hello and welcome to the applicant webinar for the native american library
services basic grant program my name is anthony smith associate
deputy director for the office of library services discretionary programs
in this webinar i'll be providing information about imls and the native
american library services basic 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
now for those of you who are new the institute of museum and library
services is an independent grant making agency and the primary source of federal
support for the nation's libraries and museums
imls helps ensure that all americans have access to museum and library
services all across the country our primary function is grant making
however we also host convenings conduct research and publish
information about museums and libraries in service to user communities
eligibility for imls grants varies and can depend upon the specific program
our vision and mission statements were adopted as part of the agency's current
strategic plan where both emphasized that imls is here
to support museums and libraries with the work you do to serve your specific
communities
the imls strategic plan identifies goals that help us
achieve our vision and accomplish our mission
in goal 1 imls seeks to advance engaged learning opportunities for library and
museum users of all ages and interests it is also supports the professional
development of the museum and library workforce
in gold 2 imls promotes community engagement in libraries and museums
including inclusive engagement across diverse audiences and community
collaboration in goal 3 imls supports collection care
and management activities and promotes access to museum and library collections
in terms of our authorization and budget imls was reauthorized in 2018
by the museum and library services act the imls 2021 fiscal year budget is
257 million and we are currently operating under a continuing resolution
resolution for fiscal year 2022 almost 5.3 million of that is allotted
for native american basic and enhancement and native hawaiian library
services grants
so that brings us to the native american library service basic grant program
this program provides support for library operations and services
the deadline to apply is march 1st 2022 these grants are non-competitive
one-year grants with awards made anywhere between six
and ten thousand dollars of this amount up to three thousand
dollars can be used for eligible professional development which includes
travel as well as different types of library
assessment activities although it is not required
these awards support any and all existing library operations and as well
as new library services such as expanding collections
new staff support technology implementation and other costs that
directly benefit your library user community
as long as you meet eligibility requirements and submit all of the
application documents by the debt deadline you'll receive funding
in 2021 we awarded one point a little over 1.8 million to
172 indian tribes alaska native villages and
regional and village corporations all federally recognized indian tribes
and alaska native villages or corporations are eligible to apply
so who's eligible for this program indian tribes are eligible up to apply
for funding under the native american library services basic grant program for
purposes of funding under this program indian tribe means 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 interior as eligible for special programs and services provided
by the united states to indians because of their status as indians
a list of eligible entities is available from the bureau of indian affairs
again the tribe village or corporation itself must apply for the grant
a school tribal college department of education or other entity
that might contain the library cannot apply for the tribe on behalf of the
tribe although entities like these can be
partners and administer a grant for the tribe
the assumption is such a partnership is that the tribal community that applies
for the grant is the is directly served and benefits from the grant activities
that are carried out by the partner
for these grants the tribe must have an existing library to be eligible
the library must have a regularly scheduled hours
staff and materials available for library users in order to receive
funding the staff can be full-time or part-time
paid or volunteer
okay next we'll talk about the application process itself
and so everything you need for the application process is available on our
website at www.imls.gov
under the apply for a grant tab once you click on the native american
library services basic grant for fiscal year 2022
notice a funding opportunity you'll find the funding opportunity
number that you can enter into grants.gov
you'll want to jot down and remember the funding opportunity number and as
circled on the screen in red this year it is nag hyphen basic hyphen
fy22
here's a few things you'll want to do in advance of applying
and download and review the notice of funding
you'll also want to download the application forms listed in the notice
of funding if you don't have a duns number you'll
want to start this process right away since it can take several weeks to
process you'll want to confirm that your tribe
has an active sam registration if not this can be done at samsam.gov
finally you'll need to confirm if the tribe has
an existing grants.gov account and if not
one will need to be created
again you'll need all three at duns sam.gov registration and then the last
grants.gov registration remember this can take a significant
amount of time so please check on these early
in order for an application to be considered for funding it must be
received by midnight eastern time on march 1st
applications received after the deadline cannot be considered
so let's review us the specific application components that are required
for the application our notice of funding includes a table
that has all of 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 use this list as a checklist of all the
documents you will need to submit on march 1st
or by march 1st you want to make sure your application is complete so that
it's not rejected because you missed or forgot any required documents
the native american library services basic grant application has
six required application documents in one
conditionally required document the application cover form or sf424s
the imls supplementary information form or sif
and the imls library discretionary program information form
which are are all completed during the grants.gov submission process
a library services plan which is a narrative that you create
which can be up to three pages in length the imls budget form and the performance
measurement plan which you can download from the imls website
and if your plan includes the creation of any kind of digital products
you must write a digital products plan and this plan is conditionally required
because not all projects will create digital
products finally as a reminder all forms must be submitted as pdf documents
now because grants.gov is a system that exists outside of imls
we we cannot help you if you have problems with downloading materials or
submitting materials on the site the grants.gov support team however is
very helpful and who we turn to if help is needed
they're available 24 hours a day and can be reached by email or by phone
if you have any problems with grants.gov reach out to the support team directly
on this slide are links to the different resources grants.gov has available to
help you particularly with
using their workspace function we have a link here for
one youtube video but there are a number of different videos all about three to
four minutes long that show you how different parts of the workspace
function we recommend you view those to
understand more there are a number of benefits for using
the workspace one is that multiple people from your
organization can work on an application at the same time
another is that the next year when you go to apply in subsequent years
you can reuse what you put in the previous year so you won't be starting
from from scratch also all the activity is documented so
you can see if someone submitted a document which documents and if the
entire application package was submitted and when
you'll also get a tracking number that you can share with us in case
anything unusual happens and we need to to
investigate or further
when you're on the grants.gov site use the funding opportunity number you
found in the imls notice a funding opportunity for basic grants
and again circled in red on the display this is
nag hyphen basic hyphen fy22 this number will get you the application
the package materials that you need to start the process
download the application package by clicking on the package tab on the right
and then clicking apply you must use the grants.gov workspace platform to submit
your application
so this is the sf 424 s which stands for short form which is one of the most
important parts of your application the information you put on this form
including the name of the authorizing official is entered into our grants
management database these
staff are the contacts for the award and the people who are authorized to make
financial decisions on behalf of the tribe
if once you receive your award any of these people leave or are replaced
it's really important that you let us know asap using our new
grants management system egms reach so that we can update your
tribe's information you can complete the sf420
sf424s in grants.gov directly
the supplementary information form is also
a part of grand style it's a grants.gov form found in the application package
instructions for completing the form can be found there
but please make sure you
just check yes or no and provide the information requested
you'll want to be sure that the funds requested
match your budget and library service plan
budget summary
so there's three different places where your budget information would be listed
first would be in the supplementary information form
but then you would also have that information in your budget and your
budget summary do not include cost share or indirect
costs include one or two sentences that
summarize your library services plan
the library program information form is a grant also a grants.gov form found in
the application package federally recognized tribes are not
required to answer the organizational financial information but please put a
zero under total revenue and total expenses
for each year to avoid error messages when you submit the form
select one of the three imls agency level goals with which your project best
aligns select native american library services
basic grants as the grant program
your library services plan should describe
no more than three pages what you plan to do with the
grant funds and discuss what you are focusing on during the year
but you should also explain why you think the work is important
if you plan to carry out any professional development or library
service assessment activities you'll also need to describe these activities
here in the library services plan it should also include information about
how you will carry out your plan to make sure
it's successful and what results you plan to achieve
if you're new to federal award making there are some new standards for
measuring performance of federally funded grant activities
to meet uh this this new requirement for this program
you'll also need to include information about how you will measure performance
in terms of effectiveness and timeliness
and you'll also need to identify and describe in the
in in your application what data you will collect how often and from what
source in order to produce performance measures for effectiveness and timer
timeliness make sure to include a budget summary
that describes all budget items included in the imls budget form
all the information you provide here should match what is in your budget
we'll have to check to make sure uh you don't go over the 3 000
limit for educational and assessment activities
so the description will be very helpful and again please make sure this and all
your other documents are pdfs workspace does not convert documents
automatically so
as you work within grants.gov using their workspace function
it's important that you create the pdf documents because again
the software will not do that conversion for you
okay so you can also include cost to attend or present at conferences
costs for continuing education or other training
and other related travel and this includes registration travel
hotel per diem that sort of thing temporary staff cost when
regular staff are attending courses et cetera consultant fees
for on-site professional library assessment
and and that includes technology and digitization
these types of activities can be funded for up to three that three thousand
dollars and is something you have the option to include if you wish to take
advantage of and keeping in mind that ten thousand dollars is always the
maximum for any native american basic award
if you do decide to use the professional development library assessment option
you'll need to describe this in your library services plan
okay so the native american library service basic grant program would use
the following two performance measures uh that i mentioned just a little while
ago as a basis for understanding the level of performance
the grant program as well as each individual award
for effectiveness the extent to which activities
contribute to achieving the intended results of the project
and for timeliness we're referring to the extent to which
each task activity is completed within the time frame proposed
the performance measurement plan should show you
uh show how you will monitor and assess
your performance as a grantee from the perspective of effectiveness
and timeliness for each measure identify what data you
will collect from what source the method you will use to collect it
and according to what schedule the chart on this slide provides
sample statements for each measure and a space to record your your own
you're welcome to use a fillable version of the chart which
you can access through the notice of funding opportunity
and limit your performance measurement plan
to just one page and again save your document as a pdf file
this this is a standard budget form it's required for all basic grant
applications um
the total amount you request which you you should have on page four of the
budget form should be between six thousand dollars
and ten thousand dollars uh you should have a description of
costs for each section as well as the respective dollar amounts
um please note that even though there's a section for indirect cost on the form
indirect costs are not allowed for basic grants
neither is cost sharing those columns should all have zeros in
them and you can download this form through the
um through the notice of funding opportunity through the nofo
uh once you open that you'll you'll find the links
to those specific um that that that budget form
um and remember that you must submit this
this form like all the others as a pdf document
the basic grants grant funds can be used for for
permanent staff salary and benefits it can be used for temporary and
project staff funds can be used for collection
development equipment like computers and e-readers
library software library furnishings and shelving and
and other other supplies
special programming internet services um funds can be used for digitization and
and in any other types of costs these examples are found in the notice
of funding opportunity section d6 but are not exhaustive
so if you're wondering if a particular
expense is allowable that's not in the list
[Music] in the notice of funding
just let us know and we'll we'll try to help clarify
if your project includes any digital content resources assets software or
data sets be sure to write a digital products plan this is the optional
document i mentioned earlier remember it's
it's conditionally required which means it is required if there's any kind of
digital product or content that you're going to create with imls funds
these are some examples of what imls considers digital
products
you know oral histories that you've converted to
to digital files is a great example of that
um websites about community events
apps for library patrons online curricula for teachers and
students images of community meetings and a plethora of other
possibilities exist so please make sure to write a plan
digital products plan if you if you need to do so
remember your application must be submitted by march 1st
you should hear back from us in july when you will receive the official award
notification and your period of performance uh will
begin on august 1st and run for the next 12 months from there
okay next we'll provide some tips to help you with your application process
first register early you must have the you must have the duns number and
an active sam.gov registration and a current and functional grants.gov
registration you you must have a duns number to register with sam.gov
and you must have an active sam.gov registration to register with grants.gov
so you need to have the functional grants.gov registration to submit a
basic grant application to imls these steps take time and they're
sequential and so we just encourage you encourage
you to start right away remember that your sam.gov registration
expires each year and you have to renew it
now you can log into sam.gov at any time and find out your status and i would
certainly recommend doing that as soon as possible
so start start right away organizing what you need to apply and understanding
who in your organization can help with
the registration and certain aspects who
can confirm confirm dones who can
confirm sam and grant grants.gov registration
and remember to save all your documents as pdf files
um grass.gov can't can't convert them for
you so you'll have to um you'll have to do that part of the uh
submit as part of the submission process upload your 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 more time
but just setting a target well in advance of the march one 1
the march 1 deadline 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
be sure to double check the uploaded files against the table of application
components in the notice of funding opportunity or
the no fo as we call it again remember there's there's the table
in in the notice of funding that will serve
as a checklist against all the application components
that need to be submitted so you'll want to use that to make sure you haven't
forgotten anything or
may have inadvertently left something out
you can resubmit before the deadline so if this if it does if you do notice that
you've submitted the application and you you you notice that you may have left
something out you can resubmit before the deadline if you need to so keep that
in mind as well um
this might be helpful yeah yeah if you if you forget something it
it could be very helpful for you
okay so for uh questions about eligibility um your
your your library service plan and project activities
uh the digital products plan your budget including
allowability of cost don't hesitate to contact me directly
there's my contact information for questions about application
requirements and deadlines be sure
to communicate those to maeve or sheena and we've provided their
contact information as well thank you for listening in and we look
forward to hearing from you and receiving your
application and as always best wishes from imls