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Grant Information
Applications are Now Being Accepted for the 2024 Diversity in Collections Development Grants, offered by the WNYLRC High School to College Committee.
Purpose
To address the diverse needs of students, the importance of representation in library collections, and budget restrictions, the Western New York Library Resources Council’s High School to College Committee is proud to offer the Diverse Collection Development Grant.
Eligibility and Process
Grant-recipient school libraries from 2023 will not be eligible for the current grant year. Previous winners are encouraged to apply in 2025.
Available to K-12 School Libraries that are a member of one of the five school library systems that are members of WNYLRC (City of Buffalo, Erie 1 BOCES, Erie 2 BOCES, Orleans-Niagara BOCES, Cattaraugus-Allegany BOCES, and members of the Genesee Valley BOCES who are in Genesee County only). A school librarian covering multiple school libraries within a district may submit once for each building.
Applicants will submit required materials, including a statement of need and title list described below, via online form.
After careful consideration by the WNYLRC High School to College Committee, grants of up to $500 will be used for diverse collection development. Multiple grants will be awarded based on available funds. Successful applicants will receive a check matching the total purchase amount not to exceed $500.00. Adjustments within the amount of the grant (not to exceed $500) due to vendor pricing changes will be accepted. The full amount of the grant must be directly used to purchase in the K-12 library. As an additional requirement of the grant, the physical materials purchased must be sharable via Interlibrary Loan (ILL).
Grant Timeline
Applications will be due Friday, February 16th, 2024, and reviewed by the committee.
Grants will be announced Monday, April 8th, 2024.
Grant Categories
The successful library applicant demonstrates a collection or demographic need in one or more of the following suggested categories:
- Racial Justice.
- Cultural Diversity.
- Indigenous Inclusion.
- BIPOC.
- African Americans.
- Arab Americans.
- Asian Americans.
- LGBTQIA+ Inclusion.
- Linguistic Diversity.
- Gender Diversity.
- Latinx and Spanish Language Inclusion.
- Refugee Inclusion.
- Disability Inclusion (including cognitive, developmental, intellectual, mental, physical and/or sensory)
Statement of Need
Please describe and demonstrate your library’s need to improve diversity in your collection.
Areas to address may include some of the following:
- What gaps are there in your collection related to diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility that have been requested by students and faculty?
- What would be the impact of new materials on students and student organizations?
- What curricular, class or assignment changes have helped you identify your need?
- How has your student demographic changed and how has that impacted on your need for collection development to better serve these students?
- How will these materials be incorporated into new/existing classes or curricula?
- How will these materials drive library instruction, outreach, events, etc.?
- What promotional work do you plan to do with these materials? Creative promotion of materials will be given priority.
Review the rubric for specific details on required criteria.
In submission of your statement of need, any one of a variety of multimodal formats is acceptable. This may include, but is not limited to:
- Written text, no more than 500 words
- Video (MP4, MOV, YouTube, etc.), no more than 5 minutes
- Infographic
Title List
The committee will not provide the required title list as each libraries’ needs are different. However, resources for identifying possible titles based on student, faculty, curricular, and community needs are listed below.
A list of core titles that would support the need identified representing an approximate cost of no more than $500. The resources below may be consulted to support development of an appropriate title list.
Diversity Resources
Maximum Award
$500Close Date
Application Instructions
All materials must be submitted via online application form. Please note that applications must be completed in a single session as progress cannot be saved and resumed later. The application must be completed in one sitting.
Please contact the High School to College Committee Chair, Andrew Johnston with any questions.
