Grants for Public Library Systems

Final reports for all grants are due 30 days after their closing date which for most grants is July 30. The final report for each grant may be completed on the Maryland State Library Agency (MSLA) Grants Portal.

LSTA Grant final reports are very important. When MSLA writes the annual report for federal grants at the Institute of Museum and Library Services, we use the information provided in the final report. As professionals managing federal funds, a comprehensive final report will help communicate the importance of the excellent work being done at Maryland's public libraries. Additionally, the final report will help MSLA evaluate the grant so that we can be responsible stewards of federal funds. Your grant liaison will review the final reports. If the information provided is not complete and accurate we will ask you to correct it. 

For Staff Development - Maryland Library Association Conference Grants
The Staff Development-MLA Conference Grants are awarded annually when funds allow by formula. As such, when we enter the grant awards into our electronic grants management system we enter all funds into Contracted Services since this includes conference registration. When completing the Final Report, please include a full breakout of the budget buckets and allocations used for this grant. Budget buckets include Travel, Salary, Supplies, Contracted Services, Consultant Hours, Equipment (reserved for pre-approved items over $5k), and Indirect Costs.

For all other grants final reports
Please enter the final budget for your grant using the correct budget buckets. When a grant application was entered into the grants portal a budget was created. The way in which the grant funds were actually spent may differ. Please enter the budget buckets from all reimbursements into a grant's final report.

Things to keep in mind for the final reports: 

• Photographs of programs or events are encouraged! There is a place to attach photos in the grant application in the Files section.
• If you created a video or a website for this project please include a link.
• If you created any marketing or promotional materials for this grant project please include a digital copy in pdf form.
• If your library system held a public program or staff training that was funded in part or full by LSTA funds, you need to conduct a survey. You can find sample surveys here. While it is acceptable to write your survey, the essential questions from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) surveys must also be included. (These align with the State Program Reports (SPR) that we need to complete every year for our federal grants partner, IMLS.)
• If your library system created a Marketing Plan, Strategic Plan, Feasibility Study, Master Plan, or any tangible product, you need to include the IMLS logo, the MSL logo, and an acknowledgment of the grant award as well as the grant number within the product.

Outputs and Outcomes are two different ways to measure the success of a grant program. Please provide substantial and meaningful data for both of these items regarding your grant. Please do not cut and paste the same information into both fields since this is incorrect. In the grant application, Outputs and Outcomes were estimated. In the final report, it is helpful to refer back to the application to compare projected outputs and outcomes to actual outputs and outcomes.

Outputs - Outputs are quantitative and may include the number of plans, supplies, books, hours, and minutes from the completed LSTA program. For example, How many staff attended How many conferences? If your library system received a grant to create a Strategic Plan, Feasibility Study, or Facilities Master Plan, the output is "1" because one item was created.

Outcomes - Outcomes are more evidence-based such as "after the program customers found it easier to connect to the internet" or "staff reported a higher confidence level in using the techniques learned at the training today."

• DEADLINE: Most grants end June 30, and most final reports are due July 30.

Activities Summary – What to Collect 

There are three types of activities – instruction, content, planning & evaluation. In addition to surveys, specific quantitative data for each activity should be tracked throughout the grant period. Please see the reporting structure below to indicate the information that will need to be reported for each type of activity. 

Output Quantity Information: 

If “Activity – Mode” combination = “Instruction – Program”:

Session length (minutes):

Number of sessions in program:

Average number in attendance per session:

Number of times program administered:

 

If “Activity – Mode” combination = “Instruction – Presentation/performance”:

Presentation/performance length (minutes):

Number of presentations/performances administered:

Average number in attendance per session:

 

If “Activity – Mode” combination = “Instruction – Consultation/drop-in/referral”:

Total number of consultation/reference transactions:

Average number of consultation/reference transactions per month:

 

If “Activity – Mode” combination = “Content – Acquisition”:

Number of hardware acquired:

Number of software acquired:

Number of licensed databases acquired:

Number of print materials (books & government documents) acquired:

Number of electronic materials acquired:

Number of audio/visual units (audio discs, talking books, other recordings) acquired:

 

If “Activity – Mode” combination = “Content – Creation”:

Number of items digitized:

Number of items digitized and available to the public:

Number of physical items:

Number of open-source applications/software/systems:

Number of proprietary applications/software/systems:

Number of learning resources (e.g. toolkits, guides):

Number of plans/frameworks:

 

If “Activity – Mode” combination = “Content – Preservation”:

Number of items conserved, relocated to protective storage, rehoused, or for which other preservation-appropriate physical action was taken:

Number of items reformatted, migrated, or for which other digital preservation-appropriate action was taken:

Number of preservation plans/frameworks produced/updated (i.e. preservation readiness plans, data management plans):

 

If “Activity – Mode” combination = “Content – Description”:

Number of items made discoverable to the public:

Number of collections made discoverable to the public:

Number of metadata plans/frameworks produced/updated:

 

If “Activity – Mode” combination = “Content – Lending”:

Total number of items circulated:

Average number of items circulated / month:

Total number of ILL transactions:

Average number of ILL transactions / month:

 

If “Activity” = “Planning & Evaluation”:

Number of evaluations and/or plans funded:

Number of funded evaluation/plans completed: