okay well welcome to the applicant webinar for the native american library
services enhancement grant program my name is anthony smith i'm the
associate deputy director within the office of library services for
discretionary grant programs
in this webinar i'll be providing information about the native american
library services enhancement grant program
we will review eligibility go over the application process
the different application components and also offer you a few tips and
suggestions our goal is to help make the application
process as easy as possible while helping to ensure that all application
requirements are being met
the native american library services enhancement grants are competitive
grants for up to two years and up to one hundred and fifty thousand dollars cost
share is not required the anticipated period of performance is
september 1 2022 through august 31st 2024
federally recognized indian tribes are eligible to apply for funding under the
native american library services enhancement grant program
entities such as libraries schools tribal colleges or departments of
education are not eligible applicants
but they can be involved in the administration of this program and their
staff may serve as project directors in partnership with eligible applicants
by indian tribe we mean indian trust any tribe ban nation or other organized
group or community including any alaska native village
regional corporation or village corporation
which is recognized by the secretary of the interior as eligible for the special
programs and services provided by the united states to indians because of
their status as indians
to be eligible for this program you must have an existing library with regularly
scheduled hours staff and materials available for library users
remember the applying institution must be the
tribe itself if you are an ineligible institution
encourage you encourage you to partner with an eligible institution on a
project while you cannot be the lead applicant
you may apply through a partnership with an eligible institution and receive
funding to support activities in that manner
please also note that a grantee with an active
native american library services enhancement grant
may not apply for another native american library services enhancement
grant that would have an overlapping period of performance with the active
grant
the native american library services enhancement grants have three main goals
with objectives that correspond to each goal
the first goal and objectives scores correspond to the digital services
project category on the program information form
and they are to improve digital services to support needs for education
workforce development economic development
and business
development health information critical thinking
skills and digital literacy skills objective 1.1 is to support the
establishment and refinement of digital infrastructure platforms and technology
1.2 supports preservation and access
to information and resources through digitization
the second goal and objectives correspond to the educational
programming project category on the program information form
and they are to improve educational programs related
to specific topics and content areas of interest to library patrons and
community-based users objective 2.1 supports the
identification of the needs and interests of learners
objective 2.2 supports the development and
implementation of classes events teaching tools resources
and other educational services 2.3 supports the evaluative assessment
of library-based approaches to teaching and facilitation
the third goal and objectives correspond to the preservation and revitalization
project category on the program information form and they
are to enhance the preservation and revitalization of native american
cultures and language
now this can be done by objective 3.1 supporting the development of efficient
strategic partnerships within across and outside native
communities 3.2
is to support the preservation of content of unique and specific value to
native communities and 3.3
is to support the sharing of content within and or beyond native communities
you can find the notice of funding opportunity on our website
make sure to read the nofo carefully and follow all the links
the pages six and seven of the notice of funding opportunity
includes a table that lists all the application components
what kind of format they need to be submitted as
and which file name to use when you're submitting your application package
please use this list as a checklist of all the documents you will need to
submit to us by april 1st you want to make sure your application
is complete so that it's not rejected simply because you missed or forgot one
document
so this will give you a sense of the timeline and how the process works
grant proposals go through peer review reviewers will read your proposals and
evaluate them to make sure you have responded to the notice of funding
opportunity and that your proposed project has
potential for success
we will present the reviewers comments and scores
to the imls director who will then make funding decisions based on the reviewers
evaluations and the overall goals of the program and
the agency announcements will be made in august
for a september 1 start date
so to get a better idea about how to align your project with the three
categories you can use our awarded grants search
now starting on the imls home page you'll first click on grants at the top
of the page and then select search awarded grants
now from here you can search native american library
services enhancement grants under program and select fy21 under the
fiscal year and then hit submit if you click on an application log
number in the results list you'll find a short
description for each one of the awards and under the description
there's a pdf document you can download which is the proposal narrative and
schedule of completion for each funded project
i'll now review the questions that you should
address in your proposal
as part of the imls supplementary information form you will include an
abstract now here are some key questions to
address in the abstract
identify the lead applicant and if applicable any collaborators
describe the need problem or challenge your project will address
list the high level activities you will carry out and identify the associated
time frame identify who or what will benefit from
your project
specify your project's intended results describe how you will measure your
performance in achieving your intended results
if your proposed project is selected for funding
your abstract may be published online and so
it must not include any sensitive or confidential information
your application narrative should have three main sections
a project justification a project work plan and project results
in your project justification tell the reviewers
which program goal and associate objectives of the national
native american library services enhancement grants program will your
project address what need problem or challenge will your
project address and how was it identified
so describe how you have used demographic information
economic circumstances condition assessments and
really any other relevant data from your reliable sources to define the need
problem or challenge and develop the scope for the project
who is the target group for your project and how have they been involved in the
planning now target group refers to those who
will be most immediately and positively affected by your project
be specific by identifying particular age groups community members with
particular needs and or other types of target audiences
identify the number of individuals in the target group or in each target group
if identifying more than one
what are the ultimate beneficiaries for this project and beneficiaries refer to
those who are likely to be aided in the long term by your project they may or
may not be the same as your target group identify the number of individuals who
will benefit from your project in the long term
if reliable and defensible counts are possible
otherwise describe the characteristics of the beneficiaries you expect to be
served eventually by your project
now your project work plan section should address the following
questions what specific activities will you carry
out in what sequence
what are the risks to the project and how will you mitigate them
who will plan implement and manage your project
what time financial personnel and other resources
will you need to carry out the activities
identify any partner and or collaborator organizations that will contribute to
your project and describe their roles
how and with whom will you share your work's general
findings lessons learned what data would you collect and how
often and from what sources in order to
measure your performance in terms of effectiveness
quality and timeliness
and i'll discuss more about these in just a moment
does your project include any digital content
resources assets software data sets if so be sure to create a digital
products plan examples of digital products include any
data visualizations that are informing the project work
online material such as web pages about the project
any sort of digital collection content products or images of any sort
now in terms of project results what are your projects intended results
and how will they address the need problem or challenge you have identified
in the project justification and how will the knowledge skills
behaviors capabilities uh and attitudes of the intended
audience change as a result of your project
what tangible products will result from your project
how will you sustain the benefits of your project how will you continue to
support the project its results and or new models that are created beyond the
grant period for example
will there be ongoing institutional uh and or community support of project
activities or products
do you have demonstrated buy-in from potential stakeholders
what are your plans for sustaining any digitized collections software
and supporting document documentation information systems and other technology
tools
the native american library services enhancement grant program will use the
following three performance measurements as a basis for understanding
the level of performance by the grant program as a whole and by each award
supported through it
for effectiveness are the activities being supported by
the program contributing to improving digital services
improving educational programs and or enhancing the preservation
revitalization of native american cultures and languages
for quality is the program meeting user requirements
and expectations
for timeliness is each activity being completed on time
and as proposed now each applicant must identify what
data they will collect how often and from what source in order
to produce these measurements consider using the sample performance
measurement plan uh to get started
next i'll talk about key components of your application package
okay so make sure to include
the application components
listed in the nofo and included here on the slide it is a
checklist of requirements
right in the nofo and again you can reference the slide
conditionally required documents are your federally negotiated indirect cost
rate agreement if you plan to use one
and the digital products plan if you're creating any kind of
digital product now that means it is required if any
funds are being used to create any kind of digital product like a website or
digital collections
you'll need to include an imls budget form and a budget justification
following the standard budget categories listed on this slide
in the budget justification you'll need to explain the purpose and
cost breakdown for each expense listed in the imls budget form
a travel should include three thousand dollars for imls directed
travel each year so that should be included
in your budget cost share is not required for this
program
okay so you may submit a reasonable number of supporting documents that
supplement your narrative and support the project description
a supporting document should help imls staff and reviewers envision your
project in greater detail but they should not be used to introduce new
topics nor to continue answers to the narrative
questions give each document a clear
descriptive title at the top of the first page
you can choose to include any of the supporting documents listed here
make sure to submit a complete application with all required documents
don't don't forget all key personnel listed
must have resumes checklist of conditionally required
documents for example the digital products plan
the federally negotiated indirect cost rate agreement is another conditionally
required application component if you have one
and you plan to use it remember that indirect cost rate at the time of the
award stands until the end of the award and the cost rate agreement must extend
through september 2022
and then supporting documents might include needs assessment letters
of support plans or reports
okay next we'll provide a few tips to help you with the application process
all right so first
please register early there are three places where you must
register your organization in order to be able to submit a proposal
um and there's on the screen here duns sam and
grants.gov you must be registered in sam which is
the system for award management it's important to keep in mind
that your your sam registration is good for one year and then must be renewed
and it takes time to process the renewal so we
strongly recommend checking your status early on
if it's not your job to track sam registration
um identify the person who does that at your organization
and make sure this is in place uh well in advance of the deadline
grants.gov is the portal through which your you will file your application
allow several weeks for the registration process
um for this uh part of the activity even if
you're you're registered make sure you know who is authorized for your
institution usually there's someone at the institution who
serves as the point person for grants.gov and make sure they know
their password so you again you may want to identify
this person early on because you know staff change people
retire passwords get misplaced so
it's a good idea to start that early on as well
if you don't know for absolutely sure that this is all in place now you know
i'd recommend checking on it as soon as we get done today
um again if it's
if it's not something you want to be trying to accomplish it's not it's not
something you want to try to accomplish anywhere close to the application
deadline
so here's a few uh application tips based on our experience
first get some feedback and revise revise revise
of course this goes hand in hand with starting early
ask two or three people who are not involved in the grant to read the
proposal and provide feedback on ideas on structure
on grammar and spelling consider their feedback and revise
accordingly proofread final the final version
uh carefully use
spell check feature and coordinate with tribal
administration to submit all of your application components through
grants.gov again well before the deadline
so start today organizing what you need to apply and understanding who
in your organization can help confirm done sam and grants.gov registrations
first and foremost remember to save all your documents as
pdf files grants.gov
cannot convert them for you so you have to when it's time to upload your
documents they need to be in pdf format
upload application files to grants.gov prior to the deadline i i would
encourage setting a date prior to the deadline in case something
unforeseen comes up requiring additional time
give yourself that buffer use grants.gov workspace it's a great
way to organize the work of the application process in one work
environment and with any of your work partners who
have a role to play in the application prep and submission process you can all
be coordinated through grants.gov workspace
be sure to double check the uploaded file against the table of application
components in the notice of funding opportunity again that you have that
checklist of file requirements
in the nofoll
okay so for questions about eligibility your project narrative
and project activities the digital products plan your budget including
allowability costs please contact me
my contact information is on the screen for questions about application
requirements and deadlines uh please
don't hesitate to reach out to our two program specialists
sheena afoq
and you have their contact information as well
thank you for listening in and we look forward to receiving your application
and as always best wishes from imls