welcome back from lunch and we are at the last session of the day with content
we're so excited we are going to hear in this session from you from some of you
so I want to particularly thank all of those of you who raised your hand and
said yes to this session as presenters I want to thank everybody in the room in
advance including the virtual room for the discussion Rich part of the session
this is going to entail because you're going to have to turn your brains back
on after lunch and get ready to participate and I want to thank Dennis
nangle who wrangled all of this there's a lot of moving Parts with this one so
I'm going to call Dennis up to get us started and here we
go I'm here on time after lunch unlike last year so it's very exciting uh yes
so I'm very excited for this session um I've seen what the states have put
together and I think it's really going to inspire a lot of conversation um I'm
going to go over how the structure of it will work and then um and then I'll call
the first set of States up in a moment um yes so let's just one thing at a time
so the structure will be we have three different topics that we're going to be
discussing and presenting on um each topic will uh consist of 15 minutes of
presentation time and then after that there'll be time for you all to discuss
uh at your tables um and then after that that seven minutes is over we'll spend
seven minutes with some sharing of uh uh what the discussion was about certain
Impressions maybe questions you may have for the the lightning uh talk presenters
um and we won't have time to for each table to share out so just kind of like
as as the spirit leads you to uh bring up some things and share some stuff uh
please do uh and then I know we you just got settled in your tables uh after
lunch um but if there an attempt to make the discussion robust uh and we also
have a couple of volunteer discussion leaders if you could if you have empty
space at your table um kind of joining uh another like half completed table to
try to consolidate some of the seating that would be great um and then the
discussion leaders raise your hands uh you guys once once everybody is settled
into their tables uh you can disperse and find a table to own for the
discussion so that's a lot of information but while I bring up um
Arizona and Rhode Island if if you have a rather lean table and you want to join
uh another table to make it more Consolidated that would be great please
welcome Nicollet and Chris to talk about artificial intelligence yay
[Applause]
do and I'll Advance I'll be the slide advancer thank for all of
you okay all right so greetings all uh in
case you haven't you don't know who I am I am Chris Gara lsta coordinator at SDC
and project specialist for the Arizona State library and the thank you thank
you I'm proud too yeah it's warm in our state yes you want
that uh and the following presentation I'm about to give is written by Ai No or
was it and would you know next slide okay so AI has once
again entered our public Consciousness as it has a number of times in the past
70 years since Alan Turing first presented his framework for developing
intelligent machines as well as how to test their intelligence in the 19 in
1950 but while most people have a sense of what AI means in general there is so
much that fits under this umbrella that uh it can be hard to know what we should
focus on next SL so fortunately one approach we can
take is to focus on the type that's brought it back to the Forefront of our
thoughts namely generative AI that is artificial intelligence that
uses machine learning models machine learning being a type of Technology
where computers learn from data and improve at tasks over time without being
explicitly programmed for every step and natural language processing or NLP which
helps computers work with and understand human language to create new content so
this can include pretty much any kind of content right include text images audio
video and this is in contrast to for example like uh predictive AI uh which
uses patterns and data to make educated guesses about future events or outcomes
like predicting what the weather will be like or uh if the text message you're
receiving is Spam or legitimate or what to recommend to you on your
Netflix next now within the sphere of generative
AI are several popular products you've likely heard about like open AI chat GPT
Google's Gemini formerly known as Bard do e and mid Journey as well as some you
may not have heard about like stable diffusion and
Synthesia and with these tools comes a whole host of Poss possibilities and
concerns and probably the most notable concern you've heard about relates to
the very underlying Foundation that enables generative AI to even exist
namely being trained on with content that these companies may not legally or
at the very least ethically have the right to use so for example chat GPT
while we don't know all the specifics of their training data did use common crawl
Capital C's which is a large open access data set that collects and stores web
pages from all across the internet and that absolutely includes user generated
content so what this means for libraries is that there are some very specific
sets of related factors that we need to consider as they're going to have a
direct impact on the resources and services that we typically offer these
include and I apologize I don't have a slide for this but I'm happy to send it
out after the fact um accuracy and reliability so AI models while
sophisticated are not infallible and can potentially generate responses that are
inaccurate or misleading and this of course can be due to limitations in the
model's training data or misunderstanding of more complicated
questions you've got data privacy and security so libraries obviously have a
responsibility to protect Patron data which includes interactions with these
AI systems there is bias and ethical
considerations because AI models can exhibit bias that is present in their
training data which can lead to skewed or unfair
responses misinformation and content appropriateness so AI generated content
has the potential to inadvertently spread misinformation or inappropriate
content this is an obvious concern for libraries which are trusted sources of
information dependency and skill erosion so there can be an over Reliance on AI
for information retrieval and content generation that could lead to a decline
in traditional research and critical thinking skills and this is something
that I have seen firsthand um digital literacy and user understanding so not
every Library Patron is going to be familiar with AI and how it works works
there's an obvious and well documented Gap in digital literacy which can lead
to misunderstandings or misuse of these AI
tools big one here intellectual property and copyright so AI generated content
particularly summaries or creative writing can raise a lot of questions
about who owns or who has the copyright uh or the IP for that particular content
there is long-term viability and support AI technology is moving fast and that
means that tools and platforms can quickly become outdated I've done tons
of presentations on AI and every single one is different because it just changed
that quickly and then last but not least uh cultural sensitivity so libraries can
libraries do serve diverse communities and it's important that the tools we use
are sensitive to that diversity next slide but it is not all doom and gloom
there are clearly a ton of potential use cases for this type of AI which is why
so many companies are using the term AI as like a rally and cry for investors
they see its ability to at least appear to be able ble to problem solve and
create new and meaningful content making them ideal for performing tasks that are
traditionally done by people so within Library some of those potential use case
scenarios can include accessibility support which could enhance Library
resources for individuals with disabilities by providing tools like
Speech to Text uh audio content and accessible formats automated reference
assistance to help answer uh Patron questions which would free up the
Librarians to handle more complex tasks content creation like generating book
summaries crafting newsletters or creating educational materials genealogy
and historical research by which it can analyze data bases of historical records
making it easier for patrons to trace family histories health information and
resources such as offering patrons guidance on where to find relevant
medical information interactive storytelling and learning experiences
for younger audiences um as a language translation
tool it can help break down language barriers enable more inclusive access to
information I have found chat GB and others to be a much better translating
service in like Google translate um personalized reading recommendations
based on a Patron's reading history your preferences uh research assistant by
analyzing and summarizing targeted information and finally virtual learning
and tutoring by offering patrons personalized on demand learning
experiences that are tailored to their specific educational needs and of course
in many ways that's just the very tip of the iceberg next
slide so the question then is what exactly should libraries be focusing on
right now when it comes to generative Ai and I think the answer is that your role
in the library may be something you want to consider when making that decision
now there are of course very general focal areas that everyone should at
least spend a little bit of time learning about like the history of AI
the terminology and the available tools and of course if possible take some time
out to test some of the more popular products on the market chat GPT is free
to use but how generative AI might impact archival work might not
necessarily be what's impactful to say a youth librarian right so here are just a
few examples I've come up with so for archists concerns like accuracy in
historical context and preservation challenges are key along with ensuring
ethical curation of AI generated materials Library administrators can
focus on budget and cost management while also navigating policy and
regulation compliance and strategically implementing those AI Tools in their
libraries on the technical side library media technicians can be tasked with
integrating new technologies providing ongoing support and developing staff
training programs Outreach coordinators can play a critical role in maintaining
Community Trust by addressing the digital divide and ensuring that ethical
communication about AI use uh programming Librarians uh can focus on
keeping program Integrity intact while engaging their audiences with content
tailored to their needs reference Librarians May encounter concerns about
the accuracy of AI generated information the diminished role of human expertise
and the potential for Patron misinformation and then finally youth
librans uh may need to assess the appropriateness of AI content its impact
on learning and creativity and address parental concerns about its use with
younger audiences next slide so that's that's a lot of pieces in a very short
period of time with no unfortunate real depth to this uh just du the nature of
this program but I think if I would say there's one thing I want you to take
away from this is that there is a lot of potential with generative AI po
potential good and potential bad but what it ends up actually looking like
what products end up dominating the market what governmental policies and
court rulings will impact its availability integration are all still
very much up in the air but that said we as Librarians have responsibility to get
ahead of this continuously emerging technology so that when our patrons come
to us for information we can meet if not exceed their expectations and that
there's a if there is a potential benefit to our community members in
having access to this technology that we find a way to make it accessible while
of course simultaneously taking into a consideration our obligations towards
privacy security and accurate information and so with that I think my
next slide is the questions one but you might want to jump ahead that's right
remember that for the question time and so with that I'll now pass it on to
Nicollet who's going to talk about the AI within slas thank you Chris all right
nich thank thank you is that is that a good distance um I'm Nica Buffon I'm the
lsca coordinator and Library development manager for the uh office of library and
information services so definitely less than Chris uh in terms of my expertise
in AI um I'm just a curious person um I've read a lot I've tried out a little
so I am going to talk a little bit about how AI might be intersecting with you
all at your State Library agency and your lsta work you can actually kind of
skip this slide keep going yeah sure great so in Rhode Island we are uniquely
positioned within state government um in that we are in a department alongside
the IT department so we end up with a front row seat to the process that the
state has been going through um to build a policy and consider how AI might be
used across state government so R island is looking for ways to incorporate what
they call everyday AI so this is nothing Earth shattering it's simply ways that
the state can leverage AI to improve efficiency streamline processes
generally make life easier for both workers and the public unsurprisingly
the state is incredibly risk averse when it comes to um implementing this so
there are a few concerns that are at the top of the list uh first the state
doesn't want to break trust with the public there's a lot of fear and
skepticism around Ai and so it is approaching this process very slowly and
methodically and thoughtfully uh they also don't want AI to result in any
state job loss and finally their I think biggest concern is data security so
ensuring that our state's data remains secure and also that it is not being
used to train other AI models inappropriately so once that is all
taken care of easy um will have achieved AI Readiness and will be ready for some
kind of implementation as yet we um have not achieved AI Readiness and so the
state actually does not have a policy in place yet um I recommend for all of you
out there to check in about your State's policy or its development if you haven't
already um these conversations are certainly happening at your States as
well uh but for now next slide there is no State policy stopping me from using
AI in my day-to-day work so uh like the state I am considering how everyday AI
can make my life uh and my work easier um while also trying to apply a certain
level of caution so um since I submitted these slides I just wanted to add one
new kind of wild idea that I heard um which is I heard about a grant project
that is considering building their own chat bot with the data from their
project and I was just kind of noodling on the idea of what if we could all
build a chatbot trained on lsta subord Project reports so that prospective
grantees can ask questions about Grant project that have already been funded so
this is so far beyond my capacity um as a professional as to be Unthinkable but
I think it sounds really cool and I uh give you this idea freely and anyone May
steal it and build it if you like um but on to how I have used AI in my work um
really for two very simple purposes brainstorming and word smithing tools
like chat GPT Gemini other chat Bots can be great for those things I will feed
rough ideas into to the systems and get you know new ideas back so this can be
for things like fine-tuning learning objectives for a training translating
complex sort of government speak um into planer language and also for really
small things like come up with a clever name for this conference session based
on my description I've also used chat GPT for writing help so sometimes just I
ask it to write emails for me um or to change the tone like please make this
very angry email sound less angry never actually use that one just a wild
example for my my imagination um last year I also tried out chaty PT while I
was doing my spr so the number one top tip I have is you can use it for your
word counts so if you like me have trouble getting your abstracts and
activities to under 160 words you can do that now in literal seconds uh with a
chat bot um I might also have a chat bot break down a large like two-page
paragraph from a particularly wordy Grant report into discrete activities
with bullet points so that I can review and revise those more easily than having
to parse it all out myself um and I've also put in activities under a project
and ask the chat bot what connections it can find between those activities to
help me write better um abstracts or fill out the other outcomes not already
reported section um sorry I don't know if Emily and the research team are here
I know that's not best practice for outcomes based evaluation but it it
works um so whatever I'm doing I am typically starting with my own ideas my
own writing or a grantee report and I always read the results and check them
for accuracy and I continue to edit and revise them and make sure it's my own
work it helps speed things up but it doesn't replace you know thinking or
subject matter knowledge or actual work so next slide uh similarly our sub
awardees are possibly using these tools when they're writing Grant applications
and Grant reports for you I think is the big thing so uh this development like
anything has some positives and negatives some positives I think I
genuinely believe that chat GPT makes bad writing uh better or any chatbot
sorry um you are less likely to receive applications uh that are gram with
grammatically incorrect sentences while punctuation misuse the
vocabulary like wonky spelling if it's gone through a chatbot uh using chat GPT
is a brainstorming tool can strengthen Grant applications by bringing in
language consistent with an RFP or a noo just like you would advise people to do
in a regular old uh grant writing Workshop so negatives uh chat gpg is
just a tool so as I mentioned it doesn't replace thinking or subject matter
knowledge or work um I like to use this example before I worked at the State
Library agency I was an elementary school librarian and Technology teacher
I would have students write book recommendations in Microsoft Word um and
apparently no 8 to 10y old child knows how to spell the word
definitely um they all want to use the word definitely and the particular way
that all 8 to 10year old children misspell the word definitely leads to
spell check providing only one choice which is not the word definitely so the
number of students who turned in work where they said they would defiantly
recommend Percy Jackson and the Lightning theme uh was truly staggering
um so I coin this as and I actually don't remember defiantly definitely
principle which order I put them in um you still need to proofread and you also
kind of need to know how to spell the word definitely in order to successfully
use spell check in that scenario and so anyone is going to need to proofread and
also have good ideas to successfully use a chat bot or AI to help them with a
Grant application uh someone asked me right what can we do about libraries who
don't understand what their Community need is so neither does the chat bot so
what they get back and turn into US is hot nonsense right how do we fix this um
in my opinion right don't give them a grant is always an option um you could
hold workshops about how to identify Community needs offer people the ability
to turn in a draft or meet with you during office hours uh to discuss their
ideas um and other fixes uh no to discuss their ideas and then other fixes
that you would apply to the problem regardless of the existence of AI um and
at the very least you should in some way communicate to prospective grantees that
if their ideas are not good then a chat bot is unlikely to help them secure a
grant next slide all right so that uh brings me to my last slide um about
communicating uh about AI with colleagues and your libraries and also
potentially providing training which I know a lot of You Are already doing so I
did not invent this framework that you see on the board I actually saw this as
a small part of a presentation at ala so the details are on the slide if you want
to learn more about it um but these four D verbs um have been really easy for me
to remember and they've stuck in my head since I saw them in June and they've
really helped me frame my thinking about Ai and how I might communicate to
libraries or plan effective training opportunities so I think it's a good
place to start uh start your thinking on AI if you haven't started thinking about
it so the first one is to demystify so that would be that AI is not magic it is
science and we can understand how it works um and understanding how a chatbot
works or any AI means that you won't have unrealistic expectations of what it
can do next uh is demythologize so you have ai enthusiasts on one side painting
this sort of post-work paradise where we are all people of leisure and our basic
needs are met and then the reverse AI doomers who think Skynet is coming and
this will be the end of humanity and the truth at least for now lies somewhere
between those two extremes um and you should consider the actual positives and
negatives of AI um to understand how you can and should use it next there is
demonstrate as in AI uh requires demonstrable skills to use it
effectively and you can teach people those skills so someone mentioned to me
last night they're doing a workshop on prompt writing for chat Bots and that's
a skill in practicing it will help users get better results and be more effective
if they're using AI finally democratize wherein we exist in a society and we
must apply this technology ethically I think Chris covered this quite
thoroughly but questions like how can we protect privacy what about plagiarism
and intellectual property is the data training the models biased yeah probably
will paid chat Bots mean that wealthy people have access to better more
accurate resources yeah probably um and so I just want to end with very similar
to how C it is that these ethical questions around AI and um everything
that Chris has talked about they really intersect beautifully with Library
values and so I think as a profession we should be paying attention and I think
as individuals um it's useful for everyone to be learning about it and
trying it for yourselves and also figuring out how to navigate this for
ourselves and the states we work for and our libraries and their communities
that's the end and then we have some slides or some questions thank you both
for a wonderful presentation
so now you all are going to take seven minutes I'll start the timer on my watch
to discuss these questions at your table um and then like I said before the
people who have been kind of pre-selected to help lead the table if
there's more than one of you at a table if you could sort of spread out and try
to find a table that needs a
leader so I hate to wind down these very active discussions but we have more
topics to cover and we want to get to those too so um would anybody like to
share some Impressions or things that were discussed at your table I know that
we've got some active uh chat so maybe we could start there
Cindy some highlights
people fol have said to
usei helping helping WR letters of support
brainstorming um one state wrot that they under a moror on the adoption and
use of generative AI That's a state policy obiously not speciic to
yeah no problem and we can Circle back while you um digest more
yes all right any in-person table discussion share
outers broadcasters town
criers right ah
Denise so it sounds like um we have a few who are all in and trying to make it
work around consistency and making sure that things um you know just a little
bit of help with the paperwork and things that are repetitious and then
there's some other states who aren't quite sure some are pushing some out
some aren't it's just a little bit all over the place which you know is kind of
represent resentative of the fact that we're all from different places
different
regions okay Georgia we just used trial of Gemini and to it for many of the used
cases in in a presentation I surprised how much it help but you do need to use
caution requesting when using the request in
summize a bu of opened responses that were in Excel spret did in 5 seconds and
super our our applications AR narrative so no here um for our narrative report I
I kind of wish they
would been I've been exploring chat G and other services including msot
exper with
weed found still is still
accuracy certainly great all right well there's always a parking lot if
something else comes up um or Impressions but I think we'll move on to
the next topic and bring up those presenters which is Chris gvo from
Connecticut Karen re from Michigan and Erica McCormack from Texas to talk about
did digital inclusion
[Applause]
yay
doie who first I believe Connecticut is first go ahead
Chris hi I'm Christine gabo from the Connecticut State Library um and I'm
going to talk to you about what a small state and a small State Library that's
not particularly well funded can do around digital Equity um the current
digital Equity project of the Connecticut State library is is modest
as you'll see but I still think it's extremely useful we're anchoring a
project that's aimed at figuring out a way to assist small libraries low less
well-funded Li libraries and so forth to find their way into the digital Equity
ecosystem we're anchoring um an imls Grant that's pulled together seven
public libraries of various sizes capacities and catchman area
demographics to develop a process for sharing a small pool of Navigators
across their sites in the various language communities in their
towns but before I talk about the project
which I hope will be of great use as I said to small smaller and perhaps rural
libraries I want to um note that as a State Library we came
to this place of involvement and feeling responsible for helping libraries find
their way into the digital Equity ecosystem only because of lsta funds in
particular the lsta arpa funds which allowed us to fund uh pilot project um
pilot navigation projects in four public libraries and to Anchor a digital
inclusion network of libraries agencies and Community Partners that via monthly
meetings with presentations uh education and
discussion have kept the issue alive at the Grassroots for public libraries and
Community organizations you can move to the next
slide go Connecticut isn't one of the states you'll hear from others who get
the majority of um who who distribute the majority of digital Equity Funds in
their state or distribute really um substantive grants to libraries for
digital navigation um we are not in that
position nor were we in a position to establish a big non-for-profit Coalition
uh along the national digital inclusion Alliance model but we did uh you know
and some of those models have a direct impact on accessibility because they
deal directly with vendors and philanthropists and others to deliver
services but we learned that a modest uh relatively informal Network that meets
monthly with some educational content that presents updates on National and
state thinking on digital inclusion was well worth our time each month from
third anywhere from 30 to 50 individuals from these many types of organizations
come together get a class some analysis of what's going on in the world of
internet access share models of digital inclusion work um and find
partners for example one of the original pilot libraries uh that got our first
$100,000 arpa Grant went on to get State funding I mean city funding uh for
permanent navigation program um with staff and space and then leverage that
support into the founding of a city city digital Equity Coalition with some
actual power uh to uh help Implement on a Citywide
basis um and they use this our Network to share their model with other small
and modest sized libraries around the state the network has allowed
accessibility nonprofits to find libraries who wanted to host their
special navigation appointments um and so on on sharing on
a relatively informal basis keeps modestly funded libraries who are still
trying to find a way into the digital Equity ecos ecosystem informed and
inspired as they wait for the granting opportunities that have been promised
and leading this ongoing network has meant that the state we the State
Library um are very visible in the digital Equity ecosystem and we've
regularly been invited onto panels sponsor by other state
organizations and keeps us in a position where we can continue to advocate for
the role of libraries in the fight for access the group as a whole also
provided a space for the libraries to come together who saw their their role
in the developing ecosystem as really elevating Community
Voices I don't know how many are you have been involved in your state
processes but it's a continual struggle to be sure that those
um on the ground um you know find their way into the discussions about shaping
digital Equity plans uh you can change the
slide so our current project uh which flowed from these others as as I said
brought together SE just seven but seven public libraries into a collaborative
project to share Navigators um it was we created a
deliberate grouping of small very small Suburban town with larger town and City
libraries we brought together libraries who had substantive experience with
navigation on um on their site with libraries who've never done this work
and of course that means there's a great difference in capacity among the
libraries in the group um in particular this group brings together the
Bridgeport Public Library the Hampton public library and the West Haven Public
Library all through three of whom had very interesting navigation programs
grant-funded navigation programs for several years with several very small
libraries in the nagat valley with no who felt they had no capacity in the
past to host navigation the volunteer libraries were
recruited out of experience um with the Connecticut libraries and partners for
digital network uh digital Equity work in space we spent six months together
sharing ing Community Asset mapping and an assessment of the need for languages
other than English and determined uh as a group how to prioritize Navigator
language skills in the end the libraries um
prioritize services in English Spanish Arabic Haitian Creole and Brazilian and
Cape Verdian Portuguese in the end given the grant size uh that we applied for
and The Navigators um we ended up being able to afford we had to limit these
choices to three and top of the list was Arabic um because of the large number of
Syrian and other Middle Eastern refugees um in in in Connecticut in this Regional
area and to date Arabic speakers have made up the largest group of residents
seeking uh navigation and given us a lot of confidence in that
choice so the way this worked was that the library with the most experience and
the most passion around digital Equity volunteered to act as a hub for hiring
um paying and remotely managing The Navigators accepting the data and
hosting a part-time contracted Navigator manager three Navigators were hired as
contractors for 25 hours a week for 12 months um and in collaboration the
participating libraries agreed to an on the ground rotation of The Navigators
and a system for allocating the Spanish and Arabic speakers if needed at any
particular location in the region Navigators are free to me and encouraged
to meet residents in public spaces more compatible with their work schedules and
bus schedules and all those things that determine people's ability to access
digital Equity um training um computers and that assistance to get uh Broadband
at home the Navigator ERS as in most places
I'm sure but it was very important for us were hired uh based on the
demonstrations of their ability to help folks without
patronizing um residents everybody went through exercises challenging
exercises and all of The Navigators had they ended up having incredible
technical skills but out of that pool were people who really just liked
helping and had a lot of respect came out of the community communities
involved um The Navigators come together in a peer group to solve problems once a
month but can do it more frequently if they need the directors from the seven
libraries come together monthly to discuss and make corrections to the
process and to help each other figure out how to advance Outreach for the
program we have flyers and posters to advertised but most res residents come
to navigation by word of mouth or they're recruited by Community Partners
selected and by each library in the process in one case it's an adult
education group and another a refugee support group another it's a re-entry
group a veterans hospital or an immigrant rights uh nonprofit support
group senior centers and so on in the end we're aiming for about 2,000
one-on-one mentoring exchanges um and um most importantly out
of the experience winning New Towns and boards and other stakeholders to see
navigation as a critical service for which they should provide funding for
libraries soon and of course as the state capacity Grant process rolls out
uh in Connecticut I don't know in every state it's different but in Connecticut
the sub awwards will be organized around Regional educational centers and we hope
that this model of regional sharing among small and mediumsized libraries
will be dispersed and discussed and provide help prepare libraries to apply
with Partners um and work through these Regional centers to secure capacity
grants for four years of digital navigation thanks thank you Chris all
right we'll move on to Michigan with Karen hi I'm Karen re I I'm I'm the old
school person um right now the library of
Michigan in uh the technology consultant position has been empty for several
years so we don't really have this embedded is something that we're trying
to do directly with Consultants um so what we're doing more
is trying to push it through the subg grants and asking the community
libraries what do you need what can we do if all we can do is push money to you
what you know what does it look like in your community and our current grant
program that's running we have two um we've stopped our small subgrant one for
a little while but we have three priorities for our yearlong improving
access to information grants they can ask for 5,000 to
$25,000 and they can ask for something that relates to literacy something that
relates to Historic preservation or something that relates to digital
inclusion uh by uh a large margin literacy is more of an issue for the
libraries but 15 of the grants that we have given out since 2019 have been for
digital inclusion 14 have been to a public library we also
allow academics to apply uh one has been to an academic library and it was three
rural locations and 12 Urban locations and to put some perspective on
on this um the rural locations obviously have very similar needs to low-income
urban areas uh but I suspect I'm speaking for all of the states the
backbone infrastructure is so poor in the rural areas
that they really they can't step on to local infrastructure and then distribute
devices that the lowincome urban libraries can do um I have dealt with a
fairly angry rural Library director who was like why do you want to give me
hotpots most of my service population can't get a phone
signal so I you know I know I'm speaking to all of you with that so it's the
three rural locations is not that our rural libraries are less interested
but that there's less basic capacity there and that's a struggle when we're
working with our libraries and it's saying you know do you want to do
digital inclusion and they do their their communities need this
badly but for a lot of our communities this is beyond what the State Library
can do what the individual Library can do so next
slide so you can kind of see it in what they're interested in doing we've done
three Wi-Fi extension projects for two rural locations in one low-income
urban area we've done eight laptop or device lending programs those were all
in urban areas um there has been disability in neurodivergent Patron
support I've been glad to see more of this recently uh but that is also more
in the urban areas where they have more basic infrastructure to build on uh and
there was one remote access for prog programs in an urban area but I am am
seeing a shift like I say I I I feel frankly very guilty uh that I'm saying I
have money if you can do something because we just don't have the staff at
the state level but I think a good comparison for how our libraries are
trying to move forward in their communities um predating this particular
grant program we gave monomon County I really shouldn't name the
library we gave them funds for several years to do um um Wi-Fi extensions at
the time this was 2018 there was one public Wi-Fi accessibility place in the
entire County um I understand it was at a bar which is not really great for K12
children trying to do their homework um she spent two years working
on the grant she went to each of her townships she had determined if she did
a um an extension in each of the township halls in the county that would
put free Wi-Fi ail available within six miles of everyone in the county three of
the townships refused to participate because the township boards did not see
the point and she basically came to them and
said I have the supplies I have the funds just let me put it in your
township hall um we fast forward a couple of years into arpa calcasa is a
county that is a little bit Inland from Traverse City so it's a little bit
closer to a well-funded um almost urban area it's it's quite a resort Town um
but also very poor he did the the library director there did a Wi-Fi
extension the surrounding townships which had no Library service went that's
really nice how do we get on board and he said sign a contract with me to
provide Library service and I'll put a Wi-Fi extension in your Township so it
was a distinct shift in the communities I was super happy to hear that so next
slide so our lessons learned um I think again I'm telling you nothing you don't
already know is that for lowincome urban and rural areas they're still on the
basics they're still on can you get access do you have a device you can do
your homework with do you have a device that you can sign up to for job
applications and the internet accessibility is still really difficult
in urban areas um having a a direct connection for the K12 school doesn't
help people who work all day and can't access the K12 school's Network at 8
o'clock at night or don't have children um the support for disabled and neurode
Divergent patrons has primarily been a middle inome or a fluent area issue um
and I think that is not that there is less interest in the lowi income in
rural areas I think it is that they are still dealing with level of service that
are are are truly basic um in the more affluent areas they have less of a need
to have staff spending time checking out hotspots and explaining to someone how
to use a tablet and then they can then focus more on other underserved areas of
their populations um the support for remote
access programming was from an affluent area and I think that's kind of a hold
over for those that we like everyone at home does have access so I don't have to
come to the library and that's much less of a focus for our rural areas but
overall despite this covering a six-year period from pre pandemic through to now
uh the focus really is still on basic Services there's many people in many of
um these particular libraries and across the state as a whole who don't need
their Public Library to provide them with digital services but there's many
who do even in very affluent areas their amilies who are lwi Income I live in a
neighborhood that you can pick four different internet providers and you
need $100 a month for the cheapest one so there is a lot of people that live
near me who do not have internet access despite the wealth of providers
supposedly so I I think about exclusion and inclusion with equity and it's it's
both a capacity and a money issue some org ations and some areas have they have
that step up it's true in so many other issues that libraries work on and then
they can focus on more one-on-one services and then some of our other
communities they're still working on those basic building blocks and I think
we're going to be there for a while thank
you all right now we'll move to Texas with Erica all righty I'm Erica
McCormack I am the LST coordinator for the Texas State Library archives
commission um H we are in a state that cannot use or that is strugly
discouraged from using the word inclusion so we have to use
opportunity
so so next slide
please and so for we're uh we're going to talk a little bit about our latest uh
foray into helping in the digital opportunity world and uh when we talk
about digital closing the digital divide we can say that uh we're talking about
Broadband availability and affordability digital literacy skills device
availability affordability and Technical Support Online privacy and cyber
security fitting right in there with that new requirement and then um online
accessibility and inclusivity of public resources now to do all these things we
need to have a team next slide please so we have now a digital library digital
opportunity team ldo it has gone through many iterations that used to have
inclusion used to have anyway uh we used to have technology Consultants now we
have a digital team um this team is funded by I'll get a little further into
this minute but um we applied for and received close to $9 million as part of
the national the federal infrastructure Bill $6,000 of that is going to be going
to library grants um the other three close to three
million will go to the administration so we have three people uh Henry Stokes who
uh was our previous technology consultant um but he is the program
coordinator we have promise Madu who is our data and project coordinator and we
have Warren Davis who is our community educate engag M and Outreach and
coordinator and they're going to be or they are tasked with Broadband funding
training tools research and digital opportunity news Hub so they have come
on board this year well Henry's been there the whole time but promise and
Warren are two of our newest hires they came on in the
spring and they have been hard at work creating dashboards and all types of uh
other online tools and traveling throughout the state seeing what's going
on um and one thing that they've done next slide please as part of their
Baseline um determining where they need to go throughout the state we do a speed
test of the public libraries in the state every year and so you'll see on
here from 2016 barely I want say 5% of the
libraries in the state even met the FCC standards for Broadband but but fast
forward to 2023 and we're almost up to 50% who are actually reaching Meeting
those standards and so one of the things that they're going to be doing I
mentioned funding they're going to be let's see if we need to go forward or
not no not yet okay sorry just kidding so the grant that we're going to be
offering um we're not really sure when it's going
to be released the funding that we have was for 5 years of funding so so our
funding will end December of 2026 uh Warren Henry and promise are the
first three to be hired out of five positions that are being funded by the
funds um and like I said this is from the federal uh infrastructure Grant and
it's through our com controller's office as um our Broadband development office
and the um Grant is going to be called lifi so we're talking Library
infrastructure facility Improvement grants and there's going to be three
phases assessments coaching and funding we just finally got the contract through
to do the assessments the goal was to have the grants starting by now but we
can't even we can't find a grants administrator right
now we we've had a it's been a little revolving door everybody's moving up and
so um their grants administrator which will be doing nothing but their grants
will be part of my house of um grantsmanship and
accreditation so we're hiring that person and there's one other position
that they need to hire um but they're going to and so at this
point we hope funding will be released in the spring after we write the
noo um and since it is a different funding structure I am going to have to
learn that as well as keep on track of lsta that should be interesting um um
and so that's that's the grant but then we go to the uh tools we go to we're
doing plow for the libraries we're doing the training we will be doing um going
around the state doing uh training as well as virtual training we also have
research next slide please so as part of our arpa funding um
we did offer digital Navigator grants as as well as digital literacy grants the
one on the left here um Texas public library servant communities to enhance
digital literacy that was arpa funed and I do have a copy at my desk that I think
I need to leave with Cindy because I do not believe I gave you a copy when it
was done so but if anybody else would like a copy of that research uh study
please let me know because I will send you double
copies and then we have this other uh research on the right right hand side
which was for the digital Navigator grants they were also funded by arpa but
the research was done after the fact um next slide please and then
digital literacy programs and let me say one thing about you may have noticed the
classic Graphics we started with Rosie the
Riveter and transformed her into you can do it and and uh all those and just
transferred into the technology side so we have a thing for World War II
graphics I do not know why but
anyway so I just had to put a shout out for that um and just wish us well
on getting our staff fully funded and fully uh Warm Bodies In and uh like I
said we should have the noo and the staff on hand we hope by December with
the grant going out in um next spring so thank you great thank you thank you
everybody all right now spend some time at your tables
um your discussion leader people have the questions um in front of them to
guide the conversation and I will reconvene share out at a certain
time smart engaged attendees and lsj coordinators um it is time to share any
insights or questions you may have about this topic um both virtually and in
person anybody want to share anything that they were discussing or maybe
questions they
have we have one nobody saying anything so I figure I'll say something here our
conversation on this one um Senator lot around with arpa funds and Caris funds
too but mostly arpa funds we went into these really rural areas and we gave
them this great stuff and then the money ran out and now they're like wait wait
where's that great thing I had Wi-Fi and now it's gone completely so you know
great thank everybody for the money it was great but you know you introduced
them to something and then now it's gone and the citizens expect that service and
got used to that service so little bit of a challenge there um another
conversation we had in and literally in every state sitting at this table the
Gap is literally as serious as you know great highspeed internet access
available to everybody in the community and then you go down the street to the
rural area and there's literally no running water so huge huge gaps um
literally in all of our states that we talked about here that's good thank you
for sharing that's helpful oh City's got some virtual
thoughts
Li
some states
havenot ly and one reive one request and they
decied not to continue and another state is trying to
partner with a state agency in charge
[Music]
of great thank you any other inperson sharing things okay well thank
you all and thank you to our wonderful presenters with this
topic now we're going to bring moral Walsh
up to talk about you can take your time and just on a Sprint uh to talk about uh
their experience with working with other federal funds and then after Mara we
will invite um virtually the Idaho State librarian to talk about their um
experience with other federal funds it's okay take your
time got the whole table to yourself I was trying to escape
right computer spoiler alert take your time take a
Time shutting down instead of stting it's one of those Forest
updates the worst possible time so that's
okay do you think maybe we could Stephanie could go while you Stephanie
are you out there or would you be ready to discuss I don't know who's beaming
her in I don't know
who's okay well oh there's Matt hi can you hear me now I can thank
you Stephanie don't look at these no problem there we go time all right we
can hear you Stephanie great hi everyone I'm Stephanie Bailey white I'm the state
librarian at the commission for libraries Dennis if you want to go to
the next slide uh our State Library agency focuses mostly on Library
development and support of our talking book
service next slide um and we start serve about
850 public uh School academic and special libraries including tribal
libraries in the state turn my video on here too next one and so recently we
have um had three additional funding sources that have really complemented
our lsta funding um and supported the lsta funded programs and services and
our strategic plan so uh one of the projects um that we've received funding
for is capital projects funds that's construction funding from the treasury
Department and we received about 3.5 million that was awarded to uh about 15
public libraries in our state uh ranging from $5,000 to help with Ada accessible
restrooms to $500,000 that's helping uh build a a new
branch in a rural community and that many um some of you may say 3.5 million
is not very much that's a drop in the B bucket for California but it's a a big
deal for a small state like ours um I always say some funding is better than
no funding and we've been uh really happy to accept that and get that out to
the library Community we also um were successful in receiving funds Esser
funds that's been able to go to out of school and summer learning projects for
public and school libraries around the state 1 . 25 million was distributed uh
to our our libraries in the state serving thousands of Idaho
children next slide is the next uh big opportunity that we've been excited
about we were designated as the lead Agency for the digital Equity funding
that's coming into all states uh we took the lead in the planning Grant and have
uh worked with Partners to develop a a great state plan uh I think we were the
only state Library agency designated as the lead organization working closely
with our Broadband office uh they've been focused on the infrastructure part
we've been focused on digital equity which uh like our friends in Texas we
don't call Equity here it's called digital access for all idahoans um and
then we are planning on receiving about $10 million in the next five to eight
years that we'll be able to distribute to not only libraries but Community
organizations um to help address the digital divide
here um it's a I think been a big honor to be able to uh work with Partners to
develop a plan for people to recognize the role that libraries play in digital
inclusion and uh we're just anxiously waiting for those funds to roll in for
capacity and implementation and plan on awarding
about 90% of those funds out into communities to help address those needs
next slide please the is the lessons that we've learned um it's been really
important for us as a small state agency uh taking on some of these big
grants and making sure that the funding is spent appropriately and helps with
our mission and uh serving idah hoens so we have uh we typically have a lead
project coordinator that works closely with our grants officer and our fiscal
team to ensure that we're meeting all of those different Federal requirements I
think a side benefit has uh been us learning and how much we appreciate lsta
and the folks at imls they have everything so well organized uh and
different different agencies do things differently so trying to figure out uh
how best to work with each of those different Federal entities but we rely
on our lsta policies expand those and make sure that we have everything lined
up for all the reports that we need for each each of those entities we also have
to navigate some of our legislative issues in Idaho all of our federal funds
still have to go through our state legislature they're not always thrilled
about about spending federal funds so that can be a little tricky and then we
have to consider our staff capacity we have a staff of about
35 um but we didn't have anybody for example who had a deep expertise in
construction so for that particular Construction Grant we outsourced that
contracted with Library strategies to do office hours webinars and an in-person
training and a toolkit uh all based around construction areas that we can uh
continue to use into the new near future and that's been kind of a way that we've
dealt with some of those deficits in what our staff um can do knowing that
that we can't do everything next slide
um a few other Lessons Learned uh is just building those positive
relationships with our other funding agencies getting to know uh different
Federal program officers attending all the office hours that they offer and
webinars and training like the one that that uh imls is sponsoring today um
trying to get a handle on that knowing that um their response times may be uh
delayed Things Are things are going to be different than you're used to with
lsta um partly because they're kind of building the airplane as they fly uh
getting these new programs off the ground Across the
Nation and then um also working with our local Partners we were able for example
with the Esser funds to partner with another state agency on an evaluation
process that kind of benefited them and us um and not having to reinvent the the
whe as long as they were evaluating that program they could also do the library
component and that's really helped next slide and just a few of our outcomes it
is um not always easy to work with these different Federal sources but I think
the outcomes have far outweighed um the the benefits far outweigh the waiting
through the bureaucracy we've been able to do uh over $4.2 million in subg
Grants to 335 uh different Library entities in the
last two years uh that's huge in building capacity for libraries to
better serve their communities we also sometimes provide materials instead of
cash grants uh we're going to be doing some laptop distributions we've done
that as a pilot program with lsta funds the last two years and we're going to
expand that with the digital access funding um we do a lot of kits from Team
metal kits to mental health kits to podcast kits um for libraries that don't
always have the capacity to uh Wade through the purchasing process and do uh
big Grant programs sometimes it's just easier to provide the materials and
TurnKey programs for them and then really aiming for long-term impacts even
if it's a a two-year Esser Grant uh there's some long-term benefits with
strategic planning with professional development with toolkits that can uh
continue to serve the Library community well into the future
and then finally last slide um again having a Statewide plan
that we can rely on uh knowing that some of our funding sources funding seems to
follow other funding uh getting your foot in the door and showing that you
can handle uh some of these bigger federal grants uh has led to other um
trust building and our governor's office and others know that we do a good job
and support our willingness to take on some of those other programs and then
finally just stronger Partnerships uh Statewide and at the national level uh
again with our friends at at imls and others and uh that's going to really
help us build our capacity and further our goals and Mission so that's it for
me thanks Dennis thank you so much Stephanie and thank you to whoever made
it possible to hear her and see her thank you so I'm going to swing back to
more slides now so flashback flashback don't look too closely at
these not yet okay go ahead Mora here we are hi so when I started developing this
I thought that the grants process was kind of like or can be like Russian
nesting dolls it's a little bit exotic it's intriguing perhaps
mysterious but in the end everything should should fit
together um a long timeline to develop your application and your plan is ideal
but that's rarely real the first thing you want to do
before you even think about a grant is make sure that your grants.gov and your
sam.gov accounts are up to date um and make sure that they're actually yours
because they might belong to another organization the ones that you have to
use so then we can start with our Russian
here start with an idea um maybe based on what you want or an opportunity that
you've seen and try to be as specific as possible you will want to research the
noo or the notice of funding opportunity and these can be really
complex documents but here's where your imls experience will come in very very
handy um because most of the federal money is going to to be almost 100% the
same as imls with some you know differences like
being able to make Capital Improvements sometimes and that kind of
thing um you need to check when you s first look at the noo I think that you
want to check eligibility deadlines and requirements to make sure that you
actually qualify before you start putting a lot of work into
it um Define your need and when I say Define your need I mean with
data and then use that data to tell your story next I think you need to get your
team assembled and I consider the team your own
experts I would use them to brainstorm for input and then you can divvy things
up and assign different duties for different parts of the application to
different people and again I'm describing an Ideal World you
know which doesn't always happen in this order or quite as nicely right
um I think you want to create a program that is tailored to your specific
Community um in our case it's going to be tailored to our state most of the
time but within that you can also have something that is tailored to specific
communities or distributed geographically and things like that so
you have a certain amount of leeway in your proposal it doesn't have to be one
size fits all
um sorry I lost my place oh seek a community support so you can design a
great mouse trap but if the people aren't aren't willing to catch mice it's
not going to do you any good right um and then think about the outcomes that
you expect or hope for but also keeping in mind
that sometimes you get different outcomes which is neither better nor
worse but you want to be open-minded and flexible about
it build a project timeline that closely matches the available period of
performance and expect that you might need to start
later and you want to keep a cushion of time on the back
end in a perfect world you would be able to do both of those things make sure
that when you're doing this plan you are making sure that you know exactly
who is going to be responsible for the different sections in
that I think you always want to work with a
template be careful about allowable things which can vary from Grant to
Grant don't put anything in your budget budget that isn't in the plan you should
be able to draw lines from one thing to the
other um I would also say you should always ask questions instead of making
assumptions about what is allowable or how things can be
done check your math and then have someone else check it
again and have someone read your proposal who isn't familiar with it to
make sure that it's really clear and try to be open-minded about accepting edits
and suggestions from other people I think that lots of times we have such
ownership over our creation that it's hard to be open-minded and willing to
let other people make suggestions or at least for me that can be a
problem okay next
so this is what the reality looks like these are all federal entities
platforms that um what's the word I want to use
tools that we've had to work with over the last year for about four different
grants and you notice I don't even have LST or imls in this
right that um I think that you need to be
um we're both spoiled and also we're given an advantage because of our IML
experience but don't expect that you'll be able to contact a person to answer a
question or even know who that person is that you can contact or even get an
answer in any kind of timely way and that's you just have to roll with the
punches on that um that's why I say that we're really spoiled because we can
always reach out to our person program officers here and get
answers um so you have platforms you'll have deadlines you'll have logins for
each of these you'll have meetings that you can go to or not and as our
colleague from Idaho said I would encourage you to go to everything that
you possibly can
um I think that the reporting is also a huge thing because it's difficult
sometimes to understand what they want um it's difficult to restrict
yourself to what they want I think most program reporting has become more and
more streamlined but you don't always feel like you're able to tell your story
but really telling your story needs to come at the beginning in your
application and then hopefully you'll able to achieve it but most of the
reporting that we've had to do recently has really been just the facts ma'am M
no um anyway I'm not even sure that I've included in here a complete list of
everything that we had to deal with and as I said this is just the last calendar
year um one thing that we had some success with was what they call
congressionally directed spending or a set asde grant um which was formerly
known as pork barrel or earmarked money yeah um and I think that it's a good
entry level type thing for federal money especially if you have any kind of clout
or if you have a congressman who's interested in libraries or in helping
develop this kind of thing we we've been very lucky in this and it really allows
you to design the program that you want to
do and the program that I was talking about that we're trying to get funded
now for the 250th anniversary this is where we started with this and we know
we're on a list but until Congress actually votes on it you're not going to
know so yeah and the interesting thing about this too is that if you do get one
of these grants it is then assigned to a different
agency and that's why I have in here that National I think I have have
national archives in here yes National Archives because the one we have now is
funded through National Archives so then you get a call from National Archives
and they say well it turns out that we have to do this because blah blah blah
and they're not always exactly delighted that you're being added to their list of
things to do but oh well okay so I think you need to stay
agile you could get an award that could be cancelled which is what happened to
us with the ACP program or you could get a partial award which also happened to
us with the ACP program and I guess you could just say no we don't want that
$600,000 just keep it and we'll do something else but you know if feel like
no we do want that money because we have a lot of good things to do with it so
then you have to be able to adjust and you know make it
fit get that square [Laughter]
peg anyway next slide last slide um tried in true training
when I first started working at the State Library my boss said oh I think
you should go for training and I thought you know I've been working on grants in
other agencies for a long time I don't really know what you think I'm going to
learn but
okay and boy was it a wonderful thing so I'm a great proponent of training now
these are three different things that I went to um which I thought were all
valuable in their own way the first one great the grants professional
association I think has a lot more to do with um foundations and they seem to
priori prioritize freelance Grant managers they do have a federal track so
you could go in go to all the meetings that are about federal government um
I've never been in person I've only been virtually and they seem to have a lot of
fun in person but yeah um that's held every year I think in November in
different cities um the national grants management
association was one I found out about by accident last year it is it was great
I'm planning to go again this year it has lots of fiscal information and it's
always held in Washington DC so they get a lot of great speakers who are part of
federal funding uh the last thing they had on the last
day was a panel of about I don't six or seven lawyers that worked at different
agencies who were answering our questions which was invaluable because
usually have to pay for that right so it was really really nice um
yeah and I it was I think three and a half days maybe really intense lots of
options to do different things I didn't see any other Library people there but
everything they had was applicable I would
say um and then grant writing USA is a focused one or two day
workshop um they have a the Grant's management side and the Grant's writing
side I've done both the Grant's management side I thought was a lot
more um valuable to me a very intensive lots of Le Al um understanding and stuff
and I found the Grant's writing was kind of more frivolous but it they they do
these all over the country so it depends upon where you go you can go on their
website and look and then you can click on where they're going and you can see
who's sponsoring it so sometimes it's the sheriff of such and such a county so
that kind of gives you an idea of what the timber is going to be there no so um
like I said I went I I've gone twice I thought one was very very useful and
the other not so much and they're also they also do a virtual version so it's a
good way to do it if you don't want to travel right that's it all right thank
you so much Mora and to Stephanie so all right so we're going to
have some time at the table to discuss um this topic um it might be a little
trimmed down to make up for some time um but yes and then we'll have share out
and then wrap up this session thank you any thoughts any Impressions virtual
world is ready as usual with some
ideas ahg
is n digitality comp digal nice that's
great any Federal other Federal funding people
in person
oh Jennifer so
it's Puerto Rico
[Music]
down yeah that is interesting thank you for
sharing here's Jennifer I was
just all a
whole that was the point of this whole conversation whole reason why we wanted
to talk about
it all right okay well if that's everything thank you all so much for
your participation and thanks to all of our states for preparing the
presentations thank you so [Applause]
much great job States great job W all right I'm going to do lightning round
wrapup so this is the time if you have not yet filled out your survey it is in
your packet I'd love you to take it out or use the QR code and get a digital
version of it fill it out while I'm talking um we can multitask here it's
cool so and digital folks I know you're getting the link to the survey if you're
still with us we appreciate you all right so tell us tell us what we need to
know and the next year we'll rinse and repeat and do it better uh the
appreciation wall was a huge hit so let me just read out some of those as you're
filling out your surveys and if the multitasking too much for you it'll be
on the recording later and we'll make sure you get your
appreciations um the first is thanks Ben for coordinating our Wednesday night
Dandan Excursion it was great Erica from Texas I have a second
sticky note that says thanks for organizing a phenomenal dinner B and
somebody seconded that um then we've got a thanks thank Ben thanks Ben Miller for
his advice on preparing for our site visit from uh Janelle and Vermont yay
and then thanks to Mora Walsh for her Spanish language help at dinner also
from Janette in Vermont thank you Wendy and Mora for
handling the gift exchange so much fun Mary
R Wendy Copan thanks for still being for here for me even though I am a less
broke us up now what this means is Wendy used to be Janette
mentor and then at a certain point we decided Janette had graduated and so she
didn't need Wendy anymore but when I first read this I've got to admit I
thought it said even though imls broke us like we had broken you down so I'm
glad it wasn't that no we broke you up but you can still be friends yes all the
soul crushing uh we've got one that says
Wendy SC is a great mentor don't we know it and Mora is is awesome
yay and Catherine is so kind and uh and knowledgeable I appreciate her
experience and her ability to set my mind at ease whenever I have questions
so nice thanks Karen re from Michigan for
all the help uh trying to select a GMS the grants management system from
Dena then we have more systems thank you to everyone who shared info about their
sub Awards and grants Management Systems as we embark on the sub Awards Journey
that is New York uh then we have
some imls ones I'm not going to read all the imls ones if you shout it out a
program officer I'll make sure they get it directly but we think of the
peer-to-peer wall as you know our our accolades can come in the surveys if you
have them but uh we will share we will share the ones that are more General so
Props to imls for hiring outside of the library profession great additions and
welcome to Lisa and Clifton that's nice thank you to Clifton for the invitation
to stand as needed yay that was nice all right here's one I'd like to
amplify nicolet's point that the way imls administered its designated arpa
funds and the way libraries utilize the funds is an outstanding example of why
libraries are a smart investment here here great
amplification okay this was a question that showed up on the parking lot a
little after the fact but um it says the lsta coordinators email list serve is so
helpful is there an archive and where can I find it we don't actually know the
answer to this question does anybody in the room know the answer to this
question because we can email Oregon and find out and then we'll have Oregon
blast that to the list serve we'll find
out um then just a few scenario props Madison Cindy and Dennis get emys for
their scenario performances they sure
do thank you to madis Madison Cindy and Dennis for providing so much joy and
light through the scenarios you took the scary
monsters you took the scary monsters down and made my day much
[Music] cheddar that is adorable it doesn't have
attribution but we love it and then um I'm going to land on warm cookies
exclamation point so thanks for that Mr Matt brety and hotel Staff All right so
we did our peer-to-peer wall this is the racing sausages by the way those of you
that went to the Brewer game might have seen them in action they are high-fiving
their friends uh we just want to thank again
everybody who just presented that was very brave uh I thought it was awesome
and we appreciate
you there are some folks at imls who are kind of behind the scenes doing great
stuff for us and of course we had our acting director here in person so thank
you to them
and lastly just a thank you to all of you you survived our boot camp you're
still standing and now we're going to send you out to be the best stewards of
federal funds that you can be we know you can do it um you have stayed engaged
throughout these two days you have been supportive and fun and laughed with us
and we know that you support each other in helping navigate not only the federal
layers of Grants management but the state layers you are in valuable
Community to us and to each other and we love seeing you and we're sad to say
goodbye but we look forward to being together in person perhaps in Puerto
Rico next year we'll see we'll see until next year until next year be well and
safe travels [Applause]