Libraries awarded grants for key projects

The dust has settled on the 2009-10 LSTA grants to libraries process. With the economy in the state wobbly and libraries doing all they can to scrape by, it’s not surprising that $792,285 worth of grant proposals were submitted, competing for the $400,000 allocated to Colorado through the Library Services and Technology Act.

Teams of grant reviewers, composed of librarians of all types from throughout Colorado, scrutinized every word within each proposal. For a library or library service organization to prepare a top-notch proposal is no small feat, and reviewers took their task just as seriously.

The breadth of proposals, both in terms of content and reach in Colorado, was impressive.  All grants awarded addressed the long-range goal “that Colorado’s residents will be able to access resources and services electronically through libraries to meet their information and learning needs.”

A list of 10 grants awarded for 2009-10 follows below. For more information about the LSTA grant submission and review process, your questions are welcomed by Jean Marie Heilig, LSTA Grant Coordinator (heilig_j@cde.state.co.us)

Grants awarded:

• McClave School—Improving Technology Integration and Student Writing Skills through Digital Scrapbooking, $3,923. This grant will provide training, instruction, equipment and inspiration necessary for students to create curriculum based digital scrapbooks and/or similar projects. Projects include local history writing for sixth-grade students; handbooks on internet safety for eighth-grade students; literary criticism handbooks and school history projects for tenth- and eleventh-grade students.

• Colorado Libraries for Early Literacy (CLEL)—Creating an Online Road to Reading, $23,500. In partnership with Rocky Mountain Public Broadcasting Services, CLEL will create online video clips that model songs, rhymes and finger plays appropriate for babies, toddlers and preschoolers. Each clip will include early literacy tips to increase understanding of child development and pre-literacy needs.

• Southern Peaks Public Library—San Luis Valley Libraries Technology Learning Project, $72,559. Nine public libraries are collaborating on this project to offer technology training, information literacy resources and improved access to technology in the San Luis valley. A part-time bilingual technology trainer will be hired to teach computer classes via new laptops and PC’s at each participating library.

• Pikes Peak Library District—Play and Learn, Colorado, $15,000. Every elementary student in Colorado studies state history to meet the Colorado model content standards, including over 8,000 fourth-graders in El Paso County. The Pikes Peak Library District will provide students with historical information to assist in their studies by developing an interactive, Web-based Colorado history game for fourth-grade students.

• Westminster Public Library—Online Access Expansion, $19,856. The Irving Street Community Library will offer computer usage classes (computers for absolute beginners, Internet skills, Microsoft Word, e-mail) and job search classes (creating e-mail accounts, applying for jobs online, creating resumes, searching for jobs online) to their adult and senior population. The existing Homework Help sessions will be enhanced by increasing the availability of computer stations to students from Westminster School District 50 who attend the successful after school program.

• Salida Regional Library—Mobile Computer Education Lab, $12,000. As a way of improving access to educational materials for its patrons, the library will purchase computers for a mobile community lab. The library will also purchase the Learning Express database that provides instructional tutorials in such areas as GED preparation, job skills and preparation for citizenship and civil service examinations. Computer class series will be designed to meet the needs of both current patrons and other community members who wish to learn how to use computers and access information electronically.

• High Plains Library District—Southeast Greeley Literacy Center, $20,000. The Literacy Center will serve as a connection to information, education and inspiration for people of all ages by providing computer services and enabling users to properly utilize the technology. Patrons will have access to read and return book racks and delivery of library materials placed on hold.

• Auraria Library—Latinos in Colorado: Research Sources and Research Strategies, $20,000. The project will digitize a collection of images representing the experiences of Latinos in Colorado. It will focus on identifying, describing, and hosting primary materials about the Latino experience. An instructional video will be produced on Colorado history research methods and materials which will guide users on how to research and use the collection and other resources.

• Adams State College, Nielsen Library— San Luis Valley Historic Digitization Project, $12,739. The Nielsen Library Archives houses rare books, manuscripts, sound recordings and thousands of photographs. These collections are used for their historical significance of the San Luis Valley. This project will digitize photographs from the collection and make them available to the Adams State College Community, residents of the San Luis Valley and those living outside of the valley.

• Automated Systems Colorado Consortium—The Power of Synergy in Action, $200,000. Funding will allow the migration of data from 43 separate member library systems (24 public, 15 schools, three academic, one special) into a single, open-source union catalog. This union catalog will provide the infrastructure for patron initiated interlibrary loan requests and enhance connections between Colorado libraries and improve services to almost 300,000 residents.