[lstac] subgrants

[Fox, Angela]

Indiana (usually) offers both technology and digitization subgrants<https://www.in.gov/library/services-for-libraries/lsta/> (up to $8,000 and $15,000, respectively). The application process is open to any of our 236 public libraries, as well as academic, school, and special. We offer anywhere between 20 - 40, and the level of competitiveness really varies from year to year - though there are few enough applicants that often well over 50% are  funded. Are they the best written applications? Not necessarily - but we really encourage first-time applicants to give it a go and promise to make the process as unintimidating as possible. I typically ask one or two people from the state library to join me on the review panels, but the rest I assemble from very generous volunteers who respond to my plea on the Indiana library listservs.

We've actually suspended the program since the pandemic; we oversaw 400+ ARPA and CARES subgrants during the time and it was overwhelming to the point of needing some time to play catch up. Is it possible that my bosses took one look at me during the height of the grant overload and whatever crazy they saw reflected there made them reconsider adding more? Maybe yes, maybe no... But yes. Yes it is. (Well, I'm sure the business office needed a breather to get through their paperwork as well.)

Signs are looking up for resuming the program for the 2025-26 cycle, which means our applications would probably open in January. I'll admit that there are times - mostly during hours that I'm hunkered over the SPR, writing abstract after abstract, that it seems like a lot of work for what ultimately only directly benefits those 20-40 libraries. But boy, do the libraries that use the grants love them and do some great things with those funds - and really, that's why we keep going back.


Angela Fox
Public Library Services and LSTA Consultant
Indiana State Library
140 N Senate Ave Indianapolis IN 46204
(317) 234-6550 - toll free (800) 451-6028



From: lstac <lstac-bounces at omls.oregon.gov> On Behalf Of Forbes, Lyndsay (BLC) via lstac
Sent: Thursday, July 11, 2024 8:58 AM
To: lstac at omls.oregon.gov
Subject: [lstac] subgrants

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Good morning!

Massachusetts is looking to revamp our grant program to subrecipients. I'd be interested in knowing how other states that do subgrants structure their program.

Lyndsay Forbes
Project Manager and Grants Specialist
Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners
Office: 617-725-1860 x252
Mobile: 857-488-6616


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