Thanks to my friend Laura Barnes and other librarians who love social networking for plastering that last post all over Facebook et al.
I received a phone call from an Illinois State Library staff member. Unfortunately, I was busy bailing water out of my basement at home, not in the office to take the call but that's another story. The State Library wanted to clarify that LSTA grants and construction grants are separate. The State funds the construction grants. Apologies if I was unclear about this. It is the State's funding of construction grants that has dried up in recent years. They are, however, working on funding a new round of construction grants late this year or next fiscal year.
So my statement that there are no construction grants for Illinois public libraries this year may not be true. The State may yet fund some. Keep your fingers crossed!
Showing posts with label LSTA grant. Show all posts
Showing posts with label LSTA grant. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Monday, August 2, 2010
Second Year in a Row - No Competitive Grants
The Illinois State Library announced in their e-newsletter last week that, like last fiscal year, there will be no competitive grants for libraries. This means no special project grants, construction grants, etc.
Grants for public libraries are not easy to come by for us. Many foundations that fund grants for service organizations will not give to governments entities like public libraries. Those that do, like the Gates Foundation, tend to focus on poor and/or rural libraries. Plainfield falls into neither of those categories by the funder's definitions.
The primary funders for public library grants for us have been the state and federal government. As you probably are well aware, the State of Illinois has slashed grant funding. Competitive grants funded by the State were cut years ago. The federal grants, the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA), are administered by the State. Well, with the State funds drying up, LSTA, which used to be used for competitive grants (such as our digitization project with the Plainfield Historical Society and Will County Recorder of Deeds two years ago) are now being used to lessen the blow to non-competitive grants cuts.
The Illinois Public Library Per Capita Grant is, by statute, supposed to give every public library $1.25 per person residing in the library's service area every year. It has not been fully funded for many years. Last year, it was slated for a 47% reduction. To mitigate the cut, the Illinois State Library eliminated competitive LSTA grants and used the funds for Per Capita grants. The overall cut was only 16% once the LSTA funds were included.
But for your local public library, the end result is the same: less money to go around at the time libraries are the busiest and the most needed.
Grants for public libraries are not easy to come by for us. Many foundations that fund grants for service organizations will not give to governments entities like public libraries. Those that do, like the Gates Foundation, tend to focus on poor and/or rural libraries. Plainfield falls into neither of those categories by the funder's definitions.
The primary funders for public library grants for us have been the state and federal government. As you probably are well aware, the State of Illinois has slashed grant funding. Competitive grants funded by the State were cut years ago. The federal grants, the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA), are administered by the State. Well, with the State funds drying up, LSTA, which used to be used for competitive grants (such as our digitization project with the Plainfield Historical Society and Will County Recorder of Deeds two years ago) are now being used to lessen the blow to non-competitive grants cuts.
The Illinois Public Library Per Capita Grant is, by statute, supposed to give every public library $1.25 per person residing in the library's service area every year. It has not been fully funded for many years. Last year, it was slated for a 47% reduction. To mitigate the cut, the Illinois State Library eliminated competitive LSTA grants and used the funds for Per Capita grants. The overall cut was only 16% once the LSTA funds were included.
But for your local public library, the end result is the same: less money to go around at the time libraries are the busiest and the most needed.
Friday, September 4, 2009
Statewide Budget Cuts Will Impact Local Library Service
The Illinois State Library and the regional library systems in Illinois recently announced cuts to grant programs and system funding that will directly impact local libraries like ours. Funding for the State Library and regional library systems was cut 16% for Fiscal Year 2010.
Regional library systems support local libraries with delivery service that is the backbone of Interlibrary Loan in the state. They partner with local libraries to support automation consortia like PrairieCat that provide shared catalogs for libraries. Regional library systems are also the main source of continuing education for local libraries. Level funding for regional library systems for more than a decade has eroded their ability to meet the needs of local libraries for these essential services. This 16% will push more of the cost for these essential services to the local libraries. Our regional library system, Prairie Area Library System (PALS), has not yet announced the plan to balance their budget in Fiscal Year 2010.
The Public Library Per Capita Grant is the main source of state funding for the Plainfield Public Library. Last fiscal year, the Plainfield's Per Capita grant was over $80,000, at $1.21 per capita. Set by state statute at $1.25 per capita, it has not reached that funding level in well over a decade. In Fiscal Year 2010, the Public Library Per Capita Grant program received a 47% cut. The Illinois State Library administration made the decision to offset this cut using federal Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) grant monies. However, this means that there will be no LSTA programmatic grants to individual libraries in 2010. The Plainfield Public Library, and many of our neighbors, put considerable time and effort into LSTA grant applications for 2010. Our LSTA grant projects included digitization of historical materials and services to children with autism. The LSTA grant program had been the main source of federal funds for public libraries in Illinois. Even with the LSTA grant funds, Public Library Per Capita grants are expected to be about 16% less than they were in Fiscal Year 2009, a loss of about $13,000 for the Plainfield Public Library.
Thankfully, our conservative budgeting practices should help to minimize the impact of the loss, but it will still be felt.
Regional library systems support local libraries with delivery service that is the backbone of Interlibrary Loan in the state. They partner with local libraries to support automation consortia like PrairieCat that provide shared catalogs for libraries. Regional library systems are also the main source of continuing education for local libraries. Level funding for regional library systems for more than a decade has eroded their ability to meet the needs of local libraries for these essential services. This 16% will push more of the cost for these essential services to the local libraries. Our regional library system, Prairie Area Library System (PALS), has not yet announced the plan to balance their budget in Fiscal Year 2010.
The Public Library Per Capita Grant is the main source of state funding for the Plainfield Public Library. Last fiscal year, the Plainfield's Per Capita grant was over $80,000, at $1.21 per capita. Set by state statute at $1.25 per capita, it has not reached that funding level in well over a decade. In Fiscal Year 2010, the Public Library Per Capita Grant program received a 47% cut. The Illinois State Library administration made the decision to offset this cut using federal Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) grant monies. However, this means that there will be no LSTA programmatic grants to individual libraries in 2010. The Plainfield Public Library, and many of our neighbors, put considerable time and effort into LSTA grant applications for 2010. Our LSTA grant projects included digitization of historical materials and services to children with autism. The LSTA grant program had been the main source of federal funds for public libraries in Illinois. Even with the LSTA grant funds, Public Library Per Capita grants are expected to be about 16% less than they were in Fiscal Year 2009, a loss of about $13,000 for the Plainfield Public Library.
Thankfully, our conservative budgeting practices should help to minimize the impact of the loss, but it will still be felt.
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