Three calls and one meeting later, I’m still not sure what is significant enough to talk about. If you participated in one of the calls, or the meeting, please feel free to post your own comments about what was said and what is important to take away.

From the COSLA/ALA call (May 6, 2009)

• For those of you attending ALA Annual, sounds like several sessions related to Stimulus Funding and Broadband will be conducted by ALA staff. A Washington Office update will be conducted on Saturday morning, a town hall meeting will be conducted on Saturday afternoon, Sunday morning will feature a session on the federal Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) for broadband grants, and Monday should be yet another session of interest.
• Speaking of the federal Notice of Funding Availability, the best guess at the moment is that NTIA and RUS grant guidelines will be released in late June (ALA staff) or early July (Wa St Governor’s Office staff). NTIA and RUS will apparently coordinate the release of information on the broadband grants. Local workshops and webinars (or something done remotely) will be two of the methods the agencies may use to get the information out to prospective applicants.
• ALA speculates that the federal Notice of Funding Availability could be fairly hefty ranging from a couple hundred pages to several hundred pages. ALA staff will dive in to create an overview and will develop their own observations on how to approach these grants. If the NOFA documents are substantial, this may take a few days for ALA to digest, analyze and summarize the guidance information.
• Funding from NTIA should be in the form of grants; from RUS may be either grants or loans. Some speculation exists that RUS funds will be used to fund the backlog of projects on their waiting lists. Don’t know if this is accurate. If you are interested in RUS funding for rural broadband, you should be prepared to move forward quickly until you hear otherwise.
• ALA staff are creating screencasts to aid libraries in navigating the funding opportunities available under federal stimulus. At least one is available now and others will be available shortly. Link to the site for this information.

From the ALA Chapter Stimulus call (May 7, 2009)

• The overriding goal for the use of this funding is first the creation of jobs and economic development and secondly on broadband deployment. What is proposed must have a direct impact on the former in order to accomplish the latter. At least for the first of the three rounds of funding, perhaps for all, an emphasis will be given to state direction. As stated at today’s Washington State Department of Information Services ARRA Broadband Information Meeting (May 12, 2009), and not the ALA Chapter call, the Governor’s Office is prepared to take on a substantial role in deciding which applications are approved if that opportunity arises. At the very least, they are prepared to comment on which applications most favorably advance the state’s interest.
• Nothing yet on when applications may be due. If the process is similar to the previous TOP grants, then a 60 day timeframe from announcement to submittal of the application might apply. Stay tuned.

From the Gates Foundation call (May 6, 2009)

• The Gates Foundation released its broadband assessment information, i.e., the information applicable to each individual state, to the state library of that state. This information will be useful as we move forward in thinking about projects and preparing applications. The Gates assessment was meant to be a census in order to provide as much information as possible about broadband in public libraries . The information collected was for the Foundation’s own purposes, so they collected what was most useful for their needs. Still though it provides a fairly complete picture lacking information for only six or seven libraries if my memory serves me well.

From the DIS Broadband Meeting (May 12, 2009)

• Once the federal agencies release their guidance, the state may release its own guidance, expected to be relatively brief. We will have to wait and see how this plays out.
• The Governor’s staff expects that guidelines for broadband stimulus funding to be released in early July.
• The purpose of this DIS meeting was to focus on projects and on connecting groups of like interests such that possibilities for collaboration and partnership could be explored.
• Marlys Rudeen presented comments on behalf of the State Library and libraries. The remarks along with the meeting agenda are found at the DIS ARRA site under May 12, 2009 meeting materials.
• A number of interesting proposals were presented and may provide further opportunities for exploration.

On another note, our weary travelers should soon be home from DC where they attended “library day on the hill” and a meeting with the Gates Foundation. Once Jan and Rand are settled back in, I’m sure they will have more information and insight to share.

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