for undergraduate Library Science studies, including LIS certificates, and Associate’s and Bachelor’s degrees.
The Institute of Museum and Library Services is the primary source of federal support for the nation’s 123,000 libraries and 17,500 museums. The Institute’s mission is to create strong libraries and museums that connect people to information and ideas. The Institute works at the national level and in coordination with state and local organizations to sustain heritage, culture, and knowledge; enhance learning and innovation; and support professional development. To learn more about the Institute, please visit www.imls.gov.
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