The State Library Weighs In

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!

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.

American Dream Starts @ Your Library

Plainfield Public Library District is one of the seventy public libraries in 21 states selected by the American Library Association (ALA) to receive $5,000 grants as part of “The American Dream Starts @ your library®” literacy project. This initiative is funded by the Dollar General Literacy Foundation. For more information about the grant, click here.

Assistant Library Director Lisa Pappas and Head of Outreach Services Ceil Carey wrote the grant application to secure additional funding to support the Library's programs for adult English language learners. While our local schools help the children of our resident immigrants hone their English language skills, there is no single organization dedicated to supporting our adult English language learners. The Library is bridging that gap, just as we bridge the "digital divide," providing technology resources for our residents who cannot afford to have access to computers and the Internet in their homes. Through cooperation and partnerships with other organizations, the Library can help connect these residents to resources and opportunities for these residents to achieve their American Dream.

Thank you to Dollar General and the American Library Association for giving us the means to help our adult English language learners!