OWLS receives LSTA grants

I’m very pleased to let you know that OWLS has been awarded 5 LSTA grants this year.

Libraries and Literacy Councils: Making a Different Together ($25,999): In this joint project, OWLS and NFLS will collaborate with member libraries, area literacy councils, and school districts to provide increased opportunities for learning English and for communicating with non-English speakers. Eight libraries will receive laptops with Rosetta Stone software installed, and Tell Me More from Auralog, Inc. will be available online for anyone wanting to improve their ability to communicate with non-English speakers. Holly Ledvina is the administrator for this project.

Enhancing Library Services via Podcasts, Screencasts, and Vodcasts ($9,327): With this grant OWLS will purchase equipment to produce online instructional materials for patrons and member library staff. In addition, a ‘Casting Kit will be created and circulated to member libraries for creating their own podcasts, screencasts, and vodcasts. Beth Carpenter is the administrator for this project.

Warren Graham Security Training ($2,400): This grant will help finance the upcoming Managing Security in the Library workshop which will be presented by Warren Graham, a.k.a. “The Black Belt Librarian.” This project was planned by Leslie Farrell, and Beth will be coordinating its implementation.

Wireless Connections for OWLS Libraries ($3,500): This grant will help cover the costs of installing or upgrading wireless Internet service at 7 member libraries. While I’m the administrator of this project, Dave Bacon will be working on its implementation.

Support for Online Databases ($15,600): These LSTA funds will be used to help pay for the online resources that OWLS and NFLS provide to OWLSnet libraries. I am also the administrator of this grant, but Evan Bend does the work of coordinating our electronic resource subscriptions.

I want to thank Holly, Beth, and Leslie for preparing such good grant applications. All of their applications were rated highly by the respective grant reviewers. I’m very proud that we’ve been able to receive LSTA funding that will enable us to improve our services to OWLS and OWLSnet libraries.

>> contributed by Rick