Collaborative Grant-Seeking: A Practical Guide for Librarians(Practical Guides for Librarians)

A collaborative approach to grant seeking can stimulate and reshape the culture of your library organization. The exciting and rewarding activities of developing a successful grants program can yield enormous dividends for the benefit of your staff, patrons, and community. Collaborative Grant-Seeking: A Practical Guide for Librarians will share new insights for those who want to access grant funding without reinventing the wheel. Based on years of practical grant writing and collaboration development experience, this resource provides a complete guide for setting up a library grant-seeking program, and for combining forces with community partners to increase grant funding to libraries. Venturing into the grants world can be scary and unpredictable. This book offers detailed strategies and practical steps to establish a supportive and collaborative environment that creates the capacity to consistently develop fundable proposals, and gives readers the confidence needed to make grant-seeking activities commonplace within libraries. Collaborative Grant-Seeking will share featured topics unavailable in other grant writing publications, such as: interpreting sponsor guidelinesidentifying appropriate funding programsdetermining the feasibility of project ideasasset-based (vs. need-based) proposal development strategiesactual examples of successful and unusual library projectsinitiating and sustaining collaborative relationships

Table of Contents:
List of Tables Preface Acknowledgments Chapter 1. The Pursuit of Grant Funds Chapter 2. Collaborative Concepts and Practical Approaches Chapter 3. Creating a Library Grant-Seeking Program Chapter 4. Searching for External Grant Opportunities Chapter 5. Ways to Grow a Culture of Grantsmanship Chapter 6. Strategies for Completing Application Components Chapter 7: Grant Writing Tips and Potential Errors to Avoid Index About the Author

About the Author :
Bess G. de Farber holds a Master of Nonprofit Management from Florida Atlantic University and serves as the University of Florida George A. Smathers Libraries’ Grants Manager.

Review :
Grant collaboration has an exponential benefit to partnering libraries and organizations that extends far beyond the dollars received. Collaborating on a grant project enables libraries to establish lasting relationships in addition to implementing new grant-funded services. De Farber contends that grant writing is an overlooked activity and that librarians are naturally inclined to be successful grantees. The author walks readers through the process, beginning with identifying funding opportunities and forming alliances. The guide provides specific suggestions for establishing communication and work flows between partnering institutions. Assistance is also provided for all common components of a grant application, from selecting a title to preparing the appendixes. To provide inspiration, several examples of successful applications and projects are shared, while checklists and samples demystify the practice. What makes this an excellent complement to other grant guides is that the focus is not on winning but instead on building the team. Verdict A solid guide for novice to expert grant seekers tired of going it alone. The book is conveniently organized in a way that allows its reader to jump to useful information on the aspects of grant-seeking of that are of interest to them without needing to read other parts of the book which may not apply. After reading this book, any librarian can be more eager and less intimidated to pursue grant-seeking opportunities because of the way the author demystifies the process of developing a grant proposal. I would recommend the purchase of this book to any librarian or library wishing to develop an understanding of grant-seeking because it will provide you with a step by step guide to achieve that goal. Collaborative Grant-Seeking: A Practical Guide for Librarians is a welcome guide for librarians new to the world of grants, and useful for the experienced grant writer. In seven easy-to-read chapters, De Farber takes the reader through the entire grant-seeking process…. De Farber brings a wealth of experience to her writing, having served as grants manager for multiple universities and on grant review panels for all manner of organizations. The background information, suggestions and ideas here are excellent. However, what makes the book indispensable are the examples. The book contains everything from sample timelines and budgets to application checklists to opening paragraphs to evaluation plans, and everything in between…. The book itself, part of Rowman & Littlefield’s Practical Guides for Librarians series, is clean and easy to move through…. The writing is clear and quite understandable, even for those with no grant-seeking experience whatsoever…. Librarians from all types of libraries will find this book helpful…. Collaborative Grant-Seeking: A Practical Guide for Librarians is highly recommended for all libraries and all librarians. Bess de Farber's Collaborative Grant-Seeking: A Practical Guide for Librarians should be required reading for anyone who works or wants to work in a library. Grants offer libraries opportunities to innovate, experiment, and jump-start new services, but many librarians are unsure about how to be successful grant-seekers.This guide provides credible and highly useful advice based on the author's full career as a successful grant-seeker. It demystifies the grant-seeking process, and provides an effective toolkit to help libraries justify, plan, implement, and sustain an organizational culture of grantsmanship. With de Farber's guidance, libraries will be better prepared to leverage and align grant-seeking to more fully support an organization's strategic goals and directions. I highly recommend this guide to anyone who wants to help libraries succeed in the current fiscal climate.