FirstBook

First Book provides books to children from low-income families. The first step for a school, library, or other agency working with low-income children is to become familiar with the guidelines and register. Registered entities may ne eligible to receive books through First Book’s National Book Bank and First Book Marketplace.

In Connecticut, three First Book Advisory Boards coordinate local activities: Eastern CT, Fairfield County, and Greater Hartford. The Advisory Boards provide book grants to local literacy programs and raise awareness of literacy issues within communities, college campuses and universities. Beneficiaries have included:

* New London Office of Youth Affairs
* Madonna Place, Norwich
* St. James Head Start, New London
* Spice It Up with Nutmeg Reading Group sponsored by the Willimantic Public Library
* The Front Porch Foundation
* Child Works Preschool, New London
* B. P. Learned Mission & the Early Childhood Development Center sponsored by The Child & Family Agency
* Early Care in Education sponsored by the Thames Valley Council for Community Action

The Distribution to Underserved Communities Library Program (DUC)

The Distribution to Underserved Communities Library Program (DUC) distributes books on contemporary art and culture free of charge to rural and inner-city libraries, schools and alternative reading centers nationwide.

The program aims to actively further a more egalitarian access to contemporary art offering over 490 titles by more than 90 different publishers. The program reaches readers in all 50 states and has placed over 200,000 free books in public libraries, schools, and alternative pedagogical venues.

The DUC is a program of Art Resources Transfer, Inc., a non profit organization founded in 1987, that is committed to documenting and supporting artists' voices and work, and making these voices accessible to the broadest possible audience.

According to the FAQ, every book, including its shipping, is absolutely free to public libraries and schools. Public schools, libraries, and community centers within the U.S. that are located in either rural or inner-city communities are eligible to receive free materials from the DUC.

The Lisa Libraries: ongoing book distribution

The Lisa Libraries donates new books to organizations serving children in low-income areas, and helps to start or expand children’s libraries in places such as day care centers, prison visiting areas, and after school programs.

If you are affiliated with an organization serving low-income or underserved populations that needs a small library, needs to rebuild or add to a library, or serves children who would benefit by being given new books to take home, you have nothing to lose and new books to gain.

National Archives' Electronic Records Projects

The National Historical Publications and Records Commission seeks proposals to increase the capacity of archival repositories to create electronic records archives that preserve records of enduring historical value.

Deadline: 6/9/2011

Applications are for start-up or collaborative projects; projects in this category cannot digitize historical records.

• Start-up projects: Develop the capacity of institutions to prepare to capture and preserve electronic records, through program planning; or

• Collaborative projects: Establish and/or improve electronic records archives by engaging in effective and innovative collaboration

I once heard the Archivist speak at a conference; he was great.

National Alliance for Accessible Golf's Grant Program for People With Disabilities

Grants of up to $20,000 will be awarded to nonprofits working to provide opportunities for individuals with disabilities to learn and enjoy the game of golf.

The committee reviews completed grant applications received by the last day of each month in 2011.

Starbucks Foundation's Shared Planet Youth Action Grants

The Starbucks Foundation accepts applications from organizations that provide young people a continuum of services in developing creative approaches to address pressing concerns in their communities.

Grant awards average $10,000 to $30,000 with a one-year time frame.

Successful grant applicants will exhibit all of the following qualities:

• Deliver services to youth, ages 6 - 24
• Preference will be given to organizations that focus on young people in the age range of 12 and older, when they are able to take independent action
• Provides opportunity to combine learning with action that support communities and further global citizenship
• Deliver services, disseminate information, provide training and/or build broad networks
• Provide opportunities for Starbucks partners and multiple stores to be engaged in community service

Deadlines seem to be ongoing.

NEH: Preservation and Access Research and Development

These NEH preservation grants (different from the ones that support small institutions) support projects that address major challenges in preserving or providing access to humanities collections and resources. The maximum award is $350,000 for up to three years.

These challenges include the need to find better ways to preserve materials of critical importance to the nation’s cultural heritage—from fragile artifacts and manuscripts to analog recordings and digital assets subject to technological obsolescence—and to develop advanced modes of searching, discovering, and using such materials.

Eligible projects include

• the development of technical standards, best practices, and tools for preserving and creating access to humanities collections;
• the exploration of more effective scientific and technical methods of preserving humanities collections;
• the development of automated procedures and computational tools to integrate, analyze, and repurpose humanities data in disparate online resources; and
• the investigation and testing of new ways of providing digital access to humanities materials that are not easily digitized using current methods.

Deadline: May 19, 2011

Part-time Project Assistant available, Hartford Public Library

Project Assistant (Part-Time), see http://www.hplct.org/jobs.shtm

The Hartford Public Library seeks creative and flexible individual to assist in the day-to-day management of the Institute for Museum and Library Services grant to foster immigrant civic engagement. This is a part-time nonbargaining unit position. This position is grant funded. The Library has no obligation to continue funding this position upon termination of the grant period.

Responsibilities: Assisting with organization or meetings and events. Prepare materials for meetings, participatory hand-outs and other logistics. Promoting project activities to target audiences; including organization of project materials and data as related to activities. Receive training as a Cultural Broker and assist with mentoring immigrant families and volunteers to Library services and external support services. Perform other duties as assigned.

Qualifications: Bachelor’s degree in related discipline. Minimum of two years experience working with a diverse immigrant community with demonstrated ability to foster communication between diverse populations. Candidate must: have general computer proficiency with expertise in word-processing, spreadsheet and database programs; ability to communicate effectively and establish and manage effective working relationships with users, employees, supervisors, and the general public; and possess communication skills necessary to resolve issues. For a complete description of the duties, qualifications and requirements of this position please read the job description.

Hourly rate of $16.59.

Job description and application are available from the Administrative Offices, Hartford
Public Library, 500 Main Street, Hartford, CT 06103 and on our website; www.hplct.org.

Signed applications must be received by April 16, 2011.

Preservation Assistance Grants for Smaller Institutions

Preservation Assistance Grants help small and mid-sized institutions, such as libraries, museums, historical societies, archival repositories, town and county records offices, and colleges, improve their ability to preserve and care for their humanities collections.

These may include special collections of books and journals, archives and manuscripts, prints and photographs, moving images, sound recordings, architectural and cartographic records, decorative and fine arts, textiles, archaeological and ethnographic artifacts, furniture, and historical objects. Amounts are up to $6,000.

Deadline: May 3, 2011

IMLS awards almost half a million in preservation funds to CT

The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) has awarded Save America’s Treasures Grants totaling $476,703 to two Connecticut institutions - out of only nine grants totaling $2 Million awarded nationwide.

Save America’s Treasures makes critical investments in the preservation of our nation’s most significant and endangered cultural treasures, which illustrate, interpret, and embody the great events, ideas, and individuals that contribute to America’s history and culture. This legacy includes the built environment as well as documents, records, artifacts, and artistic works.

“These Save America’s Treasures grants will preserve the physical fabric of our history and the rich diversity of America’s story, as told by its artists, scholars, and statesmen. These awards also honor the hundreds of volunteers, organizations, and communities whose energy and investment are ensuring that this national legacy endures for generations to come,” said First Lady Michelle Obama.

This year's nine grants will support projects that will help to save endangered museum collections. “The scope and breadth of the historical and scientific record that will be touched by these nine projects is amazing,” said Susan Hildreth, director of the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

“They include rare notebooks that document the construction of the Panama Canal, the only known Alutiiq warrior kayak, tree ring collections that tell the story of prehistoric times, archeological collections that reveal the story of survival of enslaved plantation workers, civil war flags that date to reconstruction, quilts that document 300 years of societal change, and historical circus posters. The Institute of Museum and Library Services is very proud of the work that the Save America’s Treasures recipients are doing to tell America’s story for future generations.”

Bridgeport Public Library: $26,703
Barnum and London Circus Posters
Two hundred years after the birth of P.T. Barnum of Barnum & Bailey Circus and Ringling Brothers, Bridgeport Public Library holds 47 “Barnum and London” circus posters in need of conservation treatment. Save America’s Treasures grant funds will be used to clean, repair, and strengthen the posters and then digitally photograph them, expanding access to the collection.

Yale University Peabody Museum, New Haven: $450,000
19th-Century Dinosaur Collections of Othniel Charles Marsh
Othniel Charles Marsh was a leading American paleontologist whose dinosaur collection proved invaluable as the fossil record Charles Darwin needed to develop his theory of evolution. America’s Treasures grant will help re-house the collection in a climate controlled environment, providing greater improve access to the collection.

Additional information on the Save America’s Treasures program can be found on the PCAH web site and the NPS web site.

4.11 Workshop: Results-Based Accountability

The Connecticut RBA Practitioners Network invites you to a half-day workshop on
Results-Based Accountability: RBA 101.

When: Monday, April 11, from 9:00AM to noon
Where: Waterbury Youth Services System, 83 Prospect Street, Waterbury
How much? Free. That's a good price.
Register: Send your contact information to Bennett Pudlin, Director, The Charter Oak Group, LLC by emailing bpudlin@charteroakgroup.com. I suppose you could call him; (860) 324-3555.

Why? RBA 101 is designed primarily for community groups, state and municipal agencies, and nonprofit organizations. The presenters are from the Charter Oak Group, who are RBA consultants with experience providing RBA support to the Connecticut General Assembly, state agencies, municipalities, and community groups for the last six years.

Feel free to spread the word.

This workshop is one of a series of trainings that will be offered this year around the state.

Here are directions, and you can read more about the Charter Oak Group and their RBA spiel. Good stuff.

Cultural Competencies Workshop, Hartford Public Library

Cultural Competencies for Service Providers (2 Parts)

Presenter: Dr. William A. Howe, State Title IX Coordinator/Civil Rights Compliance/Multicultural Education, CT State Department of Education

This workshop, offered in partnership with the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving, focuses on the importance of nonprofit service personnel maintaining high quality knowledge, skills and dispositions regarding cultural competence.

This workshop will focus on theoretical and practical applications required for personnel who work with people from a variety of diversities, including, but not limited to - race, ethnicity, social class, language, gender, sexual orientation, and abilities.

Participants should plan on attending both sessions: Part 1 is Wednesday, March 23, 10:00 am – noon, and part 2 is on Wednesday, March 30, 10:00 am – noon.

Registration required: in-person, online, or by calling 860-695-6295.

Hartford Public Library
500 Main Street
Hartford, CT 06103
Program room, 3rd Floor

$75,000 in Funding Available for Library Literacy Programming

Applicants to Better World Books' LEAP Grants (Literacy and Education in Action Program) for Libraries propose a compelling literacy project in their community.

Though it's a simplified process, a two page overview is due by March 25.

"Interested libraries need only submit a short two page project overview and those with the best proposals will be selected for a 30 minute conversation where they will pitch their idea. After reviewing all of the pitches, Better World Books will select the winners whose projects are most viable and ready to go. Selected libraries will then be asked to complete a more detailed project plan in coordination with Better World Books. After project plans are complete, the grants will be awarded."

Do Something Clubs eligible for $250 minigrants

If you have an existing Do Something Club and are actively working on social action projects in your community, your club is eligible for this mini grant that can help sustain your Club and your projects.

Connecticut currently has about 25 active Clubs ranging from Bristol's SPCHS that helped parents going through hardships to provide gifts for their kids at Christmastime to Greenwich Academy's Do Something Club that collected jeans to contribute to the 4th Annual Teens for Jeans Drive.

Do Something gives out 5 grants worth $250 every month. The Deadline is 11:59pm ET on the last day of every month.

Target's Community Outreach

Target Stores seem to have about a bazillion different areas of interest to libraries and media centers.

They have 5 different Reading programs, among which are:

* School Library Makeovers

* They help PTO Today by sponsoring free Family Reading Night Kits to schools.

* Supporting United Through Reading, a program that unite families facing physical separation by facilitating the bonding experience of reading aloud together.

They also have those Early Childhood reading Grants (I blogged about those before).

They offer Art and Culture in Schools Grants for $2,000 (deadline is April 30 each year to helps "schools bring more arts and culture into the classroom, enabling them to expand their creativity.” Because “music, art, dance, drama and visual arts are all part of the well-rounded education our kids deserve."

To benefit school kids, they also offer Field Trip Grants.

Target also does social services type stuff, crisis relief type stuff, and also support military families and veterans, which are worthy and valuable areas of support.