Making it REAL! Interim Performance Report

Interim Performance Report (OMB#3137-0029)

Award Number: RE-01-04-0053-04

Awardee Institution Name: New York State Library

Period covered by this Interim Report: From: September 1, 2005 To: April 1, 2006

This report also available in .PDF format.

Project Director: Mary Linda Todd, Library Development Specialist
Telephone: (518) 486-4858
E-mail: mtodd@mail.nysed.gov

Narrative Description

A. What is the Purpose of the Project?

The New York State Library's Making It REAL! recruitment and education project has a number of objectives:

    • To launch a bold and imaginative plan to effect fundamental change in recruitment and education for librarianship
    • To provide financial support for 44 master's-level library students, enabling an infusion of new recruits into the library profession
    • To create a Teaching Library model that will provide best practices that can be replicated by library systems, library schools, and library organizations statewide and nationwide to help libraries and library schools build strong partnerships and develop new means of collaboration
    • To develop an online career resource website for use by future and current librarians
    • To help develop a stronger recruitment process for the field of librarianship with the development of new strategies, new means of communication, alternatives for library education, and a heightened awareness of recruitment needs for the 21st century

B. What activities or services have been carried out with project funds to support the purpose of the project? If the project schedule has not been met, explain why and describe the steps being taken to return the project to its proposed schedule of completion.

    The following grant activities or services have occurred since September 1, 2005.

    • All grant partners have been awarded contracts (12 Teaching Libraries and 6 Library Schools) and are in the process of drawing-down money for expenses as needed.
    • The Internal Grant Team met in March 2006 and was updated on all grant activities and discussed several grant-related issues, including the possibility of submitting another grant application in December 2006.
    • 42 scholarship recipients have been recruited and have started school and are planning to receive their degrees by the end of the grant period.
    • Two student assistants continue to work 10-20 hours per week on grant-related activities, including working with the grant evaluator.
    • Since April 2005, two more RFP's were developed, issued and bids were reviewed and awarded. One RFP concerns the development of the Online Career Resource website. The second RFP concerns the PR campaign that will publicize the Career website and promote librarianship as a profession.
    • The Making It REAL! project web site has been updated to include interim reports, surveys done by the grant evaluator, and includes more information about scholarship recipients.
    • All partners, under the guidance of the grant evaluator, have completed their individual outcome-based evaluation logic models. During the next 6 months of the grant period, the grant evaluator will be following up with all grant partners as to their progress in achieving their outcomes and goals.
    • 3 programs dealing with recruiting diversified librarians and serving diversified communities were presented at the New York Library Association conference in October 2005. They were: "The Librarian Toolkit: Serving Spanish Speakers (presented by the Nassau Public Library, the Queens Borough Public Library, and the New York Public Library); "Reaching Immigrant Populations: Serving the Culturally & Linguistically Diverse - The New Americans Model" (presented by the Queens Borough Public Library) and "Disability Awareness and Resources at your Library" (presented by the Olmsted Center).
    • All three programs were very well attended - over 100 participants for the 3 workshops.
    • There has been frequent communication (often weekly or daily) with all grant partners and vendors to insure the project is progressing according to the grant timeline.

C. What are the outputs of the project activities or services to support the purpose of the project? Explain what documentation is used to report the outputs.

    • 1 meeting of the Internal Grant Team was held.
    • 42 scholarship recipients have been recruited and have started their studies.
    • 1 fiscal report representing the completed grant's first year was prepared and submitted according to IMLS deadlines.
    • 2 presentations concerning the Making It REAL! grant project were made to library staff groups.
    • 19 contract budget amendments were prepared and processed for grant partners so there will be more time to expend grant funds in 2007 and ensure that school tuition bills can be paid for scholarship recipients.
    • 3 programs at the New York Library Association 2005 conference, sponsored by the Making It REAL! grant project, were prepared and facilitated, with over 100 participants attending.
    • 1 survey form was prepared, with the guidance of the grant evaluator, to evaluated the 3 conference programs.
    • 3 reports were prepared and submitted by the grant evaluator: the New York Library conference survey report, the Overall Evaluation Plan for the Making It REAL! project, and the Student Survey report. All reports will be up on the project web site by the end of April 2006.
    • The Student Survey report asked the scholarship recipients questions concerning why they chose librarianship as a career, the influencing factors regarding choice of library studies, choice of library schools, etc.

D. What are the outcomes of the project activities or services to support the purpose of the project? Explain what documentation is used to report the outcomes.

The outcomes identifies in the logic model developed at the outcome-based evaluation workshop held in Washington, D.C. in December 2004 are long-term outcomes. During the first eighteen months of the grant, most of the activities were organizational in nature, so there are currently no outcomes to report. However, now that all scholarship recipients have been identified and have started their studies and the vendors for the website and the PR campaign have been chosen and have started their work, there should be more activities to report by the end of the grant's second year that will fulfill the role of indicators and activities for those outcomes.

E. Report other results of the project activities.

There are no other results to report at this time. Perhaps year 3 of the grant project may result in additional results.

F. Additional Comments:

The Making It REAL! Project is a very complex one with multiple components and 19 grant partners, in addition to three vendors. The New York State Library grant project staff is proud of the project's accomplishments since the grant was awarded and is looking forward to the remainder of the grant's second year, since most of the organizational activities have been completed and all scholarship recipients having begun their studies. As stated in previous reports, this is a project that is actually changing lives, and the New York State Library is proud to have a part in the Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program.

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Last Updated: July 10, 2009