 All right, we are recording. Do you want to get started on this? Yeah, go ahead. Great. Well, thank you, Christa, for setting this up and providing, getting all the documents to everybody. But and welcome to everybody who's online and watching today. We have this big word special construction in front on this slide, but really primarily this presentation today will be related to your network infrastructure. And if you have the internet connected to your library, you have a network infrastructure. And we want to help you to understand what you might do in the way of upgrades or what you could consider thinking about for future for improving your internet speed at your library. So we're going to identify the some steps you can take. And as you did receive the toolkit, some tool, this is a particular tool that you can use that we highly recommend that you use to find out more about your network and your library infrastructure. So I think that's all for that. So just introduce ourselves here. So you know who you're talking to. You all may know us, but I'm Christa Porter. I'm the Library Development Director of the Library Commission here. And one of my duties is specifically related to this. And what we're doing here is I'm the state e-rate coordinator for public libraries in Nebraska. So the training and workshops and guiding libraries through the e-rate process, which is part of what we're going to be talking about today. And I'm Holly Wolt. And I've been on board here at the Library Commission for about 12 years, primarily working more directly with libraries related to issues of equipment type of things. I started in with the BTOP grant with all the equipment that came into the libraries for that. And now I work primarily with bringing fiber to the library if possible. And I've also been working, but not enough time just for me to get this done, but with infrastructure as far as continuing on from the BTOP grant, making sure that libraries are upgrading and have the equipment they need in order to provide the fastest internet that they can from the library. So this is, like I said, the third and final workshop that we're focusing on preparation for fiber installation at a Nebraska public library. But that doesn't mean if this is not your interest in attending this workshop webinar that you're not at the right place. So we're just basically going to be covering what use of the funding from e-rate, which Kristen will be visiting about, which is about 70% discount on average for libraries if you were to purchase network equipment. I know you may be familiar with using that for your monthly internet connectivity cost, but that also translates into eligible equipment that e-rate and the FCC will provide for funding for your library. And the last piece is, well, I guess I didn't even talk about the first piece. Sorry, this is a network infrastructure assessment. We're going to just go over and familiarize ourselves with the networks and we're going to talk a little bit about what is your network devices, what are they, and where they might be located in your library. And we'll give you some tips through the toolkit as to how you can find out more information about and actually find out the information. And the neat part about the toolkit is you can actually write it down so you can save it for posterity to share with others about things that are happening in your library that relate to the network. And finally, the last piece is the RFP template that has been put together by the Library Commission to help you if you are interested in ordering or having funding come from e-rate for your category two network devices and services and some other things. Krista will be going over all of that. And then the RFP is utilized. We recommend using the RFP to include with your e-rate submission of your 470 form for funding. That's what we're covering today. So we've sent you this guide toolkit via attachment. And like Krista said, it's also available if you didn't catch that yet. And the link for you to pick up in the papers or you actually, you know, you can get to downloading to that. Today in the highlighted in red is what we're going to cover as part of the toolkit. And I can say there's a lot more information in there. And we'll talk a little bit as we go through the next couple of slides about how we're going to use this toolkit. But basically, we're looking at the technology inventory and the broadband connection network devices wired network and power with and power in your wireless Wi-Fi network. It's just highlighted because partially we'll talk about some of it. But the other I'd like you also to just consider just, you know, we're going to have you read through that on your own time too. You can move forward. So the toolkit, we were first exposed to it in, I think, 2015. Or 2016. Maybe I'm wrong, but I think it's one of those two years. We were offered an opportunity working alongside the OCIO, the Office of the Chief Information Officer for the state of Nebraska to pilot the toolkit. And we did six libraries total. And I went out myself with a colleague from, and some of you may know him, Tom Rolfes to the libraries. And initially we had the actual developer of this toolkit go along with us for a couple of visits. And then we did some more on our own. And at first, the toolkit seemed to me to be too simplistic. But in regard to going out to libraries, not because it's simplistic and that's what a library director and staff can do. I think what I have found over the last 12 years working with libraries with technology, it's overwhelming because, you know, I'm just going to say up front, I know you have a lot of other jobs to do besides technology. And so you're not as engaged in it. But I think I hope that by the end of this webinar, you're thinking that it might be somewhat empowering to have more knowledge than you may have. Or if you have knowledge, then to springboard that into some action that you can take to improve the library as far as technology in your community to be shared. So it's organized as a question relating to your library's broadband connection, infrastructure and related services and operations. And they're in, if you'll move forward, they're in a gray box. And then you read the question and you place your cursor in the gray box below and you answer it. And then below that, you're going to find that there's a nice little box. It's kind of like every question has a bit of a cheat sheet with it to answer. But it gives you some more information, kind of broadens out what the specific question is as to how it relates to the topic that's in that section. So it is easy. And here's an example of the sample question. Who is your broadband service provider? Most of us would know that. And who pays your broadband service? And so this then has an additional piece of information for you to read through. So you can find out some more information like it's saying about the run the speed test and you can see who your provider is if you're not quite sure. So it's a helpful hints as to how to answer that question. And that's on every question on every question throughout the toolkit. OK, forward. So one of the things we thought about as we started looking into the interest of fiber and in libraries is how really how well prepared our libraries to work with fiber in the library. So you have the exterior outside the building. We understand, you know, you have a provider brings the fiber to the wall or to the door, so to speak, and then inside that the transfer goes inside. And do you have roadblocks as far as your equipment in the library that doesn't allow you to transmit that fabulous speed that you have outside inside? And what could be some of the problems? So about three years ago, we did a survey. I think it was voluntary. And, Christa, I don't know if you remember anything about it, but I was trying to think if we designated, you know, a sample group or if we sent it to everybody. But either way, we got results. This would have been just to every library out there just to see. Yeah, we limited this particular one now to see what kind of answers hopefully we would get back. Yeah. Yeah. And so the range of that that, you know, we saw that there is a huge range of equipment out there. And sometimes I wonder on surveys, you know, I hope we always tell the truth, but maybe we don't. So I'm a little skeptical about this because of what I've seen. You know, they say it's new as three years and as old as 10 years. And I'm thinking that I've been in a library since I did the B top grant started 12 years ago. And I have seen switches that I would have installed in the library back then. So I think that there it could be that there is a wide range. And hopefully we're starting to see more and more updates with equipment. But regardless, it is a challenge, you know, for I know for libraries to find an I.T. person to work with them on their equipment. And I also have had libraries call me up and ask me about suggestions for a router or let's say their provider has said, you need this router. And in many cases, it has been quite expensive and they weren't using category two for the funding for this. And it was potentially, in my opinion, was more than they needed. So it's it's a challenge, we know, to determine when and what type of equipment and how much to spend on equipment for your library. But to wait till it's broken can also have an impact. And so this is what we're trying to talk about and avoid today. You want to be prepared, be proactive, not reactive when it comes to this kind of thing. Right. And then one of the things we that came out of this for us to be thinking about is we have our omnibase database, which is our database of everything for the library commission. And we lobbied and we're able to have an agreement that we could place along with a record for each of the public libraries. And everything else that we have that we have there that is to include your network equipment data. And so later on toward the end of my part of this presentation, I have just a single slide that just kind of shows what kind of information we're going to offer our ability to also collect it. Now, it would come from you, but what we want to do is have a stable environment for it to be placed for to share back with you. If you are interested in knowing it and I have some stories related to that as far as coming into a library and looking for an inventory that made it very challenging. So this is something we think would be helpful, especially as you transition through your library directors from one to another. And to be clear, the omnibase, this is our in-house internal database of libraries, library staff and data we've received from the public library survey that you do. Every year, as well as additional information, just try and keep track of what's going on in our libraries in the state. Yeah, yeah, that's like, we don't share it with anybody. It doesn't go. Yeah, it doesn't go anywhere. But we can pull data from it if we wanted to do like a comparison of you to some other libraries and things like that. We can do all sorts of things like that if we want to. But yeah, right. So I probably should have made that more clear. I'm sorry. But yeah, I know that we worry about our data. But to tell you the truth, many times I would go into a library and not be able to do much of anything there because they weren't even sure, you know, what their password was or other. We don't want your passwords. But, you know, the equipment or how things were, there was no network diagram and to walk into a library and have to figure that out is a challenge. So, so the, so we want to use the toward gigabit libraries toolkit to help to improve libraries broadband service was something else that we came out of from our survey. And on top of that, you can earn CE credits by completing the gigabit broadband tool kit. Basically, what I'm offering, not me offering, but what Holly, the other Holly is offering Is is the if you complete the toolkit and then I would have a conversation with you and we'll go through the toolkit and you send a copy of the toolkit to us. This is just a verification that you've done your work. Then we are offering. I believe it was to see credits for it. I forget if something ahead. Yeah. Yeah. But so anyway, so that's that's a this is some of the things that came out of the fact that we saw that we had the dated equipment, etc. So let's move forward. So this graphic does come in by the way, the little boxes on the bottom on the right hand corner. Those are definitely slides or things that have been contributed and I'm using from the toolkit. And you can see here I found this pretty interesting this zone one, two and three talking about what performance you can you know if you can expect your A decent performance for these various activities. And I think for the most part, most libraries are in zone one and we do are we are growing into zone two. And then we can look to see that there's you know the zone three. But one of the things I want. I hope that comes out of this is you see where you might be Right now, or how you feel you are in those zones related to the quality of service that is required. And then basically what What your infrastructure is like or is able to to work with and the speed requirements. So One thing to mention is we have A considerable amount of funding coming from the federal government. There's a planning process of over a year for it. But it is $45 billion coming into Partially into our state. And that money is going to be spent for bringing fiber to communities, which would include the library. And then we have a section of it that's related to digital equity and we haven't defined yet what types of grants can be asked for. But I definitely have been talking with people about the fact that maybe Part of the barrier for libraries is that the expense of equipment that makes it difficult for the library to consider, you know, increasing speed Because they can't afford the equipment that they would need because their equipment is based in a, you know, a 10 year old environment of it. So something to think about and put into your perspective as far as where you want to go. Okay. So now we're going to I really debated about this. We're going to actually Watch a video. It is 12 minutes long. I hope that doesn't mean you're going to take a potty and a coffee break and not watch it. The background to this is drawing your library's network. I for a few years. Was the instructor who worked with the basic it Technology class with encompass and there was one of the responses and maybe it's still there. I don't know that one of the items you had to do was to draw your library's network. And I tell you, I had more excuses and more issues with people trying to saying they just couldn't get this done. We had a few go getters and And in many cases, they did a good job. And in some cases, they just didn't even really understand what a network was I think we've come a little distance here, but I wanted to show this. This is the consultant that's currently working with the toolkit. He's a great guy, very knowledgeable. But he's he's diagramming this for us. And I think we'll go ahead and play it now. Yeah, this is Carson block. He's been involved since the beginning in the creation of the The library's toolkit. He's been on our encompass live weekly webinar twice so far. I think So yeah, so this is just for you who may already know how to do this. Great. But otherwise, please just watch it and Think about how what your network diagram would look like for your library. I need you to know you want you to be successful. So as as we're going through the class. And this was something that it's a little bit different when we're on on the video over the internet. I can't actually see your faces. But one of the things that we did in class that was really, really fun is if we saw somebody with the cock puppy dog head like What are you talking about. That was a that was a time that we stopped and we went back. And so one of the nice things about At this point, we're taping this presentation well after we did the all the presentations in the field. So we have a great sense of what worked and what did where we needed to slow down Where we needed to go fast. So I will apply that to all of our learning today. Sound good. Great. Now it's time to use this or a pencil. I'll use this of course this is a whiteboard marker. We're going to draw a diagram of a network. This is our hypothetical library network. This will help help you understand the components, the things that deliver data services to your library. This will apply to a lot of different situations. It's really nice is that this simple network diagram that we're going to draw together actually can scale. We talked about scale earlier in the program is actually can scale to Larger more complex networks all networks that we work with have the same basic component. So I hope you're ready to begin the other thing to remember is that the network diagram is not really an optional thing. Some people may tell you that it's optional. Actually, this is your best chance of troubleshooting having a written description and you'd be shocked at how many places in the country and I mean in that country do not have a written diagram of their network. A lot of times our folks will say I've got it all up here. It's not good enough. We actually need to put things on on paper and the written forms that many people can understand it. Earlier we talked about collaboration and how important that is to it work. We need more than one head one more than one set of eyes on things to make it work. So this is one of those ways of getting things out of one head into the hearts and minds of many, many, many. So we'll begin now. We're going to start with something that's actually very complex, but we can draw it very simply. And this is the cloud. This is called the Internet. I'm going to use a shortening of that, calling it high net. That's a very common way to refer to the Internet. It's really a convenient way even let's become kind of a marketing term, of course, the cloud. It's actually convenient way to talk about something very complex. There's tons and tons of connections in the Internet. I'm going to draw some of those connections if you're not all of them, because I do not have a small enough sharpie or the time. No one has the time to do this. We have what are called different nodes on the Internet. I'm going to draw them with this pink marker here. And a node can be just about anything. Let's just say this node up here is Amazon.com, for instance, or Google.com. This one is a router, let's say. There's lots and lots of these different servers and different routers on the Internet. Your Internet service provider actually had the node on the Internet as well. And so we're going to peg off that, because that node to the Internet is our access point. Right here, we're going to draw just a little line to show the connection for our ISP. We're going to pretend that our ISP is anyone cable. Anyone cable is not a real company, but this is our hypothetical network. So we're going to say anyone cable. And they're really cute, because they put a question mark after their name to make it more marketable. So don't get confused. Anyone cable is actually their marketing term. Just kidding, we're just going to call it anyone cable here. We'll erase that. The other thing I wanted to say is that in our class, we want to do things in real time. When we make a mistake, we actually want to stop and fix it and fix it together. That's something that that is very important when it comes to technology, is not being the sage on the stage, but actually working on things and making sure that it's right. So having something accurate is much more important than having an awesome, but long opinion. We should do something. So anyone cable is our ISP. They're our Internet service provider. And we talked about ISPs a little bit earlier in the program. Our connect speed, we're going to use the FCC's definition of broadband. Our connect speed is going to be 25 megabits a second. And if we were actually making a real drawing here, what we would also do is put like phone numbers, a person's name, a contact information. But we really want to know what the speed of our internet connection is right here. We also want to know the quality or the media that's used to deliver our internet connection. So in this case, we are going to say that this is a cable connection, a cable company. So using coax cable to deliver this connection. So this is cable. I'm going to show you another dividing line too, because now we're going from things that are inside our building to outside our building. So everything that is above this line here is equipment or stuff that's outside of their building. So I'm just going to write outside. And pointing down are things that are inside our building. And you've probably seen where this stuff comes inside your building. And you've messed with it before. That's also called the service entrance. And it's not where we can have deliveries coming in and out. It is where our internet connection and our other data services come into the library. Inside our next step here, we will have a box of some sort in this box. We are going to call our cable modem. Modem is actually a little bit of a misnomer. So I'm going to put modem in parentheses, because the modem was that thing. Remember, way back we can all sing the modem song. And we connected, right? So, but the name stuck. What it is, it's the box that converts or are they able to communicate to our internet service provider and to provide that network service into our library. So that's our cable modem. Our next device is really, really interesting. This is going to be our router. And I'm going to show you our router. And actually right now, if I may, I'm going to pick up our router. This was the class router that we used. This is a consumer grade router. And we did that on purpose, because many libraries only have this sort of thing. And it's also surprisingly complex inside. I mean, lots of configuration options that we'll get to later when we're configuring our routers ourselves. So I'm going to write that a little bit clearer. Because I want you to be able to read it. Isn't that nice? If you can't read my drawings up here, remember that you can always refer to your notes and the slides that we have. Now, our router is kind of special. It also has another function that's very, very important. And this function is a Wi-Fi access point. So we're going to draw that as a little radio station antenna. And of course the Wi-Fi access point serves wireless devices. We'll talk about those in just a moment. Generally, also connected to the router is something that we call a switch. This is a network switch. And sometimes it looks like this here. It can be rack mounted. It can be a smaller device. But the idea is that it helps us distribute the network to our devices inside the library. So for instance, using my last color that I have here, we can say that the connection going to this switch port is our PCs, our hour-hour PCs. We're going to say just one PC here, but that actually represents all the PCs that we have in the library. Another switch port, let's say that that's going to our printers. I'll draw printers up there. And there can be other devices connected here as well. Sometimes we have scanners. Sometimes we have servers. But most of these things are connected at this point in the switch. We also have devices that our Wi-Fi network are serving. And we can draw those just generically. Remember, there's so many devices. We were talking about the scalability of things coming up and lots of different devices wanting to access our Wi-Fi networks. So there's lots of stuff. So let's just call them endpoints. Instead of trying to call them PCs and laptops and stuff, they certainly involve things like the laptop, things like cell phones. Even though cell phones do not have antennas anymore on the outside, we'll draw this one with an antenna. There's tablet computers. And these days, as of when we recorded this, there's even things like watches, Apple, the Apple Watch, and a few others will communicate directly to the Wi-Fi network. So at this basic level, we have depicted a simple network diagram that actually can scale. In more complex networks, the function of the router can be duplicated for different sites. For instance, every site needs its own router. So you can imagine this being spread out in that direction, more routers with more switches attached to those in large network. Even inside of a single library, sometimes we need multiple switches, and so we can also add switches to accommodate the needs that we have there. One thing I want to point out in doing a network diagram like this is we're focusing on functions of network equipment. Something that can get kind of confusing is often different functions are combined within a single unit. That can be confusing because it kind of looks like a black box and you don't know exactly what's going on. For instance, with our router for the class, this actually combines two important functions. One is the routing function, which is the network traffic direction function of this device, as well as the AP or access point, Wi-Fi access point. Those are actually two different functions that are provided by this equipment. It's important to map them out that way because with other equipment actually those could be separate pieces of gear. So think in terms of function first and not be thrown by what's going on. In fact, there are something that will combine your modem, your cable modem, your router, and your Wi-Fi access point into one box. We're drawing them separately here so that you understand these functions are completely different things and they perform different operations. At this point, your head might be exploding because there's been so much information coming in. If that's the case, this is a good time to just pause the course, take a break, go outside, do a little exercise, have a snack stretch, but do something that helps give yourself a cognitive break and even take a nap. A nap might be just the thing right now. It'll help you absorb the information and we just want to encourage you to take care of yourself as you're learning new information. Well, hopefully that was useful for you. I'm wondering, can we do a hands just kind of show up first? Is that possible to do something like that? Yeah. I'm just curious how many folks that are with us today have a network map either that they generated themselves or a network diagram or that they've received if they have some type of technical assistance? Yeah. You can raise your hand. There's a little hand raising feature of go-to webinar or you can type it in the question section if you want to explain a little bit about it. If you have one of these already for your library, let us know. I'll just give a minute or two. I just wanted to share the other half of that story about the basic training offered in Compass with that question. When I would read my evaluations afterwards, the folks who provided it would say, yes, it was really difficult, but it was probably the neatest thing, the most empowering thing I've done related to technology so far at the library. It really did impact them. Then I had one story and I'm going to share stories. I'm not going to tell who the library is or anything, but I think it's really important for you to understand that things happen. A library had participated on their own in this toolkit and then the library director was going around just testing out all the different end devices to see what speed they were at. She had a cluster of them that were significantly lower than everything else and she just couldn't figure it out. I started talking with her because this is something else you need to know. You might need to wear like an old pair of jeans and an old t-shirt when you do this because you'll find yourself in places you never expected to and you might find some hidden devices. In fact, with that library, I had said to them, I said, are you sure you're connecting directly with an Ethernet cable into the switch? Oh, yes. Well, it turned out that there was something called a hub that was buried underneath a desk and a switch basically does a direct transfer of the data packet in the switch to the individual computer. Now, if you have a hub and their device and devices hooked into it, it goes to each one. So it takes a lot longer to say, oh, is this where I belong? And then it will go if it is. If not, it keeps going around. And I don't know, I think there were six ports on it. And she was just really surprised, but she didn't really want to go under the table to look. And what she saw, she thought was that they were all connected into the switch. So I just think that's kind of a funny story, but it happens. And it happened to us with Carson. I remember now we were at the Gear Public Library and that library director had the whole staff come in and he was there and he was just a crack-up to work with. But what a unique situation. That library basically was, as he talked about, was amplified. I mean, it was there was the network, but the network was in the next building, which was the City County building. And so we had to follow our tracks. And so the six of us went through the building in the main floor and then down into the basement to look at the patch panel to see and identify all the devices that were connected. So it can be an interesting path. I hope you enjoyed that. Did you find out from the diagram? Did anybody have one? Yeah. We do have a couple of comments that people typed in actually. One person says, I have hours from the basic skills class. They're from Hianus and they believe that you came and helped install it or do it in Hianus. And then another person says, I don't have anything, not even an inventory. I have a lot of work ahead of me. Yeah, absolutely. And that's why I hope that we can maintain a relationship here and know that you can ask any question. And we actually diagnosed her issue remotely. So it can happen. And I've actually had them, you know, I've had library directors take pictures and show me things. I wished I'd been able to, and I could not find, there was one library I went to. And I am not joking. The Ethernet cable ball was about this big around full of dust underneath the table. And so, and you may have one, but I smiled and I had the best day working with that library director. So, you know, it's just, it's okay, we just, you know, we move forward and make and try to get things going. So that's my stories. So I had a little note. A big story. That's the next slide you have here. Yeah. So anyway, that one thing I wanted to mention is Carson, and I think he was kind of, I understand why he didn't mention it. He didn't talk a lot about firewalls. And if we are talking about moving to fiber, you need to have a firewall. What happens with fiber is you're far more pronounced, even if you're a small rural library, that's what they're looking for is fiber installations and to come in and wreak havoc. So it's possible something can happen. Not probable. But a firewall can live as an external hardware device. And that's the old school that I come from, that that's what they're like. Or a firewall can be a software. It can be software that's built into a device. A firewall can be stand alone hardware, or a firewall can be built into the router. And I guess I should start with I always start with into the middle of things. But anyway, what is a firewall? So basically a firewall, when they talk about the wall, here we are again, there's the exterior wall, which is everything going on in the internet, the wide area network as we used to call it, maybe it's still called that. And then there's the wall. And then there's your local area network that basically we identified in that network diagram. So it is protecting from things that malfeasance type activities that from coming into your local area network. So it is important. And like I said, a fiber installation or, you know, where you have fiber is as a more appealing for some reason for those people who are doing things that they shouldn't be doing. So again, the firewall itself can be a it can be a hardware device. It can be connected to your router. It can be software. And it can even be in the clouds. And and that to me is a little scary too. But you can have a cloud, you know, a device in the cloud that you're using for your firewall. So I believe in some ways, the reason he didn't address that is it would it would take a lot of time to do that. But from this, my perspective here today, I would say this is something you want to be sure that if you're just going to be using a router for your firewall, and I can understand that if it's economic or if this is, you know, what what you choose to do because you choose to do it that way, that you make sure that you have a current router, you know, 802.11ac or ax would be what I would do. And it should be something that you would consider moving up to I think there are other reasons for using that type of router because you're actually I don't know, again, it would be a question to ask, but we'll just go with think about it yourself if you'd like. Do you with your library do you segment off your staff into a separate network from your patrons? I know a lot of rural libraries don't do that, partially because they don't have the capability because of their router, and partially maybe because they don't know how to do that. But it's important to do that. And also, you know, now with the with COVID and everything, the idea that the Wi-Fi, you would probably want to also segment off Wi-Fi because you want your patrons inside, especially if they're using connected devices to probably have the most availability for speed to use. If you have somebody outside who's watching a movie, you may feel differently about, you know, them taking away from somebody who's in the library doing, I don't want to say something productive, but homework or something like that. So again, I think that it's important that you consider the firewall and make sure that you are, if you're using it on a router, which is common in smaller libraries, that you have an up-to-date router, one of the pieces that certainly you would want to purchase from this assessment. Okay, this one is pretty easy here. It's just talking about your wired network, except for, again, I have another story here, and this is crazy, but with the BTOP grant, there was so much ethernet cable delivered all over the place because Wi-Fi wasn't as prevalent as it was now, sort of for 12 years ago. And I would go into a library and talk to them about, you know, maybe I didn't do the installation, somebody else did the installation, and I'd say, well, where, what cables are you using? And they had, they would save their cables instead of using, because the other one still worked. Well, we know that over time, the ethernet cables, the transfer of data has significantly improved as required to get the data from the router into the end device. And so make sure that you check this out. If you're looking for a total assessment of your library, that would be also in your walls. You want to be sure that you know what type of cables there. I'm thinking if you've had any type of upgrade in the last six or seven years, you probably at least have a gigabit type, up to a gigabit type cable inside your walls, which would be, I think it's a 5A or 5E is what I would recommend there. And so if you're looking for high speed transport, the latest is a, the six, what do I, I'm looking at my notes here. Cable six can transfer up to, oh 5E is six or do, and then it's the 6A, yeah, the transfers to 10. So with that upward data transfer with the 6A, you also have additional costs. So at the point where you're at right now, if you have 5E, I think you'd be okay. But if you're in a position that you want to upgrade, you may want to go to 6A. You never know exactly where things are going to be going as far as the need for speed in the public library. Yeah, yeah, exactly. So that's also on your eligibility list. The last thing, and I do want to raise the hands to know how many of you have what they call an uninterruptible power supply. And that would be called a UPS, which is what is it? It's basically an ability for a battery operated plugin for your equipment that will either let it run for an extended period of time beyond if you have a power outage, or it will also allow you to gracefully shut down your network equipment. And it also protects you from intermittent surges like in the summertime when you have a thunder and lightning storm. And I can remember being out in Western Nebraska in some of the libraries and that you could have the flicker of the lights and things. So my question, if you would be willing to raise a hand or make a comment about it, if you've got AUPS or multiple UPSs in your library for this type of power supply. Or if you don't, or if you're not sure. Yeah, that's true too. This is similar to a surge protector that you'd use where it protects from certain power surges, but way above and beyond that. Yeah, I know that yeah, I know libraries had those and they would their equipment would be ruined with like you're talking about Krista. We have multiple computers, multiple devices, and you're providing a service to all these people that are coming in. You need something above just not just those surge protectors you can buy anywhere in anywhere. Yeah, do we have any comments about it? No, just now one person did say I'm actually not sure I will look into it. Right, I would definitely say this is something too. Yeah, this is something that would be very important because it can basically it can ruin your equipment. And so if you look at the investment that you might have or be putting into your network devices, it'd be great to be able to have one of those to plug everything into to protect it. Because otherwise, you know, I don't know if insurance will cover that type of problem. You know, I'm not familiar with that type of thing. So anyway, that's so the one this is what we're talking about. I have no documentation. And that's not uncommon because I would visit a library and ask to find out, you know, what they had in the way of equipments and they would go get a you would get a three-ring bold folder binder with you with pages of all kinds of information. It was the Bible for the library that included IT information. And in general, it was not very well prepared and something that could be easily decoded to use. So this is what you need to do is include in the manufacturer model serial number. And the purpose of the equipment is really important because I'm wondering with your own network equipment, if you really can identify what does what, I like the idea of including a digital picture somehow, you know, whether that's a little separate place, but just kind of correlating the two with that. So it makes it easy where it's located in the library and then the date of purchase and when it was installed. And so there is the other thing is I go into a library and I wouldn't know who was who owned the some of the network equipment that was in the library. So who owns it and above all the username and password so you can access the device and make changes on it if you need to through, you know, utilizing the user ID and password. So I say also when we talk about this, the documentation is easy to access and read by all library staff. I think that's important too, because you may have somebody on staff there who maybe isn't the person, the key person, the call, but it might be the weekend and difficult to find somebody and they could be if they know where that is they may be able and it's well it's identified and set up correctly with all this information. They may be be able to answer a key question. So and again, I think always have your this information on exterior and most of you probably have a copy if you have it at home. Yeah, so you have that at home or online, wherever it is. But this is critical to have this information. And so often you don't. And again, it's not something that I say, well, why not, but because I've been in a library and I know what it's like, you know, it's but if you you need to make an extra effort that while the tech person is there and handing you all these things while you're checking three people out and you're doing something else, you know, somebody else needs your help that you, you know, take the time to set aside to make sure that you keep this information current. So next. So this was what I wanted to show to you all. And I talked to reference it in the beginning that this is just a very basic inventory that we it's only what we were given. But I'm excited to also say that we're we are looking to hire a into a position that was here previously, but with a kind of a new hat on their head, somebody who will be at the library commission primarily focused on network infrastructure, not end user devices, but the or your printers or, you know, peripherals or anything like that, but your actual network devices in your library and helping you to upgrade if you're interested and work with Krista, if you're interested in getting a super discount for this, these some of these items through E rate. So I think that might be the end for me just talking about that for that section. Yeah. All right. So Holly just talked about all these different pieces of equipment that you may have or need for your library or need to desperately need to upgrade. Once you do your assessment and inventory and figure out what you have, you may discover you don't have the newest cable and you don't have five or five E and you need to increase that you may be paying for an internet service that your computers are not actually receiving because the equipment in between the internet coming into your building and the actual end user devices is not good enough and you need to upgrade. You can be paying for a gig of internet speed, but if your equipment can't handle that, then it's not going to get out to your computers and your people and your wireless network. And you won't be using what you're actually paying for. So you may need to upgrade. And one option for doing this that can help you pay for this is using E rate. If you use E rate before, it's a federal program gives you discounts on your monthly internet service, but it also has a category two section that is for all of that equipment, all those pieces, all the physical stuff in the building that makes the internet work. And I have my own little diagram here of that of what is E rateable. Every year, the FCC who's in charge of the E rate program publishes and eligible services list, it tells you specifically what things are eligible for receiving your E rate discount. I talked about E rate in our previous sessions of this three part workshop. I have full E rate workshops that I'll have coming up in November and we've got a slide at the end of this presentation telling you when. And so that's going to have a full in depth training about E rate. Today, I'm just doing a quickie overview of specifically about what discounts you can get on the equipment that we're talking about you analyzing and inventorying today. And that is under what they call category two. Category one, and you can see here my diagram very similar to what Carson did and what Holly had. Your internet comes into the building and that's your category one. And once it's inside the building, all of the things, the mode of the router, the servers, the switches, the wireless access points, that's all considered category two that provides the service throughout inside the building. Your end user devices, your laptops, your PCs, your printers, those are not E rate eligible. Not the devices. E rate is all about the service getting it to your building and making it work the internet service. So just a quick overview category one is these kind of things, digital transmission, anything that provides high speed broadband to your building. DSL, cable, fiber, which we may be working towards. Anyway, you can get it to your building. Category two is all those internal connections, all the things that Holly was just talking about using the toolkit for, the toward gigabit library toolkit for finding out what are all these pieces of information. And there's a really nice looking, a picture of a nice looking, not the ones maybe that you've seen often of a someone's network set up on their rack with all their wires and everything really nicely wired up and kept nice and neat. Maybe yours looks like that, you're lucky. Maybe it's something in the dust under the table somewhere. But it is anything and everything inside the building that will help you make that internet work, your access points, your cables, firewalls, routers, racks, that interoperable power supply. Also the software necessary to make your network work. So not things like Microsoft Word software, but network software that makes these pieces of equipment work. In addition to the equipment itself and its software, basic maintenance of these internal connections. So repair, ongoing repair and upkeep, basic tech support, all of these things you can have receive an e-rate discount on as well. So this would be if you hired someone or you had someone from either your internet company, internet service provider, someone from the city, just some independent person comes in and every time you need to upgrade your network software or repair or replace a cable or something that work, you can also receive an e-rate discount on. Now, the e-rate discount is based on the poverty level in your community and whether you're considered rural or urban, poverty level is determined by the number of children in your school lunch program. And eligible for your school lunch program. And as Holly mentioned here in Nebraska, we hover around 70% for that. For all of our e-rate, category one and two this year it was 74% was the average. So you can get up to 70, 60, 70, 80% off on all this equipment, all this service if you apply for e-rate. Now for category two, it's not just a straight take a discount off. They have what they call a category two budget. USAC is the not-for-profit that the FCC has set up that runs the e-rate program. And what they have now set up is you have a five-year budget. Basically it's a chunk of money that you can use over a five-year period of time. There are fixed five-year budgets started in 2021. So right now we're in the middle of that first five years of 2021 to 2025. Libraries are allotted a certain amount of money they can use within those five years. And once those five years are up then we start a new five-year and you're given a new budget to use. So we're right in the middle of that first one. So if you have not done e-rate before, that's okay. You can jump in now and you have from now 2022 to 2025 to use the money in your budget. Anything you purchase that is e-rate eligible is just subtracted from whatever your budget is. You can go over that budget and spending things if you need to, if something comes as more expensive, but you only receive your discount up to what your budget has been you've been allotted for. So what is my budget? What is how much money we're talking about here? The way it works is for public libraries, they take the total area in square feet of your building. So this is your building. If you have external kiosks or bookmobiles you would calculate them too for having their own budgets. But everything in your building in square feet is something you look for in if your city has this information, if there's a blueprint, something official about your building. You take that amount, the total square area in square feet and you multiply it by $4.50. However, there is a minimum which I call the funding floor of 25,000. In minimum everybody gets 25,000 to use in that five-year period for this current five-year period that we're in. You can recalculate your budget, it can be changed if your square feet changes. Maybe you expand your library and add something in on it so you have to go up or you build a new building so it's a whole new number. Hopefully it doesn't go down and want libraries to shrink. And then you could request a replacement budget at any point if that does change your math for doing that $4.50 times your total area in square feet of your building. So here's an actual example of numbers to make more sense here. So your library is 3,500 square feet, 3,500 times $4.50 is $15,750. However, there's a 25,000 minimum. So when you have a smaller library, your math might not even matter because you're just going to get 25,000. If you're over that, then it would be whatever the calculation is. And this is what they call your pre-discount budget. So this is how much you have to start with. And then in this example, just for easy math, they said for a 50% discount rate, the library will actually get you get half of that because you're you get discounted off of what your budget is. So $12,500 in e-rate funds to spend on any category two services in that five-year budget period. You can use it all in one year. You got a big project, you had a new building built and you got to put in the computer lab, boom, use it all up and be done. And you just wait for the next five years, five-year budget to come up. You can split it up, use a little bit at a time each year. I know some libraries have done one year, they upgraded all their switches, the next year, all their routers, the next year, their cabling. So you can use it a little bit at a time. Online, all e-rate forms are submitted online. And in your e-rate account online, it tracks for you how much your budget is and then automatically deducts from it whenever you submitted paperwork saying we've purchased this thing and we want to get the discount on it. So it will keep track of what you have left in your online account. Now something, if you do want to do this, something you need to look at right now is if your information is up to date and correct in your e-rate account. This is in the e-rate productivity center, it's the online system where everything is done, because right now we're in what they call the administrative window. There's a certain short period of time where USAC opens up your profile, your organization, your library's profile in the e-rate productivity center and lets you make updates and changes and fixes to it. It opened just last month, October 25th, and it will close shortly before our funding window, filing window opens for the second form in the e-rate process, which is the 471 form, that will be sometime in January. Once that closes, you can't change that. Why is there this window? Because if anybody, if you need to make any changes, things may change year to year. And specifically for what we're talking about, you want to make sure that square footage number is accurate. If you are wanting to apply for category two discounts, you want to make sure that that number is correct and what it needs to be so that you can make sure you receive your proper discount. For most of our small libraries, you're going to be below the cutoff for doing 25,000, but you do need to have that number in there to make sure that you can do your category two application. Once they close the window, you can't change it anymore, and you can still be submitting your e-rate application after they close the window. The administrative window. So right now, you would want to make sure go in, check, and make sure all this is correct. And I'll show you here how to do that. To get into e-rate, you go to the e-rate website usac.org slash e-rate is the URL that bring you to this main screen. And there's two buttons that say sign in. They both go the same place. So either one of those you can click on, and it will bring you into logging into your account. As I said, I'm going to have a full e-rate workshop training coming up, actually starting next week. That will get into all the details about how to log in and everything. We're not going to go through all that today. We're just going to jump straight into things that are specific to what we're talking about today. So if you want, we'll learn more about how you get an account and how you log in starting next week. But once you do get in, you get on your landing page. And there's a whole bunch of menu items at the top there on the upper right. You can see your different e-rate forms. But to check your square footage, right now, you go into manage organizations. And it will then list any organizations connected to your account. You'll click in the box in front of your library's name. And then it'll select it. And then you'll click the manage organization button underneath to get into your organization, your library's account. And this says, you can see here all the different boxes. You can update the library's name if it changed, address, zip code, all these basic information. Scroll down on the screen. This is a long, long screen. So I'm just giving you bits and pieces here. Other contact information, what type of library your library is. All independent libraries that we have here in Nebraska where you're just a single location, you should be subtype public library and you need to check main branch. Yes, you're the only branch because you're a single library, but you want to check that. And then farther down after this part is where you see there is the square footage for category two budget. Make sure that is correct. And then at the bottom is where you hit submit to save it if you did make any changes. So do this now. Well, not right now, but after you get out of this workshop and just double check and make sure if you're interested in ever doing your category two that this number is correct. This is something that you can check every year. You don't have to change it and do it every year. You just do it once. And as long as it never changes, you don't need to go in here and do anything every year to check this and fix it. It will stay saved every year. The only time you need to go in is if something did change. Like I said, did your building get an expansion or did you build a new building that had different square footage? Now there are multiple e-rate forms in the e-rate process. We are not looking at all of these today. That's what my workshop is starting next week or four today. We're just going to be looking at the first form, the 470, when you start this looking for the discount for your category two services. So form 470 is to open your bidding process to reach out. Just let service providers know that you're looking for these types of equipment on your landing page. Up in that upper right-hand corner menu is the CC form 470 that you can click on. And that brings you right into starting a form. You give it a nickname and then you'd save and continue. It will then confirm everything about your library, what it is, the type of library you are. You confirm your contact information is. Are you the main contact? You say yes and it pops up with your own info. And then you get into finally choosing what category of service you're applying for. We're recommending doing two separate applications, one for category one and one for category two so they can be evaluated and looked at separately from USAC. So if you do want to do your monthly internet, you do a category one, 470, do all that, submit it, and then do a separate one just for category two. RFP, request for proposal. This is something that Holly's going to give you some more details about in a bit here. But request for a proposal is a lot more detail about what exactly you need done or you want done, a separate document that you will attach to this 470. When we get a couple screens farther in, you'll see there's not a lot of places in this form to write up your own information or add a lot of detail. It's mainly just checkboxes based of what they give you as choices. So you want to give more detail and more specifics. You want a separate document and we will help and we, well Holly can help you do one of those. This is where you will attach that though. If you say, if you do want to have one, you say yes and you upload it, you can click and drag, you can click on the upload button, and I have one that was just an RFP example that I attached to this form that I was doing. On the next screen we'll ask, do you want this to apply to all new category two services? And you check it to say, yes I do, and it will automatically take this RFP and attach it to anything that you ask for in this application for this year in category two. So before you do this you're going to do your RFP so you have that ready to attach. When you get to this next screen it says there are currently no service requests, so we need to add one. This service request is the specific pieces of equipment that you want to receive to purchase and get a discount on. So you click this add new service request button, and there are three choices here. The first one is all you'd need to do, I seek bids for the equipment needed for broadband connectivity and other related software licenses, etc. You'll see the second option there is talks about the basic maintenance that I did mention earlier, so all your support. We can add that on when we go and do our bid for equipment, choose our equipment. So once you say I, you click that I seek bids for the equipment, you then get this function pull down menu which lists all those different types of pieces of equipment that might be in your library that Holly and Carson mentioned. I'm going to by example here I just did cabling the first choice there, and depending on what you choose it gives you different choice, different follow-up questions to specify what you want for cabling. It wants to know how many feet of cable you need. I don't know if thousand feet is a good number Holly, I don't know how many how many feet I usually need. Usually not that much, but anymore with Wi-Fi they don't use it, but you know if they have a project and they're a big library yeah. Yeah you never know, so you know you find out first how much you need and put in how many feet of cabling you need. You can pick a manufacturer or if you want to, you don't have to, you can just say whatever my company will use. You are a single entity, so just one, and then you do want somebody else to install it most likely. You probably don't want to do this yourselves, you'll say yes, and you'll notice here this here would already be checked for you when you first came to this screen here. I entered 1000, I chose a manufacturer, typed in one, I selected yes. This is already checked because I said please check it. Now as far as that basic maintenance, you'll notice here there's a question, please select this option if you'd like to create an accompanying category 2 BMIC basic maintenance for internal connections request for this internal connections equipment quest. So we'll say yes, we do want to do that, and then we'll add a second section down here that just says basic maintenance and then it just carries down everything you had already answered above about that thing. So all in one shot, you say I want cable and I want a basic maintenance discount as well. And when you save this request, you then pop you back to the where you started and you'll see you've got two items now that you are asking for your discount on your actual cabling and the basic maintenance of that cabling. Now you need to do this process what I just did there for cabling for each piece of equipment you want to get an earring discount on this year. And you do this when you're at a time. So just think about what am I going to purchase this year? And you just add them one at a time, you click add new service request again here and go through the same process over and over again just choosing something else, choosing a router or a switch or a wireless access points or whatever it is, you just do it over and over and over until you've got everything you wanted in your list. And you'll end up with something like this. And you've got your cabling, the basic maintenance of cabling, I did one rack, a router and three wireless access points. Now it's just going to depend on what you need to update and upgrade. Once you've done your assessment and your inventory of what you have and what you might want to be purchasing for the next year, you just go through and choose those particular things. You just go back and forth back and forth until you've got them all listed there. And then you would continue on with the rest of the application. I'm not going to go into that now because like I said, I've got my full e-rate workshops that I get into the step by step beginning to end of this. But this is just showing you within the 470 how you kind of what you would do for category two equipment, pieces of equipment and adding that RFP to the 470 if you do want to use one. You'll notice there is a narrative box down here and I don't have anything in it because as you can see over here I've attached that associated that RFP that I did with every single one of them at the over on the right here. This is what they do give you to write in something but that's a lot to just type in there and it's just much easier to put together a separate document ahead of time and then just attach it. Anything you want to add to this Holly? Because next I'm going to be throwing it back to you for RFPs. Well I just wanted to mention and again this is abbreviated and it was great just about category two and working through that but for those who are not familiar with e-rate I wanted to mention SIPA as you know something before somebody gets excited. Yeah we've mentioned that in one of our previous workshops in these three that we've done. Yes you do need to in order to receive e-rate discounts and all this equipment because you're getting internet you do need to be SIPA compliant. That's the Children's Internet Protection Act which means having filters on your computers. This can be done on each individual piece computer. It can be done at the router level the server level. Your service provider can do it for you but that is something that you do have to be. This is federal funding and that's where that that rule comes from because there's money coming from the federal government. I know I mentioned that in one of the first two of the workshops. Right but yeah if they're just coming to this and haven't seen the others yeah it was great thank you for your your great step through. I can even understand it. I hope so. So next I was going to talk about that RFP that I mentioned and how you would really help you put that together. And I thought I'd just mentioned something I meant to mention it earlier in the portion I did earlier. One thing that's interesting that's happening is all this funding that's coming through it's kind of like unrequested you may end up finding yourself being having fiber brought to your library. We have this year there were 15 libraries that received fiber through the Nebraska building bridge broadband bridges. And so the year before there were 13 like libraries that received it. This is because the community was awarded a grant to have fiber come into the community and in this case it's a geographic area and every household business or anchor institution receives that and I don't believe I have that we have a library that's on today that has received that but if you have let us know. And so this is great if you're thinking proactively I can't guarantee anything but these some of these libraries find themselves as Christa mentioned in the very beginning of her presentation they have fiber to the library but you know they don't have the equipment to transfer that speed into the. Right most of these great programs and that's the thing too there's so much money out there now a side effect of the COVID-19 pandemic and everyone realized when we all went working in school from home internet needs to be better everywhere and now there is billions of dollars from multiple programs from both federal and state programs to run fiber and high speed internet to the rural ruralist the most rural most rural communities out there but most none of that gets you they get you the fiber but then you're what you do once it gets to your building they don't provide that part you're on your own when it comes to that internal unless you come up with some other grants yourself for that there are grants that you can apply for that will do that yes there's tons of them and this is just one way to using e-rate to receive a discount on purchasing all that equipment you'll need for inter inside your building yeah and I don't know I've looked at the list I think I looked at the list for the next round of the Nebraska Broadband Bridge grant period and I think there were only there were seven communities but I don't think it was anybody that's on on this list now that that are looking to be their draft is that they will be aware that they have a library that they have libraries and if there's a larger number of communities but that they had libraries so it is that is another way that this is happening anyway so I just thought I just want to ask does anybody have any questions that you want to ask me right now about e-rate or what I just showed you before we jump ahead a little bit um type in the questions section if you have any questions about anything you wanted me to show you more I know I did go pretty quickly but it was just to give you an idea of this is what you will be doing um let me know if you have any questions like I said I do have full and you'll be assisting them you they can contact you to get assistance on yeah okay yep yep I help libraries do it I handhold everybody who needs it through it that's my job here um and um I do screen sharing things like using go to webinar like we're doing here today so I can see what you're doing in your account so like when you're in here in your and yours I can say okay click there no not there click that um and I will guide you through um getting through all the steps of submitting um all of your e-rate related forms not just your category two just a really good job I've heard good good reports back sometimes it can be stressful and she's always calm yes and but that's what that's what they've got me here for is for all this well the other piece about that is just some knowledge that sometimes as you get closer to deadlines um it becomes more challenging to even to use the system so um we would encourage you if you're interested to to check those deadlines out and and hopefully not be calling the day of she'd still help you and she'd make it happen but you know but it's just you'd spend more time the deadlines yeah their servers start getting bogged down because so many other people do um I'll tell you the deadline there's various deadlines for various purposes but for e-rate for applying for next year uh we don't know the dates yet they announced them at the end of December um they generally would fall to some time in um February would be when you'd have to get this first at the very latest have to get this first step done but you don't have to wait till then and don't wait till then start as soon as you know you want to do something and reach out to me about doing the e-rate reach out to Holly about doing your assessment or your rfp as as soon as you know you want to do something so you're not coming up against that line yeah okay all right any questions come in that's fine we can go on to the rfp okay we'll move forward so uh as christa said you know it's kind of um interesting about the well when you submit the 470 form i'm thinking the form itself as as you do it um and the upload of the rfp it's static at that point correct you don't get to go back in and change anything right no you wouldn't you do it if you decide that if you realize you've made a mistake or something you just go and you create a whole new form a whole new 470 okay you can't edit the one you've already submitted certified and submitted that's not a thing there's a there's some clerical changes you can make like oops i typed in the wrong number of feet of cable or something maybe but um you can't um add things you'd have to start a whole new 470 so okay well that's just something i wanted to clarify too before i went through the point the bullet points i have here so again as she mentioned christa that it's an option to submit an rfp with your form 470 i can tell you that vendors and christa said that too and i told her that i had been told by a vendor before that they really appreciate receiving an rfp and so i i guess if you're going to work with us that's our recommendation and again that's what i'm here for to help you with um yeah because as you saw in that form like i said you just check boxes and it's very it's just the no description yeah there's no descriptions there's no explanation but what you're trying to do there's no detail that you can really add except that little narrative box and that's just cumbersome i think um so and you said highly that someone said they don't even look at the actual 470 they just noticed you have an rfp yeah oh so so much give me this let me tell you what you really need so so and again it allows you as we're just talking about to to add explanation and and or important things that are important to you to be included with the rp because there's there's more space to work with it's not a preform kind of fill out click and and this is what shows up um and again more details about your library itself um you know you in some cases some of the libraries that i've worked with they have a little explanation about their situation in the library maybe their network closet etc or whatever but the one thing i was the reason i asked christy before i started and on this conversation is the last bullet because with the rfp you uh if you've submitted an rfp you can upload an addenda to what you've put in there and this is critical because that you may have a vendor that wants a response and you can load it in there one thing that you're be concerned about is if you a vendor asks you a question you may want to make sure all vendors know that this answer because it may be a good question and then it may make a difference in the bidding process as to what what the bid responses from the other vendors so again it's just the idea that you you still have some leverage there to communicate um because you should not be communicating necessarily directly with the uh the vendors um during the the bidding process but they ask you questions you can answer them but then if it does like kind of dramatically change yeah what your original rfp was they needed to do an addendum yeah any other vendors who might reach out you already know that we'll have that same information of whatever that answer you gave right okay so the libraries uh can file as christa said uh 470 and at least the bid as known as the request for proposal category two services i don't think there's anything in here except for the 28 days you have to have a minimum of 28 days and christ probably knows the technical details but i'm thinking it's because it's federal funds that this is just a requirement yeah i've never done any sort of request for proposal for anything you've probably had the same kind of thing that you may have instituted but the FCC requires that um your 470s out there for 28 days minimum before you make um make your selection pick who you're going to go with and what you're going to purchase um that's just the minimum amount of time they want for any vendors to be able to reach out to you give them a good amount of time yeah and the and the other piece that um i'd like to see is the again the third bullet we've already kind of discussed that but the that that you when you're doing this type of bid you can actually put in what it is exactly you know you that you're interested in what manufacturer what the product is or equivalent you put on it and then you can get that can direct to say in my case i'm looking across libraries or interested in category two is working with es us and um and requesting in the rfp the same type of equipment not at their level for the schools because it's be prohibited prohibitively expensive and also overkill for what they would need but at least the same products that they're using so there's a familiarity there we are finding that we're finding es us are willing sometimes to come in not always but uh their tech their tech people to help out libraries with installation or issues with that i just think if we had and and i suspect that they pick what i consider probably the what would be premiere for a library to be able to use too it also offers us a consistency across the state if we try we don't have to there's no obligation to go with what is um you know what we recommend at the library commission but that's what we're trying to do is get like the es use and like the schools they all have the same type of equipment it makes it easier to to manage and so that's the equivalent there you may have noticed when i in my screenshots that when i did have the one that i did pick a manufacturer it was already automatically in there so in the 470 it will you can't just say i want this brand it will always have or equipment but you want to make sure if you're doing rfp that you word it that way as well this covers you just in case um whoever you go with ends up having to go with a different manufacturer a different company a different brand of something um if you said i only want like a links this router and that's it and then you're well i can't get that brand but i can get the other one well then okay you don't get an e-ray discount on it then because you you specified only that brand so you want to make sure it's open enough that you'll get a discount on whatever they end up having to use um you're making this doing this application now for service you're going to be getting next year lots can change between now and july of next year so and you could pick and choose off of the rfp say a certain company gives you bidding and but another company on another item in your rfp provides you with a different pricing you can make a decision to choose to go with the the alternative um bid the other bidder and just select that from their response to you so it does allow you some flexibility with that it's not just you know you take all of this or or you can't work with us so that's another piece of information that is good to have um so i think we just move on this is what you'd had about your 20 days yeah yeah so the minimum bidding is 28 days and so um one of the things in this and i think this is important to think about the scope of the project and in some cases we've been in that situation and it doesn't have to necessarily be the scope of the project i will tell you out in western nebraska it's a challenge to get anybody to be looking at the rfp because you know you don't have many businesses who would be um um installing um this or or handling this type of uh equipment so uh it could it's basically in my opinion the scope of the project should mean uh the the availability of the product close by where somebody would consider um putting a bid in and being ready to install that at your library i had two libraries who went with a company that was a um in council bluffs one of those communities was only 50 minutes away and the other one was seven to eight hours away or seven hours away and in the case of the one that was seven hours away they were lucky enough and this is a case where an esu technician came in and did the installation for them so not only did they have a cheaper bid because they didn't pay for the installation but they also um you know were able to get it i don't know if they would have been able to afford that although that cost is i think their travel cost is also included is it not if they were doing an install do you know that maybe not any charges related to installation would be yeah i don't know but um saying no yeah yeah yeah there it is the number of e-rate vendors in your region but anyway the time is an issue there um and then also it says here that it's it's not just about your schedule you can consider the vendors availability just respond as well this is one thing that happened and you and i guess we had no choices but with the covid and the issues of the chips not coming in um i had libraries and e-rate must have you know they must have just decided the FCC said well we just have to wait because we don't have anything a lot of that equipment wasn't available it was eight months or more late before installation so there's a lot of things as as christa said it's a year a year away sometimes when you're we're getting ready to do this so we we can't control everything i think that as far as covid was concerned that the FCC was very very flexible about the situation extensions for lots of things during covid they do that um they do that nash you know for everybody um and they also do extensions or um waving of deadlines for uh regional specific things like when we had the flooding here in nebraska years ago oh was it 2019 or so new libraries were given extension on that um right now the hurricanes that keep going through florida libraries in florida are labeled um able to apply for a waiver of deadlines because you know things are happening so i have a question for you chris said i don't know if you know the answer to it either but um so one of the things is because we have not really invested a lot of time and energy with the libraries with not us but the libraries with category two funding a lot of the vendors may in these areas be interested in you know providing a bit but they're not a part of e-rate yet so if you send that would just be a question that would be answered somehow they'd have to be able to see it so if it's in e-rate and they can't see it can the one thing i'm concerned about and just mention this is if you're library rural kind of out in middle of nowhere but you do know there's a company around that does this um could you take that uh rfp to them and say i'm interested in having this done but you need to be uh uh part of the program yeah is that legit yes um the way that yes um however there's rules about not giving any vendors preferential treatment uh you can't you know give some some particular vendor like a leg up over the other ones so what what you would have to do is um you have to but what you do is wait until that 28 days has passed so do your 470 wait the 28 days and once that is passed and anyone else has had a chance to reach out to you then you can reach out to vendors yourself and at that point you could then say go to someone and say hey i want to do this i want to get a discount you all need to get on e-rate and then service providers have the whole bunch of their own forms that not a bunch but they have their own forms and ways that they have to apply to become part of the e-rate program too it's not just um anyone can just guess gives out discounts they have forms they submit every year to usac saying i'm participating this year and there's a whole bunch of back and forth between everybody um so um yes you can do that but you've got to wait for that 28 days to pass and then you're welcome to go and talk to anybody you want to about encouraging them to look at your 470 if they already you know because sometimes there may be companies that just aren't looking at them it's public information all your 470s out there um what's out there and that's that's how you get new companies to reach out to you but i'm looking is what the problem right then yeah they may just not know um but you yeah so yes you can just do your 470 with your rfp wait 28 days if they don't reach out to themselves then you can contact them and and tell them to so it's again something that sounds like the last minute of doing this um right before the deadline for filing the 471 it's not a good idea yeah yeah because if you want to convince them to do it and get them on board yeah okay yeah so so this would this would be the case if if you have no bids come in and it's possible um i haven't seen a special construction situation has been like that but um and this one individual in council bluff seems to be very in tune even with libraries and you know would probably if they're still around two years later they still may be wanting to to do business with the library uh through e-rate but i i think that's important to know too let's just move forward it doesn't like us we already talked about except for that restarting the 28 day yes right yeah that's something to note if you do make some change to the rfp or something that is substantial a significant change was answering someone's question and you so you've added info to the rfp that restarts your 28 day period from when you had that revised rfp so do you need to resubmit your uh another for uh create another generate another 470 form start all over or how does that go work in the e-rate world no it's just because you've added something to rfp no it'll it's just it will they will um just reset the 28 days you don't have to do a whole new 470 it'll be the same 470 but it will because you've added something the system will note that and then it will issue you a new notice saying okay your new 28 day date is this when you submit your 470 the system tells you okay thank you and now here is your date for 20 days from now so you know that um and they would just generate a new one okay well um yeah i think that this is this is important to be thinking about too is that the timing of all of this it is uh sometimes can be challenging with the rest of what you all do i think the next slide isn't it the actual rfp okay well it's very anti-climatic but i just for me it's it's a list and it's categorized and you don't need to worry about that till you get your your sections until you actually make a decision as to what kind of equipment you want but it's basically a fill-in-the-blank type of form you know you put your library name in there are a few times and everything else pretty much stays the same so uh the editing up the top this is from several years ago with the library uh it's all this and nothing's changed yeah yeah nothing's changed so um this part although it adds more to it i think it it helps you maybe identify exactly what you want more to you know when you start putting it in the rfp so so that's the go ahead yeah and that's what this is here this is a template this is what you know rfp can be very possibly i think intimidating to some people and what do i write that's why that's why we have a template this is this is one that a particular library did but holly will work with you on a template here's a blank with all these spots that you would just fill in for your library's information right and work with you on okay what do you have for all those as pieces of equipment at the bottom there okay then this is what you need to you know put in your rfp that you want at a minimum you need this because you can see you know we did this does have specific models and model numbers but right above it says or equivalent so yes you'll say here's the ones or holly's assistants and advice here's what is the best one that you should get but put or equivalent up here and then you if if you're like so if a compass service provider says well we don't actually use that brand we use a different one or if you're doing this now in november and they're saying well actually in february and marked whatever of next year we have a new model we now are up to the r750 of whatever um then you're covered it's okay that they did a better right yeah that's better well and and just know um i think we're getting ready to wrap up that um you know i'll be um requesting that you put in a ups and a and a rack in every library yes yes if you don't have one you want you want that pretty picture of the rack and the wires you want to wrap it rack is what it's only it's just it's a it's a metal bookcase so where everything fits in nicely um and if you don't have that um uninterrupted power supply get one yeah protect all your stuff and sometimes maybe two so and something else I mentioned here that and I should have put this slide in but we didn't now I think about it as I'm looking at this of course you think it's the last minute um e-rate is a risk um in that there's no guarantee that you'll get providers that will come to you and there's no guarantee that you'll get approved your application will get approved for the discount that's just the way it works what we have you put into it's part of the template there is a um a clause that says and that we have we put it in here and then we make sure that ends up in the contract that you sign with the company because you will sign you will agree to a contract before you're approved for e-rate it seems backwards that's just how it works the e-rate wants to know you've got someone who wants to do this already and you've agreed to work with them and then the site they'll approve it but we make sure you put in a clause that says the um completion of this contract is dependent on receiving great funding if we do not receive e-rate we do not have to agree to this contract that we just actually signed with you and um that's a perfectly legal thing it's in there we've done it before I don't think we've ever had to use that clause with anybody yet it's always gone through but just to cover you you're going to be signing a contract for this work not knowing if you've getting the discount yet I would I've done I they say that you can just initial you know what what they send back to you as far as their quote and that's enough but um what I've always done is as actually and they don't necessarily like it I have them generate a contract and then I make sure that that's put inside of it so I don't put it on the it's not in the RFP but it definitely is something that we do include and that is a really good question should yeah and that's just important to know that um the companies they will agree to it they have to and if they don't you just don't sign with them say well this is how e-rate works we don't know and we want you and you want to be covered just in case in the outside chance that something doesn't go through you don't want to be on the hook for the full cost of all this equipment when you were hoping planning on getting the discount all right does anybody have any questions we are almost at the end of our slides we don't have any more informational slides yet about this um but we still have like uh 15 minutes left in our allotted time uh does anybody have any questions about um doing an RFP doing your e-rate doing your assessment and your inventory of your equipment um anything we haven't covered that you were hoping that we would answer and I'm willing to help out with assessment inventory types of things um it would might be initially just a conversation or if you've got a piece of equipment you're just really not sure about you can send and I'll kind of ask you to take certain certain uh device shots so I can get the information that I might need pictures of the box pictures of the back where all the all those wonderful serial numbers and yeah right so so just know that or if you just have a question about assessment type of information that I talked about today um my my goal and it's I think it's always Chris's goal to make things easier for you and to make you um not be um have angst about doing this type of activity because it's really critical in your library that you make sure that you're providing the speed if you can if it's your own equipment to take care of that situation and we're here to help you and we'll have another person on board I hope shortly by the beginning of next year to help you as specifically with this particular um this the category two and the purchasing and and what to do they won't fix your issues in your problems you'll have to pay for that with category two funding so you have a question that came in if you have any questions go ahead and start typing them in um and okay so the question says so our library this is related to e-rate so our library will have to come up with $12,500 over five years for the equipment correct no um that is I'm going to go back get to that slide to show you that was just one example of the category two um there we go so this is no that was just an example of if your library was 3,500 feet well whatever your library was um and if you have a 50 discount rate for e-rate then you you have um you know it doesn't when you have $12,500 in e-rate funds to spend so this is just saying here this is the calculation to get the amount of money that is available for you to use um and this is only if you have it you are at the 50 discount rate if you have a higher discount if your discount calculation is 60, 70, 80, 90 even up to 90 it would be less so we depend on what your library's discount rate is um how much you end up being available this is just one example at this um that discount rate not everybody gets that at the the the discounts range well officially range from 20 to 90 off um and as as we said earlier we've we average around 70 to 74 percent um but with some libraries are 80 or 90 so you pay even less depending and I can look up for you and figure out if you're not doing e-rate yet I can look up and we can find out what is your discount rate and we could figure out ahead of time what yours would be and this is only you would only have to come up with that if that's how much you spent this is just this is how much you have available you'll just use as much as you need you don't have to use all 25 000 budget and the that you they've given you it's just saying this is how much is available to you use what you want and then we'll start you over again for the next five year um block of time so that's the thing too it'll only depend on what you actually purchase how much you'll have to spend and before you commit to anything you'll know what the costs are and so you'll know what it's going to be that's a good thing about e-rate too they will approve your application but then you accept if you want to receive it so if you get to that point where they say yes you're approved you're you're welcome to then say well we don't actually don't have that much money in our budget to cover it never mind and that's okay it's there's nothing is until you actually accept the money from e-rate you're not um committed to it other questions okay of course something comes in uh let's see i have had our internet service okay um okay so this question says i have had our internet service provider ask us to look into getting fiber at our library is this something e-rate will help cover okay um yes uh this as we mentioned this today's workshop is part three of two previous workshops we've done um what do we talk about that about doing fiber in libraries and um yes there's it's okay uh quick answer yes there you can receive e-rate discounts on doing fiber construction and bringing that to your library it's under category one um and we have special funding state matching funds that will help you with that i would recommend looking at our two previous webinars which are linked in the session description for this one that you registered for and um they'll all be linked when we get this one done so you can get to all of them or they can she can she can call me or or yeah so we've had so um yes um call holly and um that's okay she said she just missed the last one and that's okay yes this is exactly what we're talking about is yes that is something that definitely can be done and this is the last of our workshops about digging into just the the nitty gritty about the actual pieces of equipment um but but timely wise it's important to do it pretty soon and have a conversation i think that's yeah if your service provider is asking you about doing it i would say wendy call holly asap and tell her who it is to get her talking to you about that um so that you can immediately start that process because there is this extra funding from the state that is available that can help you even pay less even less um but they're that that's a whole separate process and deadlines are coming up for that so um give holly a call as soon as you can to tell her exactly what's what's happening what they're talking about and get you on board with that um any other questions want to answer everything we can for you here before we wrap things up i can't see if you're actually typing something yet it have to wait until the message comes up to know that's why i'm pausing here as i mentioned i do have e-rate on my usual annual e-rate what's new for the upcoming year workshops coming up over the next two weeks there it is the same workshop each time it is not a four-part workshop so you only need to pick one of these to attend it'll be the same information provided every single time so just pick one and then there will be a recorded version made available afterwards um this is how i do it every year um you can go to our training calendar sign up for whichever one you like and i will um this will then we'll get into the um step by step of e-rate from beginning to end um these today's workshop and the two previous in this session i did some quickie overviews and just little bits and pieces of it um more high level uh this is where we get into just e-rate e-rate for three hours um that sounds terrible but it's okay there is a break in the middle so um sign up for that then you'll learn even more about them specifically about how e-rate works and how that's gonna be up um and then there is our there it is contact info call or email us call holly about doing that rfp call rfp if you have a service provider that wants to do this we'd love to hear that um call email me if you have any um e-rate related questions or concerns or weirdness um that you need help with any last minute desperate questions you want to ask before we wrap things up or any last words from you holly well i really appreciate you all taking the time to join us and um i'm really excited about category use of category two funding especially if we have a new employee that comes on board if we whoever this is makes their way to the library commission you know through the the process of applying etc so i think it's um it's to me uh it makes a difference um with using tired worn out equipment and if you're positioned to move to fiber as um wendy was saying somebody's asking her you know would you like to have fiber uh that this year then you would if you choose to you would do the special construction category one and we would do the category two but the great part is you've got a lot of help here so um pass the word on to others too if you're talking with uh your local uh other libraries uh regional libraries that have issues going on with their equipment um this is this is the time to be uh getting serious about replacement or upgrade like they and as i mentioned that that's a good point that you make there all these different programs that are bringing fiber everywhere now is the time even if you don't have those to your community yet like the broadband broadband bridge gosh that's hard to say that holly mentioned that's going to communities even if it's not coming to yours next you can prepare now ahead of time to have more up-to-date equipment in the building so you're ready for it and it will work as soon as you do get it or whichever fiber gets run to your community to your building yeah that's all good all right all right i don't see any other questions um i think we'll wrap it up thank you everybody for being here good to see you holly good to see you too bye bye um and we will as i said this is recorded and um i should be able to get the recording and everything out to people maybe tomorrow maybe monday we have a holiday on friday so the next uh this week or beginning of next week you'll have the recording for this all right thank you thank you bye bye