Writing grants for books

I applied for a grant from the National Education Association (NEA) last week. If I end up getting the grant, it would fund a $1000 worth of books.

One reason why I decided to take on this particular one is that there was enough work involved in it for relatively little money that it likely scares off many library folks. This particular one required the usual information, but also required you to submit a list of the books you would buy if given the cash.

Given the size and age of my collection, this actually wasn't difficult. We have less than 12,000 books and other media. We have had very little in the way of funding for the last few years. For those who don't know, 12,000 is not a great number for a school with 750 students. Particularly when you factor in the age of my collection (average age of books = 1994).

So what did I do? I selected all of the ALA award winners for 2007 as well as some other award winners. While not terribly scientific, we need new and engaging literature and we have purchased none of them up to this point.

I do know that there are LMTs who don't write grants. I consider this vital to my work because I know I won't get enough funding for the number of books that I would like to purchase. And I am at a school with a very supportive administrative staff!

Also, I am a brand-new LMT, so I am still excited with all of this stuff.