Spring 2004 Workshop for Librarians

It's Crunch Time at the Library: Alternative Funding for Libraries, a full day workshop sponsored by the Northeast Chapter of PaLA and the Northeastern Pennsylvania Library Network, included discussions and presentations on funding and budgets, grant writing, and the Pennsylvania State Library Archive. This event for librarians was held in the Educational Conference Center at Luzerne County Community College on June 8, 2004.

 

The workshop began with a Roundtable Discussion on Library Funding and Budgets. The panel was comprised of a representative group of library advocates, and included Betsey Moylan, Reference Coordinator in the Weinberg Library at the University of Scranton, who represented the Albright Memorial Library Board of Directors. The discussion focused on keeping libraries not just open but vital. The personal experience of the expert panel provided the librarians present with specific ideas and techniques for navigating the library financial crunch.

 

Jane Smith-Stewart an Archivist for the Bureau of the State Library was the first presenter, speaking about Preservation and Funding for the Pennsylvania State Archive. Ms. Smith-Stewart gave an informative and interesting visual presentation on some of the rare and unique materials in the state library archive, including the General Assembly Collection back to 1745. The collection is in a progressive state of deterioration and currently housed in a less than ideal environment for preservation. Ms. Smith illustrated the need for restoring and preserving this important collection to Pennsylvania's state history. Once Ms. Smith-Stewart established the rationale for the preservation project and the need for alternative funding, she described the grant seeking process in detail, discussing elements of the grant writing process from researching appropriate grants to final assessment of a project and her personal experience with requesting funds.

 

Patricia Last, Director of Corporate Foundations Relationsat Marywood University gave a presentation entitled, ABC's of Grant Writing. Ms Last walked through the specific steps for writing a successful grant proposal. She spoke of the necessary elements that a proposal should contain, emphasizing the importance of knowing the mission of the funding body and the requesting institution, following directions, specific cost needs, exploring examples of successful grant applications, getting support from colleagues and supervisors, accuracy, professionalism, and being tenacious.

 

LSTA A Success Story presented by Marilou Hinchcliff, Coordinator of Cataloging, Harvey A. Andruss Library, Bloomsburg University, was truly inspirational. Ms. Hinchcliff gave a candid and entertaining speech on her experiences with the grant writing process that included both rejection and acceptance for grants to fund the expensive process of converting authority records in electronic catalogs. Her message stressed the importance of teamwork, through research, perseverance and patience.