 Good morning and welcome to this week's edition of Encompass Live. I am your host, Krista Porter, here at the Nebraska Library Commission. Encompass Live is the commission's weekly webinar series where we cover a variety of topics that may be of interest to libraries. The show is broadcast live every Wednesday morning at 10 a.m. central time. But if you're unable to join us on Wednesdays, that's fine. We do record the show as we are doing today. Excuse me. And it is then posted to our website for you to watch at your convenience. So, and I'll show you the end of today's show where you can watch those archives. Both the live show and the recordings are free and open to anyone to watch. So please share with your friends, family, neighbors, colleagues, anyone you think might be interested in any of the topics we have on the show. We do a mixture of things here on Encompass Live. We do book reviews, interviews, mini training sessions, demos of services and products. It really runs the gamut. And as the library commission, the Nebraska Library Commission is the state agency for libraries in Nebraska. We provide services to all types of libraries. So you'll find shows geared towards all types of libraries, public, academic, K-12, corrections, museums, archives, really anything and everything. Our only criteria is that it's something to do with libraries. Something cool libraries are doing, something you think they could be doing. We have library commission staff that sometimes do presentations for us about things we're specifically offering, but we also bring in guest speakers. And that's what we have this morning with us today is Christine Gale. Good morning, Christine. Good morning. And she is from our Nebraska Community Foundation. And she's going to talk to us about our wonderful, one of our favorite grants, one of mine. The Creets Bennett Donor Advice Fund. This is specifically for our little libraries, which we have a lot of those in Nebraska. Most of our libraries are the small ones. So I will just hand it over to you, Christine, to tell us about what's going on with the grants this year. Well, thank you, Christa. So as she mentioned, I'm Christine Gale with the Nebraska Community Foundation and I am a community impact coordinator. So I help funders make the most impact with their dollars that we can in our communities. And this one specifically, like Christa said, is for small town libraries. I live in North Platte, but I do help all the communities across the state. So I don't have a certain area. So that is who I am. But one of the funds that I have been assigned to that is an affiliated fund of the Nebraska Community Foundation is the Creets Bennett Donor Advice Fund, which was established by an estate gift from Shirley Creets Bennett. So as you can see on the screen, she was a lifelong learner. She was a teacher. She was very interested in academics. She was a traveler. She loved to travel with her husband, but they did not have any children. So upon her death, she put in her will that she wanted her estate, which actually had built up to be quite extensive, even though she truly was a teacher for all of her years. But she had saved up quite a big amount of money that she decided she wanted to do good with in the state of Nebraska. And she wanted to follow similar to her life that she traveled and experienced and learned a lot of different things. And also with her education, she thought the best way to do good in the state was to give to smaller communities. And she herself grew up in a small community. So this was a way to give back. So she started upon her death. It was developed and created as the Creets Bennett Donor Advice Fund to make grants to rural libraries of 3,000 population or less communities. And she named her nieces and nephews as the committee who serve on that donor advice fund and help make the selection. So I am the staff member that is assigned to this fund to just help with the administrative process. But the nieces and nephews are actually the committee who makes decisions on these grants. So when they develop this grant, it was never set up to be as an endowment fund where it would be around forever. But instead it is a donor advice fund that was set up to be spent down to zero. And so we are in the final year of the Creets Bennett Donor Advice Fund, assuming the applications come in. They have been around for the last nine years and during that time have given away almost $600,000 to libraries across the state. So the impact that Shirley was able to make truly has been enormous and it's been really fun to see all the great things that she has been able to help make happen. So that has been really great to work with this. But all good things must come to an end. So this is our last year. And as I mentioned before that the applicants that who are eligible are libraries that are located in Nebraska that are in towns with populations of 3,000 people or less. But they did decide to create this grant so it can be given in three different areas. So the three areas are listed there planning grants enhancement grants and facilities grants. So for the enhancement grants and facilities grants, libraries do need to be accredited. But the planning grant is actually a grant to assist with getting accreditation. So I'm sure Krista and all of you have dealt a lot with what's necessary in order to become accredited. And what the committee realized is that there are some costs associated with accreditation, even though there's lots of things you can select from within the different sections. But there are some time costs for the librarian, obviously for the librarian's time to be accredited or to be, I think it's called accredited. That takes time and to set up your friends of the library group that takes time and money. So this grant is to assist with those costs for and we really want to help out those libraries who are truly trying to become accredited but struggle with some of those costs. So this is a smaller grant, but it is, as you can see, a minimum amount of $500 and a maximum of $2,500. All of our grants are one-to-one matches, which means that for every dollar given, another dollar in the community needs to be matched. So if they ask for the $500, then they have to match it with $500, so it can be a $1,000 grant. So in this case, with the $500 being a minimum, which sometimes these grants are really small, but just every little bit counts, it could be a $250 grant and then matched with $250. That would be the smallest, but otherwise... Okay, I did have somebody who had asked about that previously in the email and I was waiting for today. Hopefully they'll be here to watch that, yeah, that the $500 or whatever the minimum of each grant is like how the math works out. So you could go as low as half of that is all you need to come up with from your library. Exactly, exactly. And I also want to be clear about the accreditation, too. That is something that I run here at the Library Commission for our public libraries, so if you have questions about that, you can ask me. There is no fee to apply for accreditation or be accredited, but there could be costs depending on what you're trying to do to earn the points towards your accreditation. So, for example, like there is a fee to start a friends group if that was something you wanted to do and there are a few points for that, sure. If you needed to buy books or you needed to subscribe to some online database and that gives you more points towards becoming accredited, that would be something the grant could help with. The staff time, the salary, Christine mentioned in order for the library to be accredited, the library director needs to be certified, which entails earning continuing education credits, going to classes, watching webinars. There might be costs for those. There's lots of free stuff out there, but there is your time. So if you need to get paid for that time or something. So, lots of things. And there's even more examples on the guidance document on the Corey's Bennett website. Yes, absolutely. Even travel time, I know some of the things are offered more on Zoom and the web now. But if there is a seminar that someone needs to go to and it takes time and travel, that can be used with this grant. And we have done a few grants in the past for something. One drive, I think, is what you were talking about, the online services. And there's a cost there. Overdrive. Overdrive, sorry, yes. Overdrive our group subscription for eBooks and audiobooks, yeah. Right, so this grant can be used for that as well, since that's part of being accredited. So I just put the last bullet here. Sterling Public Library was one of our recipients this past year. And they used this planning grant towards accreditation, towards their process of getting their friends of the library group started. So they received a $500 grant for that that they matched with $500 for $1,000. So that is the planning grant. The next one is the enhancement grant. And as I mentioned, the next two are for accredited libraries. That's one of the stipulations. This one is a little bit larger. The annual amount, minimum, is $1,000. But maximum of $10,000 this year, which we did lower that a little bit this year, because we are winding down this grant. And we just wanted to make sure that we could do multiple grants this year. So we did lower that maximum if you've been aware of this in the past. Just note that. It's also a one-to-one match. And up to 50% of the match, just is that in kind? I can't read my slide because of our, just a sec, let me move this. Yeah, okay. So 50% of a match may be in kind, which you may have seen in the planning grant. In kind is not permitted. And neither is it in the facilities grant. But in enhancement grant, it can. So some examples of enhancement match might be if, well, I could give an example. Last year, we gave for a library community garden that they wanted to do on the library grounds. And they had gotten some local businesses to donate the wood for building the raised gardens, but also for the dirt and fertilizer. And they got all of that donated. And we were able to count that towards their match for in kind. So materials can definitely be used in the enhancement grants. This can also allow you to get multi-year. And that was also true with the planning grant. Although, so I guess that is important if you received a grant last year or in previous years, you can ask for another grant. But since this is the last year, it really can't be a multi-year going forward because the funds will be spent out, I believe. So a couple examples. Only way it could be considered that we've done a multi-year. We've done, I've known we've done this in the past where, for some reason, the year of the grant being awarded, something unknown happened, an unforeseen happened, and we allowed them to wait and do it like the next year. It was still this year's money. So that's not really applying for another one. It's just, yes, we'll give you extension because, you know, nobody could have planned for the fact that you couldn't put in the garden for some unknown reason. There was a flood here. You got to wait till next year. That's okay. But we actually had a ton of that happen last year and the year before due to COVID. So we've extended many of those, but that money is still recount as spent, even if we haven't paid it all out. You wouldn't have paid for new money. So there still could be a chance of an extension to spend it if you can't do it in the next year. Absolutely. Absolutely. We're not going away. Just the money will be spent. So all right. And things to finish out this still. Right, right. So just a couple to give you a couple of examples. The Butler Memorial Library in Cambridge, Nebraska did just a smaller grant of 1,500 to upgrade their children's section and Hastings Memorial Library in Grant, Nebraska, which both of those are kind of confusing because their libraries are different names than their towns. But they did a little bit larger of a grant for a permanent maker space, which we've done a lot of those. And these pictures are actually of an enhancement grant that we gave to the Plainview Public Library. And they had gotten a new laser etcher for their maker space. And these are some of the products that they have made over this past year. And we just got this yesterday, so I wanted to include it. But I thought it was a really neat display of all the different things they can do now and that they're using in their school system. But also people in the community are able to come and create as well. The last grant is the Facilities Grant, which again is for accredited libraries. This one has a little bit higher minimum of $5,000 just because it seems like Facilities Grants cost a lot more. And then we did lower the maximum to $10,000 this year. Again, the one-to-one match with in-kind not being allowed on this grant. And so if you did receive a grant last year and you wanted to reapply, you could. But we just need to stay within the $20,000, which probably would not be difficult to do unless you got a $20,000 grant last year. A Rappahoe Public Library was one that did receive a Facilities Grant. And it was a much larger project than their $20,000 grant that they received last year. But these are some of the things that they did. And they just had their open house on August 6th, I believe. And this is the end of product. So some of the tradesman's money went towards this renovation. And that is also possible on a Facilities Grant. It can be for one thing, like getting an ADA door installed if that's something that you need. And it's kind of a smaller renovation like that. Or it could be a part of something larger. Like this was a community room, new children's area and circulation desk. And then they added the drive-through up in the top right corner. And then their front, they redid their whole library. So this went towards that. And that is possible as well. And that's one of the things too, especially with these larger Facilities Grants that entail construction and usually are much larger, big projects potentially. You can combine different grants to complete your project. And I know there was one before, and I forget which library it was. I don't want to mention it wrongs. I'm not going to give the name. But I know there's one library that a few years ago, the Creutz Bennett, they had a big amount they wanted. And they were contingent on getting this grant if they got a library improvement grant from the Library Commission to help with part of the cost as well. Basically, you know, this is a big project. We want to make sure you can actually make it happen in the end. So did you get some other grant as well? And we don't want to put our money towards it and then have it not even happen because you didn't have that other big chunk that you still needed. So once we approved them for that grant, then they were able to get the grant from the Creutz Bennett as well. So you got to kind of think creatively of what, you know, if I do have this, it costs more than what is the maximum from here. Look at other grants you can also apply for, for part of it. Yes, absolutely. And we, besides the Library Commission grants, you can also pair it up with other grants. There have been some communities that have had it be towards their match of CDBG grants and other economic development grants. If the library is a part of that, then that has worked as well. So obviously, these bigger projects do cost more than what this one grant can support. But when you get a few together, that sure does help along with private fundraising, which has always been successful for libraries. So this is the Ravenna Library. And there was a story that was done last, no, two years ago now on Pure Nebraska on 1011 News. And it was just talking about the Ravenna Library also had a major renovation, but this particular room was the part that the Creutz Bennett donor advice fund assisted with them renovating. So it was just a piece of a bigger project. So the application process is pretty simple in the world of grants. This is, there's a short form that is very easy and just a few questions and needs to just kind of get your scope of your project and just double check that you are eligible with all of the little guidelines that we have set. Those are due October 1st. And after we have a chance to review those probably into about mid-October, we discuss those and then get back to the applicants to let them know if they are eligible to submit full proposals, which are due in the first part of January. And I should have had that on, but the date for 2022 for Creutz Bennett I believe is January 11th, but let me double check that. Oh, for when the? Yes, actually, it's the 10th, but it's a little bit after the first of the year because we just like everyone else aren't ready to roll right away on January 1st. So, so we give a little leeway there to get back into it after the holidays, but but you do have to be requested to submit that full proposal and that comes from the short proposal. Now October 1st is our deadline. So that's why we do this at this point. So we're hoping that some projects are being thought about and that you have time then to submit at least the idea of it. I would say that the short application is fairly simple. So even if you're just kind of starting to hatch your idea, go ahead and put that in and we'll, you know, we'll ask you for more specifics by January, but that gives you a little bit more time to actually get all those specifics in place. But the guidelines for the applications and the full application forms are at the Nebraska Community Foundation website there at that at that link. But also they are with the Nebraska Library Commission on their site with the Corey Spenet donor advice fund link there and there is my contact information. If you have any questions, I am more than open to hearing just a thought if you're you've got something going on and you and you'd like to run it by me before you actually dive into doing the paperwork. I am more than willing to listen and share some thoughts about what might be qualified or not. I even do do that also went in the short application process just to make sure that people have the best chance of competing just to make sure that they fit with what the advisors are looking for. So I'll do my best to try to help get that money spent out where it needs to go. So that is what I have today are Krista. Are there any questions? So yeah, we got plenty of time here. We do have one question, but then I just want to let me know if you have any questions about the grant about any ideas you have go ahead and type in the question section or say I have a microphone. Question we have isn't really related, you know, to you necessarily but some of us know about the cost to the library for overdrive. What does that cost? Since we did mention that overdrive group is a group subscription we have here through the library commission and there is an annual participation fee of a minimum of $500 and it has to but I'm looking at the page here that but for the smaller library and but it's based on population. Let's see for new participants and this was with the grant was that it was the $500 for sterling. No, it wasn't sterling. Whoever it was that got the grant to do join overdrive it's there's actually a per a population charge of the fee per capita but if your population is 3,846 or less that's a weird number is just how the math comes out then it's just the minimum of 500 and then there's an that's an annual fee that you would pay so this grant could help you get your first year but then of course you'd have to maintain that afterwards every year of an annual participation fee when you do renew to stay in the group. So that is something to think about there's you know there's in this case it's not a one-time fee. Some of the other things you may be doing to earn your accreditation or to work towards it could be a one-time but overdrive itself you would have to have some way to maintain paying that $500 every year if the grant gives you it for the first year. The library commission does help pay for a lot of this the overdrive group. There is an annual maintenance fee that libraries are not responsible for originally was $12,000 a year and that does increase each year so that is you know so we do help keep the the the overdrive group going by putting most of the money into it but as a participant you do pay that $500 each year and I think I'll do here I'm going to because I did bring up we can show that news story from about Ravenna okay if I like because I did go ahead and find that here just let me I know people would like to see I think this is a great story so yeah I do too see here is there is the page so this is just the link to the news story that's still up there about the Ravenna library putting grant funding to the use and they have a great video here here in Bergen Joy's bringing her four-year-old son Chester and her two-year-old daughter Mullen to the Ravenna Public Library. They come here at least a couple of times a week. We enjoy the time it allows us to read different books that allows them to have imaginative play this new $1.4 million library officially opened in August of 2018. The community worked together to make it a reality but local leaders also utilized grant money. A large grant came from a Shirley Croix Bennett donor-advised fund. They definitely came through and donated $20,000 for us. The children's library is now dedicated in honor of the Croix Bennett donor-advised fund. The fund was established by Shirley Croix Bennett. She was a lifelong educator and she was also a world traveler and she wanted to provide people a world of information just like she had through her travels and she decided that by investing in libraries she could do that. When Shirley died, she made a gift to the Nebraska Community Foundation. According to her wishes every year, a fund advisory committee of her nieces and nephews makes grants and receives applications from the libraries and communities where there are fewer than 3,000 people. Jane Stone is a niece of Shirley Croix Bennett and she is involved with reviewing the applications for the grant money. Every year we give out about $80,000 a year that we grant out every year. So plenty of funds available for people in their projects. Jane says her aunt would be happy. That's well said, libraries are getting assistance. I think probably the reason Shirley focused on rural communities is because she was a farm girl herself. She was a 1941 graduate of Harvard High School and our family farms still to this day between Harvard and Gilbert, Nebraska. So she, you know, I think that's where her heart is. There are a number of requirements for libraries to be eligible for the grants. There is a requirement that libraries need to provide a one-to-one local funding in order to get matching grants. So once the grant money is secured, looking libraries are finding plenty of ways to use the money. We have three different areas that we do grant funding in. One is towards accreditation. And then we also do enhancement grants and facility grants. The Ravenna Public Library is a beautiful facility here in this Buffalo County community. And as you might imagine, it's being used in a number of ways. We are an after-school bus to drop off locations. So the school bus brings them to our doorstep every single day after school. We do programming three days a week for those kiddos. We have book clubs for the adults. We have Pinterest nights. And for people like Stephanie, she is just clad with Shirley Croy's Bennett Donor Advice Fund playing a role in building a library in Ravenna, where her kids can start the journey of learning. Now, a quick note, libraries are being encouraged to apply for the Shirley Croy's Bennett Donor Advice Fund, the initial deadline is coming up on October 1st. For more information, you can go to NebraskaHometown.org. Well, it really is great to see how this library fund is helping the smaller communities in the state as well. And so joining us now to more on this is the Nebraska Community Foundation Executive Director, Chef Ghost, and it's good to see you this morning. Good morning, John. Yeah. So as we heard in this previous story about a donor advice fund, what kinds of projects and programs are sponsored and supported by donor advice funds for the Nebraska Community Foundation? We can use philanthropic dollars for all sorts of public good purposes. Libraries, K-12 education, early childhood development, youth engagement, aging in place, economic development, leadership development, entrepreneurship, training and work. I mean, we've done that sort of work in lots and lots of communities all over the state for years and it's really fun to see the difference it makes. With libraries in particular, this is libraries are one of the main pieces we have to help communities not have a digital divide in their place. So libraries are actually more important than everything. I know we're talking to them and they were saying, hey, libraries aren't not about books, just about books anymore. There's a lot more going on. When it comes to a donor advice fund, can the donor choose to remain anonymous? Yes, we have a number of donors who have chosen to remain anonymous for a short period of time, or maybe that's their wish indefinitely. So we're happy to protect that donor confidentiality if that's what somebody chooses to do. Let's say someone out there is watching right now and they want to maybe establish a donor advice fund in their hometown, how could they do that? They can contact any of us, the Brassky Community Foundation or they can talk to one of the affiliated fund leaders in their community. We're working about 250 communities around the state. So we probably have a friend or a neighbor that's now connecting the Brassky Community Foundation. I know in my town of Pender, there are lots of people connected. So it's a network across the state. Yeah, and the website I can is NebraskaHometown.org. Okay. And the telephone number is 402-323-7330. Is that the number? Yeah, that is correct, yes. Even for a little bit older video, all the information there is correct. I guess there's just a couple of things that I might add. I wanted to go back to the facilities grant. There are a few things that we stipulate that you cannot use the facilities grant for. And that's mainly, that is in the guidelines, but it's mainly things that we believe are the responsibility of the owner of the facility. So that may be the village or city and maybe the friends group. But we don't want this money to be used to like try to offset the community having to spend tax dollars because we do believe there is a certain responsibility that every community has to maintain and keep up their library. So those things are listed. They're gutters, roughing, sidewalk, just plain sidewalk repair is not covered. But if it's a part of a renovation, it can be. But the HVAC system is the part that's really challenging because I know there are a lot of older libraries that are really struggling with that because those systems are starting to fail. But unfortunately, this grant doesn't help towards just replacing an HVAC system. But I just wanted to point that out that there are a few restrictions. But generally speaking, this is a pretty open grant process. And then the last thing I guess I'd like to say unless there are more questions is just that Shirley was a very humble person and who lived a very, I would just call it a normal life. But she left an extraordinary gift and you may not have expected that from Shirley if you knew Shirley in her lifetime. So who knows where the next Shirley Creutz-Bennett is? And if you in your communities probably run across people who have the potential to do the same kind of work if not for libraries all across the state like Shirley did at least for your particular library. And so that is something I just want you to all keep in mind. And if you think that there is someone out there like that and you're not sure how to handle that, feel free to reach out to the Nebraska Community Foundation because that is what we do. We hold a lot of specific funds designated for specific communities or even facilities like libraries or community centers. And if your friend's foundation is not equipped to handle something like that, that's where we really like to help these smaller communities and you could become affiliated with us like the Creutz-Bennett Donor Rise Fund did. So since this one's coming to an end, I just would like to encourage everyone to be looking out there for their own Shirley Creutz-Bennett. Yeah, that's why I do like that, even though that story about Ravenna is a couple years old that does have that bit at the end with Jeff Yos talking about how anyone can, if you have come to the Nebraska Community Foundation to figure out how they may want to give away some of their money they've saved. So think about that or if you know someone in your community who's trying to figure out what do I do when I pass away or when they're a state. But also for libraries, we mentioned that Sterling did use the Creutz-Bennett grant to set up their friends group. Libraries can also have foundations as well that help to sometimes at the library if they don't have the bank account or to be able to handle their finances. They have donations, not their basic budget, of course that deals with the city. There's always donations and grants and things and you need some organization, somebody to handle that. And having a friends group or foundation do that is really helpful. We highly encourage that for all libraries to have something like that to help supporting the library. And then Resa Community Foundation can help you set one of those up for your library if you don't have one yet. And then you have an expert in financing, who can keep track of all this for you. As a small town library director, you probably don't know how to do that. I know I don't. That's right. There is kind of an expertise to it. But for instance, the Ogallala Library has a foundation fund account with us. And they just built a brand new facility as well in Ogallala. But they have an unrestricted endowment fund with us. And what that means is they get a payoff each year from the amount of money that they have raised and that money can be used for that library. And they've specified that it would be for maintenance and upkeep of this new facility. So they know that the money that they've invested in this brand new facility that it will continue to be maintained a hundred years from now because unrestricted endowment funds in general are forever. So there's always a payout. And so that's something that we can help with. And we highly encourage when new facilities are being built that they consider a maintenance fund of some sort so that there is always the insurance that those will become maintained. But I always love the facilities grants. But I really love the planning and enhancement grants as well. The creativity that librarians have around the state has been amazing. And we have seen so many really cool projects that this grant has helped come to fruition. And so I love to continue to see those creative grants offered. And then, you know, planning, like I said, I actually lived in the town of Bassett, which is 600 people for nine years. And I know how hard it is to become accredited to have a part-time librarian or a volunteer librarian and how to move to that next level. So I'm really pleased that this grant does allow for some funding towards that as well. And some villages sometimes worry about, oh, I don't know if we can allow the librarian to spend that much time to try to get accredited. They're worried about payment for their hours. And that's where this grant can help. So hopefully that's answered some questions. They already have a limited budget and it just covers them keeping the library open. And now, what about the extra time that might take to do other things? Yeah. Absolutely. You can have additional hours added to the librarian's time, specifically for these purposes. Yeah. And while we're talking about accreditation, I will mention, let's see what this link open again. Yes. So we'll go to the main accreditation page here. Yeah. And you can see here we've got a big red blur due to COVID, as is a lot of things. The main accreditation program where we have every year, libraries can be accredited for three years. So every three years you do an annual. Due to COVID, we have extended that twice now and gave everyone an extra, in the end now, two years for renewing if you're already in an accredited library. So there will not be a renewal accreditation process until next year. But this year and sometime later this month, I'm working on it, we will be opening up what I call like a mini accreditation process, modified for any new libraries that want to become accredited for the first time. We don't want them to have to wait longer to start getting the benefits of being able to apply for grants like this or anything. So for anyone who has not been accredited before, I will be reaching out to those libraries to say, okay, this year, 2021, we're doing a special thing just for you to get you on board. So look for that if you are not in accredited library that will be coming to you soon from me. So this suspension is for renewals of already accredited libraries. They're just some very basic qualifications to become accredited. This is the short basic thing that's not a lot. The legal follow all the rules, have a board and library director that are certified, those certified programs we do here for the library commission. You do have some local funding that you get. The public library survey is a very important survey. Most of our libraries do that every year. You submit that every year and that data is used to determine your accreditation. You have to pay your staff who's there. So there's some basic things here and then beyond this and I'm not going to go into details. I just want to quickly show this for anyone who's interested. There are, after you've made these 12 requirements then there are points you can earn depending on what you do in your library and there is a preview application here you can see for all the different things and that like overdrive is mentioned and having an online catalog and other things you do. You can look at that anytime you want to and ask me any questions if you want to about that. So any other kind of questions about the Creates Bennett Fund? Type in your questions. If you're interested in it, do you have any thoughts and ideas of IAM projects you may want to use it for? I did have that one emailed question that we already answered from the library about how the match works when we answered that question. You did, someone did ask about overdrive. This is just our overdrive webpage on our library commission website. If you search for overdrive you can find this. This is all about joining the group. So if you're interested in that, this is all the details about that. Susan, Nisley, and Debra Dregos here at the library commission handle all of everything with the overdrive group. And while I'm here on the commission page also this is something that Christine showed in your slides. We do have this fly out menu here about grants. All sorts of different grants that you can apply for. The Creates Bennett one being here and we mentioned the community development block grants. That is something else, at least you're a little wonky, that library is going to apply for for facilities type things if you wanted to. The USDA gives out facilities grants and libraries that always work for those as well. So if there's something that Creates Bennett can't do or you need something in combination those are ones you can look into. Those are also both through the USDA and then Department of Economic Development. Do both of those. Those are not grants that are going away like Creates Bennett. So if maybe you're not ready this year to jump on the Creates Bennett one look to those. And I know some people have been we have our ARPA funding here while we're talking about money I will mention this. We have ARPA grant money, American Rescue Plan Act money that was allotted to the Nebraska Library Commission from the Museum of Student Museum and Library Services. And some of the money is available right now in our formula based grants amounts that have been allotted to libraries. But we will have coming up library improvement grants and youth grants for excellence also using the same funding. And we have had many libraries mentioned to ask about what they can apply for. One thing that you can't use we can't allow libraries to use this funding for because it's federal money and the federal money has rules is things like construction which the Creates Bennett does have allow you to do like installing things upbringing a new circulation desk that kind of thing. That's just one of the cutoffs for federal funding that we receive from the Library Services and Technology Act money where this is all coming through. So if we have told Ted to tell you when you asked about something you want to do through ARPA no sorry because that's construction turn around and apply for Creates Bennett then they can do that or the other two grants there's you've got other options the block grants and the USDA grants and even other ones that are out there too. So don't just stop because we said no there's other things out there we just have certain rules that are linked down to us about these grants at this point there. It does seem like the small silver lining of what we've been going through is that there is a little bit more money now available for libraries so we know this isn't going to last forever so I say jump on it while you can and share that with your village that now is the time because this money is available. Absolutely yeah. I'll talk since we have some time I will talk a little bit about this so I want to make sure we get the word out about this ARPA funding but if you have questions for Christine questions about Creates Bennett get them in there right now and ask us I'm watching for the questions here but as you can see here the Library Commission was given about 2.4 million dollars part of it we're using for these formula grants 1.4 of it we're giving out to libraries this is not a grant where you apply and say here's a project I want to do do you approve the project? I get evaluated we decide this is just it's more similar to state aid money where are you a library? Do you want your money? Just let us know and we'll give it to you this money has already been allotted it's been divvied up amongst all the libraries here's a list of the libraries the amount your library can get is on here as well so this is not a competition this is not a competitive grant where anyone evaluates it this is just do you want your money? Let us know we'll send it to you the minimum payment the minimum amount is 3,750 dollars so everyone gets that a minimum and then there's a per capita amount on top of that base in your population so check here and see if your library is listed you can see here too we are keeping track of the process the application status in process we've received the application here already you can see Atkinson has already gotten its money this is a really quick turnaround we're doing on these formula grants here as soon as you set in your application Sam Shaw who's working on this particular grant just checks it over make sure it's all good and correct and then passes it immediately onto our accountant here who immediately starts a payment process a week or two you have the money and then you can start spending it on whatever you need so check this see what your library can get we do have oh okay all legally established public libraries in the state are eligible you do not need to be accredited in addition state-run institutions and tribal libraries that's trying to remember exactly that are available for this as well you have until the end of this year to request your formula grant money December 31st there is a list here of a lot of things you can apply for but I wanted to bump down to other requirements yes there is no match required for this yay everybody cheer for our grants that we've given out here at the library commission usually library improvement grants see or not see youth grants there's always been a 25% match for this grant there is no match required because I am less is not requiring us to do any match for anything so you ask for that money you just get that full amount of money you don't have to imagine anything with that you just get it all to spend but we have a long list here the kind of things you can apply for this is kind of an extension I think it's the next step of after the CARES Act grants we did last year some of you remember we did do CARES Act grants they were competitive grants we had a lot less money that would given us from the CARES Act last year that was only about $173,000 rather than 2.4 million so some of the same things that you applied for if you didn't apply last year or you didn't get approved with the CARES Act from us last year or your grant was reduced because we're limited not a funding same kind of thing you can get requests again this year and related to responding to the pandemic that is the key cleaning supplies furniture that you can move around outdoor furniture air purifiers now signage about things those touchless water stage what about stations touchless sand sanitizer et cetera et cetera anything related to IT you can see all these things this is you're going to hot spots if you want to buy new computers for the library it's much more expanded this year beyond the CARES Act CARES Act was we're in the middle of pandemic what you need for safety and what you need to do digital or remote services but now some libraries are opening and they have other needs you can also do collections you can buy print books if your budget has been cut or you know you've got had restriction because of covid you can buy any collections anything you circulate technology for upgrading your meeting rooms et cetera et cetera there's so many things here that you can apply for so submit your little application here it is your basic info what kind of library are you are you legally established means two things that your city established the library and you've got a board you do have to have what is called the Dunn's number Dunn and Bradstreet number you can look that up here if you have one or if your city has one either one of those will work it's just to require to do business with federal government you may have one and not realize that we've discovered you just need to enter that if you're doing anything internet related you do need to be SIP a complaint but only if you're doing something that relates to connecting to the internet and that's it everything else here is just all of the legalese yes yes yes we agreed all of that and at the bottom you sign it all electronic and that is it there's no follow-up application to submit or agreement to sign this serves the purpose as your agreement to participating in this you will need to submit after you do make your purchases copies of your invoices to us and then there's going to be a final completion report sometime next year of how it all worked out for you. So this is money already allotted to your library you just have to ask us for it. So do it it's it's free money it's just there waiting for you you just have to let us know you want it. We want to make sure that we have this entire list here everybody says paid paid paid paid paid absolutely don't leave money on the table. No, no exactly yes. Something that libraries have been have asked about that I'll mention to is a member I told you this is a very quick turnaround we have had library say I what if I want to not receive the money until next year's fiscal year I want it in next year's budget because we're getting to the end of this year's budget and it really needs to be there. That's perfectly fine. Just wait to do your application. I mean, I know I just told you do it but like I said as soon as you submit this application we immediately start your process of payment. So if you don't want the money until October or November go ahead and do your application then and then you'll get your money. That's perfectly fine. Like I said, we're giving you until the end of the year to ask for this funding. The other thing I might add is this funding could be used as the match for Crate Spinnett. If you got this funding and then wanted to ask for Crate Spinnett it could be used as the match because it's now your your extra funds. So yes, it could be we've actually also had libraries asked for similar can it be used as for anyone who does E-Rate which is getting discounts from the federal through the FCC on internet services and there's E-Rate pays for a certain percentage and then the library is responsible for that extra percentage. Like you get an 80% discount your consul for the extra 20. This could be used for that extra 20 for just this year. This all does have to be spent out before September of next year. So this isn't this is like an immediate what you need right now thing. And like Christine said, this is this is available now like here's Actors available next last year and only for that year. Grab it now while it's here next year. There's no guarantee that this kind of money will be available again. So if you ever been iffy about applying for something or you are not accredited so you couldn't apply for our grants usually this is the time to jump on this and do it. You figure it out decide what you're going to do with it. Think big start dreaming and get your money here. Also we will have as I said library improvement and youth grants for excellence that later this month as well opening up using some of this money as well. Which means now this year only both of these grants open to any library in the state not restricted to accredited like previously and both of these grants youth and live improvements no match required. You ask for $20,000 to upgrade your online circulation system you get $20,000 you don't have to put up anything that would be a library improvement grant you ask for $2,000 to run some youth Lego club you get $2,000 you don't have to put up any money to match that. So look for both of these to open up this later this month as well and apply for them. Think about things you want to do. These are multiple pots of money you've got out there to look for these three grants the crates Bennett grants the USDA and the you know these three and the crates are all this year one time thing. So I'd say think about these first because they're only going to go away. But think about what you can do with them and where you want to use your money for the youth grants are specifically for youth and teen services library improvement grants have some restrictions on what you can do. The form of grants are a little broader. So if you have a youth program you want to do think about applying for youth grant. Don't use your form of grant money for that use that for something else at the library. We plan on both of these grants you will have answers by the end of October about if you have been approved and funded. So you will have time to this to learn did I get the youth grant okay then I know that money goes to youth and my family grant can go to other things. Same thing for live improvement. There's our plan. They both will open up this month. We will have answers to you by the end of October. So you still have a couple of months to then decide how you're going to use all of this. Anybody have any questions? We're almost at 11 o'clock. If you have questions about any of the ARPA funding, let me know. But if you have questions about the credits Bennett talk you know ask your questions now. Definitely look into applying for this one. I'm kind of sad it's going away. I know the nieces and nephews are kind of like yay we did it finally. We gave away all the money. But it has been a great thing for our especially being focused on those small and real libraries that sometimes I'm sure feel they're not not as. Absolutely helped as much. You know, they need them a lot of help. Yeah, it's definitely bittersweet, but it's nice to know that one woman was able to do this kind of funding for 10 years. So yeah, yeah. Well, thank you so much for letting me be on your show and share some information and I hope that a lot of different libraries will reach out and be a part of this. I'm glad we had a lot of interest today in today's into a show with people registering attending. So I'm sure we'll get some applications in and you'll probably be hearing. But you know, when people think about it, what they want to do definitely reach out to Christine to ask, you know, what about this? What about that? Can I apply for this? Absolutely. And I are happy to help you with any of that. It doesn't look like anybody does have any desperate questions. So I am going to prep up today's show. Here's our Encompass Live main page. As I mentioned, these are upcoming shows and here is where archives are. This is where today's archive will be. Most recent one goes to the top of the page. So today's show will be listed there should be up and ready for you by the end of the day tomorrow. I will send everyone who attended today and preregistered for today show an email letting you know when the recording is ready. We will also have a link to the slides that Christine used. You'll email them to me when you get a chance. Christine. I'll do that. And the entry there and our archives will have the same description here. So you have a link right here to the grant page for you as well. While I'm here in the archives, I will show you there is a search feature here. So you can search all of our previous shows we've done if you like. You can type in any keyword you want and it'll search the descriptions and the presenters names and everything. I will you'll see there is you can search the full archives or just the most recent 12 months if you just want current information. That is because this is our full show archive. I'm not going to scroll all the way down, but as you can see the days go by pretty far. This is all of our show archives going back to when we first premiered and Compass Live, which was in January 2009. That's yeah and we have all of our archives here. So just pay attention to the original broadcast date. They all have a date of when it was originally done. Some of the sessions will stand the test of time, but some things will become outdated. Some services may have changed drastically. Program is very different. Links might be broken. Some things might not exist at all anymore. Some services or resources or anything. So just pay attention to the date of when you are watching something. But we'll always keep our full show archives on here as long as we can, as long as the place to host us. We're librarians. That's what we do. We keep things out there for historical purposes oftentimes. We also have a Facebook page. I've got a link here, but I've got to open up over here where we do post reminders. Here's a reminder that today's show speakers, reminders when here's last week's recording available and anything else we think may be of interest to libraries. So if you like to use Facebook, give us a like over there and you'll get a reminder of when we're doing shows, what's coming up. We also use the hashtag and comp live, a little abbreviation on Twitter and Instagram to promote the show as well. So you can also just look for that hashtag if you like. Whoops, here's my income live tag. There it is. So that wrap up for today's show. Next week, we'll be talking about books. You can sign up for any of our upcoming shows here. You see, I've got August book. I've got some more September dates to fill in. Keep an eye on here if you want to get things finalized. We do take one week off every week. That is when our Nebraska Library Association conferences. So we are here 51 weeks a year. So October 13th is when our half part virtual part in person State Library Association Conference is happening. So we will not be here on income is live. Go ahead and register for the conference next year. Next week is one book for Nebraska kids and teens. You know, there's one book for Nebraska, one book on Nebraska programs, one book, whatever your city is. We are at the Library Commission. Sally Snyder has for years been doing a same program specifically recommending books for kids and teens do a specific program for them. So these are our titles for 2021 and 2022 have been selected. So she will be here along with Amy Owen, one of our reference staff people to talk about this year's program and next year's titles. And they have a lot of resources and games and things online that you can use to do a one book for Nebraska for your kids or teens. So please do sign up for that and any of the future shows. Thank you everybody for being here with us this morning and we will see you on a future episode of income is live. Bye bye.