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In Results: 229 Total Projects $53,619,634.02 LSTA Funds $26,400,078.21 Match Funds

Data Tools

State: Pennsylvania

Fiscal Year: 2014

LSTA Funds: $109,337.99

Grantee: B F JONES MEMORIAL LIBRARY

Match Funds: $0.00

This is designed to allow each library, system, and state agency to be able to enter and mine data collected and develop yearly comparison reports as a result of the programs capability to access current and prior year data. The various report formats that are generated through the web-based platform increase informational understanding and provides clarity to the operational and functioning levels of libraries in the state.

Summer Reading

State: Pennsylvania

Fiscal Year: 2014

LSTA Funds: $109,009.49

Grantee: ALTOONA AREA PUBLIC LIBRARY

Match Funds: $0.00

The 2015 Summer Reading Program provided librarians across the state with a manual that includes quality program ideas, artwork by a known illustrator and training to increase library staff’s ability to reach more children and teens and provide high quality programs. The project provided training for staff, CSLP manuals, funds for outreach for the program and a statewide contract for online summer reading software.

Delivering Digital Access

State: Pennsylvania

Fiscal Year: 2014

LSTA Funds: $17,745.98

Grantee: Central Columbia Elementary School

Match Funds: $650,000.00

The "Delivering Digital Access" project was designed to provide digital access to district school students through the purchase and use of iPad minis. It was hoped that our struggling learners and most economically challenged students would be excited to have opportunities to interact with the iPads, leading to increases in their academic success.

Health Literacy Collection Development

State: Pennsylvania

Fiscal Year: 2014

LSTA Funds: $6,387.26

Grantee: EASTTOWN LIBRARY & INFO CENTER

Match Funds: $2,650.00

The purpose of this project was to update and augment the health and wellness collection at Easttown Library through the purchase of books, audiobooks on CD, and DVDs on a wide range of topics. We anticipated that the grant would allow us to purchase about 272 new health and wellness items and would increase the currency of our collection on these topics by about 2 years (from an average publication date of 2011). The improvement in the currency of our collection was to be achieved by a combination of weeding and acquiring new grant-funded items published no earlier than 2014. It was expected that the beneficiaries of the grant would be library users in Easttown Library's service area as well as the wider population of Chester County, Pennsylvania through the shared library system catalog and system-wide van delivery service.

Resources to Support Digital Conversion

State: Pennsylvania

Fiscal Year: 2014

LSTA Funds: $7,247.01

Grantee: Central Columbia Middle School Library

Match Funds: $0.00

The primary purpose of this project was to dramatically increase the number of fiction, non-fiction e-books available to students. These resources will support both the curriculum and free choice reading. A secondary purpose was a collaborative project with the seventh grade Language Arts teachers using biographies.

Robotics Club

State: Pennsylvania

Fiscal Year: 2014

LSTA Funds: $16,420.70

Grantee: Blair County Library System

Match Funds: $28,574.00

The LSTA grant funding was used to create the program Robotics Club. The program consisted of a training session to familiarize librarians with Lego Robots, programming sessions in the county libraries and an evaluation.

Digital Enhancement Project

State: Pennsylvania

Fiscal Year: 2014

LSTA Funds: $7,028.61

Grantee: Central Columbia High School Library

Match Funds: $2,522.00

In order to provide increased services to our students in grades 9-12, the Central Columbia High School Library has made a significant commitment to providing students with access to information beyond the hours of the school day. In association with the school district's digital conversion which provided all students in grades 5-12 with iPads in a 1:1 program, the high school library began acquiring ebook titles in our collection that students could access at any time. With the award of the LSTA grant, Central Columbia High School Library was able to purchase titles in fiction, nonfiction and biography categories that may not otherwise have been added because of the steep cost of these titles. The district also purchased an additional $2522.00 in titles to assist with the Digital Enhancement Project. After meeting with other building librarians and the director of technology, it was determined that these titles would be purchased through Follett and their Brytewave app would be utilized by students to access these materials both at school and at home. Once awarded, the librarian met with teachers in a variety of subject areas whose students would benefit from these materials in research projects. Teachers made suggestions of titles as did students who provided input on options that would enhance our Accelerated Reader program. With these funds, 69 new titles were added to the library's collection and began to circulate almost immediately in May of 2015. More titles were added over the summer and all materials are now circulating regularly. There has been a significant increase in access to digital materials since the Digital Enhancement Project began. In August of 2015, the librarian met with all students in grades 9-12 to demonstrate access to the school's ebook collection and ensured that incoming freshmen had access to the Brytewave app in order to read ebooks on their iPad. It was determined at this time that 100% of the students in grades 9-12 were able to access the library's ebook collection.

Clinton County Youth & Robotics

State: Pennsylvania

Fiscal Year: 2014

LSTA Funds: $6,432.70

Grantee: ANNIE HALENBAKE ROSS LIBRARY

Match Funds: $1,252.00

Annie Halenbake Ross Library and one of its branches, Friendship Community Library, the LH Branch of the American Association of University Women, the Clinton County PS Cooperative Extension/4-H and Lock Haven YMCA partnered to hold classes on Robotics for the youth of Clinton County for the purpose of providing new technological experiences and developing life long skills of working in teams, following instructions and building communication skills.

Workplace Communications Skills

State: Pennsylvania

Fiscal Year: 2014

LSTA Funds: $34,679.10

Grantee: DAUPHIN COUNTY LIBRARY SYSTEM

Match Funds: $3,980.00

After releasing an RFP to select the appropriate consultantto provide the communications training, La Torre Communications was selected asthe most qualified candidate. Meetingsbetween the grant steering committee and La Torre Communications were held tocommunicate the needs of the district in terms of a curriculum andresources. Two training sessions weredeveloped, the basic training focused on what attendees would need to knowabout effective communication, and the more advanced training focused onoutreach and providing awareness. Appropriate venues were chosen, and a survey forregistration was dispersed for the first initial round of the basic training. Surveys were administered district-wide tostaff, library board trustees, friends and volunteers of the libraries. Participants were asked a series of questionsrelated to their experience with communicating services to the public, theirunderstanding of the mission of their library, and their level of comfortabilityin expressing their opinions. Resultsfrom the survey were gathered and registrants were assigned to one of the five,2-hour training sessions available. Many of the attendees found the basic session to be helpful,and met their needs in being effective communicators in their workplace. Others desired a more advanced type oftraining, and were offered the opportunity to register for the outreach training. A registration survey was administered tostaff, Board trustees, friends and volunteers of the libraries who hadpreviously attended the basic session. Results from the survey were gathered and registrants for the advancedtraining were assigned to one of the four sessions that encompassed an entireday of learning. The expected benefit of conducting these trainings was toeffectively meet a series of goals for the attendees. The basic session was designed to assist attendeeson becoming a more effective communicator, help the attendees to identifyopportunities to improve their communication skills and assist the attendees inanswering difficult questions. Theadvanced training was designed to help attendees continue to build on the basictraining, to assist attendees in becoming an effective program resource, and tohelp attendees in improving their level of communication concerning theirlibraries' services in real life scenarios.

Training in New Technologies for Self-Directed Learners and Library Class Instruction

State: Pennsylvania

Fiscal Year: 2014

LSTA Funds: $22,979.58

Grantee: LOWER PROVIDENCE COM LIBRARY

Match Funds: $2,543.44

The Library has expanded access to technology training and resources to enable residents to increase their technology skills for personal fulfillment and job preparedness. This was accomplished by several means. A subscription to Lynda.com was purchased to provide an online resource for self-directed learning on a wide variety of technology topics for different skill levels. The offering of technology training classes in the library was expanded to include intermediate/advanced levels of classes on Microsoft Word and Excel taught by library staff. Classes on digital photography, videography, and website design were taught by outside instructors. To facilitate the in-library classes, 6 laptop computers plus licenses for Microsoft Office 13, Photoshop Elements 13, and Premiere Elements 13 were purchased. When the computers are not in use for classes, they are available for public use in the library.

Families talk About Books @the Library

State: Pennsylvania

Fiscal Year: 2014

LSTA Funds: $7,468.98

Grantee: CAMBRIA COUNTY LIBRARY

Match Funds: $2,222.00

Forty-four family book discussion kits were created for lending to the 21 libraries in the Johnstown District (Cambria, Somerset and Indiana counties). Each kit consists of 15 copies of a title, discussion questions, and suggested activities. The collection of kits includes a wide range of titles from easy readers to YA and some graphic novels. Canvas bags for transporting the kit materials were also purchased. Only two of the libraries in the Johnstown District have a staff member dedicated to children's services. To assist the libraries in getting started with family book discussions, the Cambria County Library's children librarian and the district consultant conducted 10 model discussions at libraries around the district to demonstrate how to manage a family book discussion. The discussions were held primarily during the summer.

Digital Branch Power User Empowerment

State: Pennsylvania

Fiscal Year: 2014

LSTA Funds: $51,098.95

Grantee: SCHLOW CENTRE REGION LIBRARY

Match Funds: $6,095.20

We signed a Scope of Work with Interpersonal Frequency (IF) on April 14, 2015, and work began shortly thereafter. We concluded grant activities with our launch of the new features and back end on June 22. At launch, we were able to provide all of the features and completed the following: Horizon Web Services API ILS Driver for VuFind. In addition to porting over all existing functionality running on an unsupported ILS interface, new features added include PIN reset, online fine payment, suspension of holds, and self-registration with address verification. Power users of our digital branch expected to see these features on our site, and we increased user "completion of purpose of visit" rates for My Account users by 3%. All of this functionality was shared on "SirsiDynix's Developers Wiki" on June 26. (SirsiDynix licensing prohibits sharing code using their API anywhere else). Ebsco Novelist Select integration for recommendations, series, and "goodreads" reviews. Module files shared with original developer of VuFind on August 13 (hopefully a module will be packaged with a future VuFind release). Survey data shows patrons are happy with the new content, approximately 5% of visitors use them to eventually place a request. Example: see series, similar, and reviews tab here: https://search.schlowlibrary.org/Record/353461 Numerous high-priority event registration bug fixes, as well as general bug and UX (User Experience) improvements to our website. Adult and Children's staff are reporting seamless operation and time savings. Continued running Voice of Patron Analysis to measure changes since the baseline survey ran in January (as a part of our matching contribution). The survey segments users by primary purpose of visit, and main association type with the library and measures user satisfaction and completion of purpose of visit rate. We have found this tool very valuable to identify priorities and glean what actions to take. Laura, our Technical Services Library Technician completed a Lynda.com course on PHP programming. In our proposal, we'd thought she'd pursue Java training, but our vendor steered her towards PHP for the kind of indexing improvements she hopes to make.

Broadband Connectivity for Herr Memorial Library

State: Pennsylvania

Fiscal Year: 2014

LSTA Funds: $51,098.95

Grantee: Union County Library System

Match Funds: $6,528.00

Online and paper surveys were distributed during the month of May which produced 78 complete responses. From this survey, we learned the following: • More than 50% of those surveyed are using the library's computers to access resources at least once a month. • 36% of those surveyed have NOT used a computer in the library to access the Internet in the past 12 months. • 49% of those surveyed have used their own computer or electronic device to access the library's wireless network in the past 12 months. • For 16% of those surveyed, the library is their only point of access to computers and the Internet. Utilizing the Keystone Initiative for Network Based Education and Research (KINBER) fiber network, this project significantly improves broadband connectivity for users at the Herr Memorial Library in Mifflinburg. Access to reliable and affordable high speed Internet improves users' ability to discover information and utilize online resources and builds the foundation for the public library to develop as the center of learning in the information age within this rural community.

My Money Sense

State: Pennsylvania

Fiscal Year: 2014

LSTA Funds: $8,266.29

Grantee: SAINT MARYS PUBLIC LIBRARY

Match Funds: $16.67

First half of the grant period- The library provided new materials and programs to the community of St. Marys. These new services increased and will continue to increase the understanding of basic personal financial topics for all age groups. The benefit was preparing patrons for their futures by providing them with the tools they need to get out of debt, stay out of debt and plan for the future. These tools provided patrons with less stress due to their finances and improved their quality of life by showing them how to live within their means. The library collected pre-surveys to gage the beginning knowledge and interest of the public to help in planning programs and purchasing new materials. The library contacted the local high school and credit union to begin planning a reality fair to get a realistic look at what their financial situation will be like when they are 25. The library has created a list of book materials to purchase. The library has begun the first session of Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University to help our community members learn about budgeting and getting out of debt. The library has planned a children's storytime and a teen program for Money Smart Week. The library has contacted two local banks about future programs. Second half of grant period- The library's first session of Financial Peace University ended. Participants learned a lot about managing their personal finances, the types of insurance and investing plans they should have, and how to be a savvy consumer. The library has a wait list for the third session to be held in the winter. This program meets every week for nine weeks, and builds upon the knowledge participants learned in previous weeks. It gives the participants homework and they discuss what they have done financial during the week at the programs. The programs gives the participants a support group of people in the same mindset, and they are able to talk to each other about their successes and failures. At the halfway point in the course, the difference is visible. The participants are actively participating in discussions and are beginning to see a change in their personal habits. Participants leave the course with three monthly budgets completed. This makes the budgeting process easier, as it takes a few months to learn how to do a successful budget. The library created a finance program for children and for teens both of these programs were held two times each. One of each was done during Money Smart Week in April and the other was done in July during the Summer Reading Programs. The children's program was for elementary aged children. They listened to four stories that talked about saving, earning and spending money. The children were then given coins for a Craft Market. The children were given different options on a piggy bank craft they could complete. They had to buy their supplies for the craft. The children learned that once their money was gone, they could not purchase anything else. The benefit was to help them understand how money works in the real world. Their parents did not have extra coins they could use to buy supplies if they ran out. The children learned that you cannot buy everything that you want. Attendance at both of these programs was low. During the middle of September children in Kindergarten and First grade came for a library tour. At the end of the tour, the children heard the story Just Saving My Money by Mercer Mayer and were given small cardboard banks to encourage them to save money. A play cash register and grocery store set were purchased for the library's play program to introduce the youngest group to play with money. The teen program started with thinking of something for which they would like to save. The teens drew a picture of that or wrote down the goal. That paper was put into a shadow box (a picture frame with a large space between the glass and the frame. The teens were instructed to take the frame home with them and to use it like a piggy bank. Money inside it would only go towards meeting that goal. This provided teens with a visual aid to help them in saving money. The benefit is that they would learn to save money instead of buying things off credit when they are old enough for loans or credit cards. The second part of the teen program was a blind taste testing of name brand versus generic foods. The teens learned that the name brand is not always better and that a lot of money can be saved by buying off brands. The major takeaway was that bottled water tastes identical to filtered tap water and that they could save hundreds of dollars each year by making that switch. Teens had a discussion about ways they could save money on name brands (couponing and waiting for them to go on sale). The discussion and taste test will help them save money on groceries in the future and keep them open to trying new things. The library finished purchasing all materials, processed them, and put them out for circulation. These materials provided for patrons to learn about a larger range of topics. Also, these materials are available for patrons anytime they are interested in a topic in the future. The benefit is having the information available when they need it on topics they are interested in. The library also purchased ebooks and eaudios. These materials are available to everyone in our district stretching the number of people this grant might benefit. A Reality Fair is being planned for late fall and will be open to all juniors and seniors in the county. Reality Fairs are provided by the Pennsylvania Credit Union Association. The fair gives high school students a realistic outlook on what life will be like when they are 25 years old. The students are given a realistic starting salary for the field they want to work in, student loan payments (if applicable). The students then visit tables representing housing, transportation, utilities, entertainment, phone, cable, etc. The students budget in the types of services they want, and then they have to evaluate their budget and go back to the stations and make adjustments. This program will teach students that they will not be able to afford a sports car on a starting salary and that they need to watch how much student loans they take out. They will learn what real costs are associated with being an adult, and they will learn how to create a realistic budget. The benefit is having students prepared for the real world before they make mistakes.

ILS Upgrade

State: Pennsylvania

Fiscal Year: 2014

LSTA Funds: $56,646.92

Grantee: BEAVER CO LIBRARY SYSTEM

Match Funds: $47,775.00

Beaver County Library System (BCLS) facilitates access to a shared Integrated Library System (ILS) that responds to the needs of our libraries and the public. BCLS has upgraded its ILS software platform from Millennium to Sierra with its current ILS vendor, Innovative Interfaces (III). To prepare for the migration, member library staff weeded and took inventory of their collections. BCLS staff cleaned up the Millennium database by deleting withdrawn materials, duplicate records, fixing incorrect records to improve the integrity of the catalog, and subsequently improving staff and patron's search results. Upgrading to the Sierra platform was an easy transition for library staff as Sierra is very similar to Millennium and minimal training has been needed since. There was no disruption to staff or patrons. Since using the Sierra system, staff have commented that the system is easy to use and they like the functionality. Fliers were posted at each library site alerting patrons of the transition to Sierra and asking their patience as staff adjusted; included on the flier was the fact that the LSTA grant made this all possible. In addition to an established email notification process, BCLS purchased the Teleforms system which notifies patrons by telephone that materials they ordered are ready for pickup and notifies them of any overdue items. The Teleforms system will save staff time, reduce costs associated with sending out print notices, and improve the overall patron experience.

Regional Archives Mapping Project (RAMP)

State: Pennsylvania

Fiscal Year: 2014

LSTA Funds: $11,635.97

Grantee: Marywood University

Match Funds: $0.00

On April 15, 2015, a post-award meeting was conducted for the Principle Investigators, sponsored projects post-award representatives, and the fiscal representative. This meeting was held to review the project responsibilities, time line, and paperwork needed to set up the budget. Maps were transported to the Conservation Center for Art and Historical Artifacts for high-quality scanning. When the digitized images were returned to us, it was determined that we needed them to be divided up into smaller swaths than we had anticipated to facilitate our addition of content to the maps. While the digitization was occurring, research conducted by research assistants over the summer led to the identification and gathering of appropriate content and archival materials into a database that is being utilized by students in Dr. Shprintzen's HIST 401 (Labor and Industrialization in America) course at Marywood University to geo-tag a map of the region during the Fall semester. As the project continues, students are affiliating the items in the database with the maps, and will have the map filled with the first 90 points by November 5th, and will complete their involvement in the project by December 2nd, with a total of 180 individual points added to the map. The funded component of this project, creation of the map and the work to create a historically-rich GIS map layer, provides students both with deeper understanding of history, and experience in building the digital technologies provides the backbone and proof of concept for additional layers.

Meeting The Technology Needs of the Library Community

State: Pennsylvania

Fiscal Year: 2014

LSTA Funds: $15,554.29

Grantee: LEBANON COMMUNITY LIBRARY

Match Funds: $6,037.50

This project is complete. We worked with a local technology services firm to plan the project, order, receive, and install the equipment. It is currently in use and is working very well. Before this equipment was upgraded, we often experienced slowness in internet connections, unhappy customers, and a sense of overall inadequacy in keeping up with the technology needs of our community. Even while providing classes to meet the technology education needs of our customers, we experienced slow and spotty internet connections, which undermined our efforts. This project replaced our two internet switches of unknown age with two new internet switches, which has facilitated increased internet speeds. We also added three wifi routers, for a total of four, to fully serve all customers bringing their own devices to the library to obtain internet access. We replaced our aging public access computers with fifteen new computers to provide a more consistent experience for our customers. In the past, our public access computers were a hodge-podge of hardware of different ages and capabilities, plus software that was inconsistently installed across the computer center. This project has made our computers easier for staff to maintain and much easier for patrons to use and complete the tasks they come to do. We have seen our average session length on the public access computers increase from 31 to 36 minutes. We believe that patrons are enjoying a better experience using these new computers and are less frustrated with the hardware, software, and speed. We are experiencing far fewer complaints about our wifi, since now there is enough bandwidth and coverage for all.

Fayette County Library System Electronic Automation Network

State: Pennsylvania

Fiscal Year: 2014

LSTA Funds: $19,532.12

Grantee: GERMAN MASONTOWN PUB LIBRARY

Match Funds: $24,711.00

The three remaining libraries in Fayette County (German-Masontown, Brownsville and Carnegie Free Library in Connellsville) are being migrated onto a multi-county ILS that exists within the Washington District (Washington, Greene & Fayette Counties). Library users in Fayette County will now have full access to the resources and materials of 20 public libraries; online access to their user accounts; ability to place holds and renew items online. Expected benefits include: Complete & instant access to a shared library catalog of over 800,000 items, 24/7 Membership in a "one library card" network of 20 member libraries Increased accessibility of materials through the district's delivery service Increased visibility of public libraries throughout the entire region Library cost savings and efficiencies

Mercer County's Fast Track to Employment

State: Pennsylvania

Fiscal Year: 2014

LSTA Funds: $21,076.09

Grantee: NEW CASTLE PUBLIC LIBRARY

Match Funds: $0.00

Resources, equipment, and other materials for the Fast Track to Employment Center have been purchased and installed at each library in Mercer County. Classes and individual consultations have taken place to instruct and support individuals ability to use the Employment Center and to apply the information for their specific needs. Surveys were completed after use of the Employment Center to determine the effectiveness and increased knowledge of job searching skills and accessibility to employment opportunities. Promotion of the Employment Center included printed brochures, in house signage, library calendars and social media, and newspaper coverage.

Bradford County Library System Strategic Plan

State: Pennsylvania

Fiscal Year: 2014

LSTA Funds: $15,265.92

Grantee: Bradford County Library System

Match Funds: $0.00

The purpose of this project is to develop a workable plan for the future of the Bradford County Library System and its services to its communities; a comprehensive plan that includes the role and function of the system in providing services to all its members and by extension to all of the residents of Bradford County. It will attempt to identify service goals and the mechanism that should be in place to meet those goals. A planning consultant was hired by the Bradford County Library System to facilitate a planning conference to formulate a workable strategic plan. a 9 member planning team was formed and met with the planning consultant. The team planned a 2 day conference with 30 stakeholders. The planning team drafted a mission and vision statement that was improved at the conference. The conference was engaging, challenging, and highly productive. Everyone's voice was heard and ownership of the plan was established. A draft plan is currently under review. The strategic focus areas identified: Organizational structure--establish an effective county-wide system Leadership--Hire a qualified library system administrator Marketing--Promote library programs and services Collaboration--Build strong, mutually beneficial partnerships During the fourth quarter, the planning team and consultant finalized the plan and the the Bradford County Library System Board approved it.

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