Recipients

Aransas County Public Library — Fall in Love With Reading (Rockport), $5,000
Aransas County Public Library is planning for a 6-week program titled, “Fall” in Love With Reading, which will take place over October-November 2017. This program is aimed at pre-teen and teen youths ages 10-15 and will provide fun activities designed to cultivate a new love for reading in reluctant readers, nourish avid bibliovores with new materials, join teens together in friendship, and bridge the gap between public and school libraries.  The library will work with the local school libraries to make teens aware of the accessibility of books and information.

Arlington Public Library System — Libraries Rock! Author Visits, $3,500
Arlington Public Library’s “Libraries Rock! Author Visits” program celebrates reading, writing, diversity, community engagement and collaboration. A collaboration between the library, the Dottie Lynn Recreation Center, and the Elzie Odom Athletic Center, the program will run in conjunction with their 2018 Summer Reading Club. The author visits will be geared toward youth and their families and will feature author readings, discussions, Q&A sessions, and participatory writing workshops.

Bedford Public Library — Neighborhood Book Club Program, $5,000
The Bedford Public Library (BPL) will form a Neighborhood Book Club to increase community engagement and help neighbors connect with each other. The Library will create 60 Book Club Kits which will each contain 10 books, a book discussion guide, and, in some cases, a DVD when the title has a film adaptation.  Library staff will create an easy “How to Start a Book Club” handout with resources for prospective facilitators.  The library will work with the Bedford Community Affairs Commission to promote the Neighborhood Book Club at Residential Outreach meetings and Neighborhood Block Parties.

Carl & Mary Welhausen Library — "Hank the Cowdog in Concert" (Yoakum), $3,194
The Carl and Mary Welhausen Library of Yoakum will bring the "Hank the Cowdog" books to life with an author visit from John Erickson. The library will offer two 60-minute programs filled with music, story telling, and family fun.

Cedar Park Public Library — Teen Book Club, $1,530
Cedar Park Library will continue its Teen Book Club which promotes teen reading for pleasure by inviting local and Texas authors to each book club session. Teens are able to discuss the issues, subjects, and themes contained in the books, not only with their peers but also with the authors themselves.  The book club meets monthly, and copies of each title are purchased by the Library and distributed to the teen participants.

Harlingen Public Library — Reading Rooms, $4,575
The Harlingen Public Library and the Boys and Girls Club of Harlingen will work together to create reading rooms at three of the Boys and Girls Club centers. The Reading Rooms will house small, rotating collections of books appropriate for children in grades kindergarten through grade 8. Library staff will visit the Reading Rooms each month to swap a portion of the books. For special holidays and seasonal events, the library staff and Boys and Girls Club staff will present a story time. Library staff and Boys and Girls Club staff will also work together to help the children and their parents get library cards.

Arlington Public Library System — Small Business Workshops, $9,200
Arlington Public Library will purchase seats in live workshops presented by expert speakers through the Service Corp of Retired Executives (SCORE), to be held at the Arlington Public Library and three partner libraries in Mansfield, Kennedale, and Grand Prairie.  The workshops will target small business needs and will be free of charge to the students.  These small businesses workshops will provide Texans with business skills they may use to enhance their economic and personal goals.

Arlington Public Library System — 1000 Books Before Kindergarten, $9,800
Arlington Public Library will implement the 1000 Books Before Kindergarten program for the pre-K audience, encouraging young children and their parents/caregivers to read together and prepare for success in school.   One hundred backpacks with 10 books each will be assembled and available for checkout through Arlington Public Library locations.  Participants will be able to track their performance with reading logs.

Arlington Public Library System — E-content Access and Delivery, $10,000
The Arlington Public Library wishes to expand e-content service to the community. The library shares a catalog with the Mansfield and Kennedale public libraries and, over the last five years, the libraries consistently offered e-services, adding titles yearly to e-book and e-audio collections, and recently e-magazines. To help meet rising demand and expand their offerings, it requests funding to expand the audiobook titles for its collection and promote materials to a broader population base.

Balch Springs Library -Learning Center — Family Fun with 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten, $9,700
The Balch Springs Library – Learning Center would like to start a 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten program to help the very youngest children get a head start before beginning kindergarten.  The library has partnered with to school district to incorporate its early learning program — READ PLAY TALK — that helps parents prepare students for starting school. It will also make a family space for parents and enhance the children’s room.

Brownwood Public Library — Baby Literacy,  $9,977
The Brownwood Library seeks funding to start outreach and programming to infants, as well as to expand involvement with toddlers and preschoolers. The library will reach out to all parents of new babies by including flyers in the new-parent packets at the Brownwood Regional Medical Center. It will launch a baby storytime program through the nationally recognized Mother Goose on the Loose program and host a workshop by Dr. Betsey Diamont-Cohen, creater of Mother Goose on the Loose, to which they will invite other libraries and early childhood providers. Additionally, they will reach out to parents of all preschool children (0-5 years old) to encourage family literacy with the 1000 Books Before Kindergarten program.

Bulverde/Spring Branch Library — Enhanced E-resources for Adults and Seniors, $10,000
The library will enhance its digital offerings to library members and seniors at the library and at outreach locations, such as the Bulverde/Spring Branch Senior Center, the Bulverde Assisted Living, and the Heights of Bulverde Nursing Home, as well as to home bound seniors as identified.  The library will offer and train patrons on preloaded digital materials, such as PlayAways and e-readers; CD players for use with existing CD audiobooks; and new databases with Quello Concerts and Great Courses.

Deer Park Public Library — Industrial Intelligence Series, $10,000
Deer Park Public Library requests funding to purchase trainee guides to enhance program offerings for patrons seeking to work in industrial fields. The proportion of library patrons seeking to work at the local industrial plants, which require certifications, is very high. The library will collaborate with subject matter experts to inform patrons on subjects relevant to industrial work. New classes, branded as “The Industrial Intelligence Series,” will be taught in the Library’s technology lab along with other career and technology classes. The addition of the trainee guides will allow the library to target these patrons and make a significant contribution to workforce development in the community.

DeSoto Public Library — The DeSoto Public Library “Sound & Vision” Digital Creation Station, $9,979
The DeSoto Public Library plans to create a multimedia workstation that will offer patrons professional-level software, hardware, and additional tools and training to enable them to create and distribute their own e-content. The “Sound & Vision” Creation Station will provide patrons with the equipment they need to create and edit their own music, videos, graphics, podcasts, digital art, and 3D designs. In doing this, the Library hopes to help foster creativity and imagination, and to also help patrons develop valuable technical and design skills that they can use to pursue educational and career interests.

Dickinson Public Library — TumbleBooks for Dickinson, $2,724
The Dickinson Public Library will improve access to electronic books for children to help close the gap in service that currently exists by offering access to TumbleBooks, an e-book service for children. The addition of the Tumble Books catalog will allow children to select and read eBooks from an electronic device without a trip to the library.

El Paso Public Library — Show Me a Story/ Enséñame un cuento, $8,384
El Paso Public Library will provide visual storytelling aids in the form of professionally created flannel story kits and puppets, along with boards and other tools for their presentation, to early childhood educators, public library staff and parents to enrich the storytelling process for young children and foster the development of early literacy skills for school readiness.  The project director and staff will introduce these through workshops to the educators and parents and encourage participants to use key interactive storytelling methods and tricks to help young children develop these skills.  Materials will be housed at each El Paso Public Library location in both the staff professional collection and in the general library circulating materials collection to be lent to area educators and parents according to the library’s circulation policies.

El Paso Public Library — La Cueva Quest, $9,997
This project would provide the opportunity for the Clardy Fox Branch Library to reboot its teen area, known as La Cueva (The Cave) to make it a learning space for area teens, specifically students attending the middle school across the street from the library. The space will serve as a place for students to explore and develop their analytical skills and creativity through game design. Community partners such as Fab Lab and the City of El Paso’s Museums and Cultural Affairs Department will help provide hands-on workshops.

El Paso Public Library — ¡Repararlo! Repair It @ Your Library, $8,552
The El Paso Public Library will take part in the world-wide movement of Repair Cafés and be the first organization in Texas to host this innovative program that builds community, teaches job skills, reduces waste, and saves money. The Repair Café pairs inquisitive adults and teens who bring broken items to the library with professionals and talented amateurs who can help them learn how to make simple repairs. Adults and teens will learn the basics of electronics, mechanics, and other useful trade skills. The Repair Café will also provide information about how to further pursue developing these types of skills in a professional or educational environment.

Houston Public Library — Liftoff Houston Reloaded @ OJL!,  $9,977
A fusion of HPL’s Liftoff Houston Business Plan Competition and Open Job Labs, Liftoff Houston Reloaded @ OJL! is designed to support the entrepreneurial, workforce, and digital learning needs for individuals interested in starting their own business, but lacking the technical access, knowledge and/or skills to realize their goal of business ownership. Liftoff Houston Reloaded @ OJL! will expand access to critical tools, such as laptops and printers, that will help participants analyze information, engage in creative communications, and explore new ways of learning.

Houston Public Library — STEM in a Box: Early Learner Edition, $10,000
Houston Public Library seeks to expand the existing program kits initiative to provide youth ages 5-10 with hands-on technology training and STEM exploration.  These kits are used beyond the physical boundaries of the library through outreach with community partners such as Houston Independent School District and other community groups such as YMCA and family shelters around the Houston area.

Houston Public Library — Houston TECHLink, $8,996
The Houston Public Library is requesting funding to augment its new TECHLink project that will directly address the goals of promoting digital literacy and enhancing library patrons' access to electronic information and materials. The TECHLink Center will engage patrons in the creation of their own digital content and will build their interest and skills in retrieving available digital content, as well. Youth at the Scenic Woods Library will benefit from state-of-the-art technology in the form of a multi-user tablet to help them build content.

Lancaster Veterans Memorial Library — Workforce Improvement Program for Job Seekers, $9,650
The Lancaster Veterans Memorial Library is seeking funds to purchase productivity software and to hire specialized trainers and consultants for a workforce improvement program. The goal is to enhance the business, workforce development, and technology skills of the community by providing instructional training, consulting, and electronic resources that will assist job seekers with enhancing their skills and confidence in finding a job. The program will target high school seniors, college students, and adults re-entering the workforce and seeking jobs.

Plano Public Library System — Bilingual Backpacks, $10,000
To cultivate multigenerational learning opportunities and increase literacy skills in this diverse population, Plano Public Library System plans to introduce Bilingual Backpacks to engage residents with language skills other than English, and to promote interaction between generations around literacy and learning. The library will create 7-10 Youth backpacks per language —Spanish, Chinese, Hindi, Arabic, and German—to include bilingual books, audio books, DVDs, music CDs, activity sheets, marketing information about Pronunciator, and Launchpads with language learning apps.

Plano Public Library System — EBSCO Discovery Service, $10,000
Plano Public Library System (PPLS) will make the library website more inviting for patrons to find anything at the library with a single click using EBSCO Discovery Service (EDS). This service will make informational databases, digital services, physical and digital items, news, and events more discoverable with one click, thereby giving patrons a better library experience and meeting their information needs more efficiently and effectively.

University of North Texas — An Iterative Model for Developing Online Video Instructions to Promote Digital Literacy, $6,499
The University of North Texas seeks funding to create a series of three, one-hour webinars to help adult and young Texans become digitally literate in online research by teaching librarians and teachers to teach approaches to online research in the Texas Digital Newspaper Program (TDNP) collection.

University of North Texas — Mobile GIS Mini-Lab, $9,713
The University of North Texas seeks to expand the programming, services and resources offered to the UNT community by providing dedicated hardware and software to facilitate training and research initiatives in geographic information systems (GIS). The library will offer flexible, smaller courses designed to provide an introduction to GIS to students, staff, or faculty. The goal is to get course attendees thinking about GIS and eventually implement GIS into existing or future projects, research or curriculum, including the College of Business.

Abilene Library Consortium — Flying High in the Texas Sky — Preserving the WASP Legacy, TexTreasures Original, $32,055
In partnership with the National WASP WWII Museum, the Abilene Library Consortium seeks funding to continue the preservation and digitization project for the Women Airforce Service Pilots’ (WASP) archives. Located in Nolan County, the WASP museum collects and preserves the contributions made by American women pilots to victory during WWII. WASP documents, correspondence, photographs, and journals during 1942-44 depict a new age of American women entering the male-dominated world of aeronautics.  The project will provide open access to the digital content on the West Texas Digital Archives and the Portal to Texas History.

Austin Film Festival — Austin Film Festival Archive, TexTreasures Original, $33,000
Austin Film Festival’s (AFF) archive, housed in the Wittliff Collections (TWC) at Texas State University, is unique in collecting oral histories from television and film creators that detail the process of taking a story to the screen. The goal for this grant is to digitize material from 1997-2002 of the Austin Film Festival On Story Archive, which will close the gap between previous digitization initiatives, yielding 13 consecutive years of archived and available online content.

Brownwood Public Library — Digitization of Brownwood Bulletin, TexTreasures Original, $24,820
The Brownwood Library seeks to preserve The Brownwood Bulletin newspaper, through digitization of existing microfilm. This collection consists of 389 microfilm reels and represents the most complete runs of their issues available. Upon completion of digitization, the collection will be added to University of North Texas’ Portal to Texas History. To accomplish this, the Brownwood Library requests funding to digitize, index, and upload 25 reels from The Brownwood Bulletin microfilm holdings.

El Paso Public Library — Historical Maps Digitization Project, TexTreasures Original, $20,181
The Border Heritage Center of the El Paso Public Library would like to digitize 67 maps from the Historical Map Collection using a large format scanner and storage servers that they will purchase with the grant. Purchasing the scanner and servers would create a foundation on which the whole archive can be digitized and made available online. As part of the grant, they will also create an exhibit that showcases the history of Texas and El Paso through maps. They plan on working with the El Paso Independent School District to integrate maps into the Hometown Historian project, as well as several other outreach activities.

Houston Community College — HCC Historical Fashion Collection, TexTreasures Original, $24,971
Houston Community College seeks funding to digitize 220 costumes from its Historical Fashion Collection and make them accessible through an in-house fashion database created by Houston Community College Library. The costumes in the collection date back to 1790 with a large segment of the collection having Texas provenance.

Lee College — Lee College Baytown Veteran/Local Oral History Project - ADA Transcript Continuation Grant, TexTreasures Original, $11,182
Lee College seeks a second year of funding to continue a project to make a collection of oral histories accessible via the web to the visually and hearing impaired.  Last year, the library digitized 192 oral histories making them available at the Portal to Texas History.  All but 64 of these oral histories were accompanied with pdf transcripts, making them accessible to the visually impaired.   The Library wants to create transcripts for the remaining oral histories which document veteran histories, Humble Oil & Refinery Co. history, the Great Depression, and other topics of state and national interest.

Southern Methodist University — Promotional Texas Literature Project, TexTreasures Original, $25,000
The DeGolyer Library at Southern Methodist University (SMU) holds a substantial body of historic, promotional literature, 1866-1936, that was designed to attract people to move to all areas within the state of Texas. The DeGolyer Library and Norwick Center for Digital Solutions (nCDS), both units of SMU’s Central University Libraries (CUL), seek to digitize and make available on the Internet 337 of these documents, including guidebooks, pamphlets, broadsides, and more, comprising 8,008 pages, under the “Promotional Texas Literature Project.” The freely accessible files may be used for many purposes, including the study of Texas history, culture, business, and railroads.

Southwestern Adventist University — Adventism in Texas Digitization Project, TexTreasures Basic, $7,500
The library at Southwestern Adventist University seeks to improve access to and enhance the preservation of unique items in its archival collection, which documents the history of Adventism in Texas. The project will focus mainly on letters, manuscripts and print items from family papers, local newspaper collections, and yearbooks.

University of Houston — This Is Our Home, It Is Not for Sale 16mm Film Preservation Digitization and Access Project, TexTreasures Original $24,750
The University of Houston Libraries (UHL) proposes to digitize, describe, and make freely accessible online 112 16mm filmed interviews from the documentary collection This Is Our Home, It Is Not for Sale. The collection documents histories of segregation, gentrification, and urban development focused on the Houston neighborhood of Riverside Terrace. The UH Libraries will preserve master files, catalog and index the recordings, and publish them to the UHL Digital Library.

University of North Texas — Borderland Newspaper Digitization Project - Part II, TexTreasures Original, $24,777
The University of North Texas seeks to continue the Borderlands Newspaper Digitization Project awarded in FY2017 by the Texas State Library and Archive Commission.  This project will digitize an additional 25,000 pages of newspapers from 18 counties near the Texas border.  These counties stretch along southeastern Texas, near the Mexican border, including Jim Hogg, Zapata, and Brooks counties near the Rio Grande Valley; span south Texas and border counties, including Duval County, Maverick and Terrell; and stretch up to Reeves County in western Texas.

University of Texas at Arlington — Through the Lens of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Pt. 2: A Photographic View of World War II, TexTreasures Original, $25,000
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram (FWST) Photograph Collection at the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA) Libraries Special Collections contains an estimated 4 million negatives documenting Fort Worth, North Texas, and much of West Texas from the mid-1920s to 1991. In this second-year grant, UTA seeks to digitize 15,000 more World War II-era images taken between 1940-1943. Scanned images will be available through the UTA Libraries Digital Gallery. The first year grant allowed UTA Libraries to digitize and capture metadata for 15,000 FWST negatives from 1943–1946.

University of Texas at Rio Grande Valley — Digitizing Contaminación, TexTreasures Original, $24,376
The Border Studies Archive (BSA) at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) Library will digitize, catalogue and make accessible unique and invaluable original source material, particularly VHS tapes, collected for the McAllen Toxic Plume case. The material tells the complicated and tragic story of a Mexican American neighborhood contaminated by benzene.

University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston — Digitizing the Charles A. Berry, M.D. History of Space Medicine Collections, TexTreasures Original, $25,000
The Moody Medical Library at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston (UTMB) seeks $25,000 to digitize selected archival materials from the Charles A. Berry, M.D. History of Space Medicine Collections. Items selected for digitization include: documents regarding astronaut training and selection, the Apollo 1 disaster, and cabin atmosphere and waste management during the Apollo program from the Charles A. Berry, M.D. Papers; a journal and photographs from NASA’s Skylab Medical Experiment Altitude Test program in Houston and materials regarding the treadmill used for in-flight exercise from the William E. Thornton, M.D. Papers; and oversized drawings of the proposed first house on the moon and papers and speeches of Dr. Hubertus Strughold from the James Gaume, M.D. Papers. The end product will be digital images, described with content and format metadata, which can be accessed and used by a variety of researchers with an interest.

Amigos Library Services — SimplyE in Texas, $75,000
Amigos Library Services is partnering with the Brazoria County Library System (BCLS) to study the feasibility of providing the SimplyE app for public libraries in the state of Texas. Developed by the New York Public Library, SimplyE is a free, open source app that makes browsing, borrowing, and reading e-books easy. It aggregates titles across three major ebook vendors into a single interface and removes digital rights management issues for the patron. Amigos and BCLS will document and share infrastructure and processes necessary for other organizations to host this app.

Arlington Public Library System — Artist in Residence and Makerspace, $73,350
The Arlington Public Library System will partner with the University of Texas at Arlington to implement an Artist in Residence program in a makerspace at the new George W. Hawkes Downtown Library.  The project will provide equipment and bring in artists to expand the cultural and artistic experience of the residents of Arlington, allowing patrons to enhance their entrepreneurial endeavors through the use of library resources.

Blanco County South Library District — English Language Through Library Services & Technology 2018, $27,841
The library, in partnership with Community English Classes (CEC), will continue a third year of  integrating technology as a complement to teacher mediated English Language Learning (ELL) instruction through library services. The library and CEC will continue to provide ELL along with access to information and technology through library services and electronics, using Kindle Fires, other equipment, and e-content obtained with the 2016 and 2017 Cooperative Grants.

Bulverde/Spring Branch Library — Rolling Library DIY, $70,064
This collaboration between public libraries within 40 miles of the Bulverde/Spring Branch Library will provide each participating library with portable, rotating, shared do-it-yourself (DIY) materials and equipment, training for library staff, programming ideas for guided DIY workshops, and a network of colleagues with whom to share expertise. The participating libraries will provide adults and youth with increased opportunities to advance their skills from using and tinkering to experimenting and creating in a safe environment.

Central Texas Library System, Inc (CTLS) — 3-D Printer Labs @ Your Library, $75,000
This collaboration between CTLS, Inc., and 10 public libraries in northeast Texas will provide each library with a 3D printer, hands-on training, guidance in managing the service, and a network of colleagues with whom to share expertise. The recipient libraries will carry out their mission more effectively by providing adults and youth with access to the emerging technology and information about how to use it. The libraries will form a community of practice around 3D printing technology.

Frisco Public Library — Community Publishing Hub, $75,000
As part of a program to increase cooperation and promote improved educational, workforce, and entrepreneurial opportunities for their shared users, Frisco Public Library will partner with Frisco Independent Sschool District, Collin College, Friends of the Frisco Library, McKinney Library, and Heritage Association of Frisco to create a Community Publishing Hub to serve the North Texas residents, with a focus on Collin and Denton counties. The Hub consists of an Espresso Book Machine, training in its use, and instruction in writing, editing, book design and book marketing. The book machine will enable users to turn their manuscripts into a retail quality paperback books in less than 10 minutes. The book machine and one-on-one book machine instruction will be offered by the Frisco Public Library, while writing and editing instruction will be offered by the partner organizations.

Houston Public Library — Houston Public Library —Learning Link, $75,000
Learning Link is a cooperative project between Houston Public Library (HPL) and Houston Independent School District (HISD) designed to reach out to the city's public school students, streamlining library access specifically for them and providing e-content chosen to promote reading and learning. HPL and HISD have already worked to establish specific landing pages for each school level (elementary, middle, and high school) and have embedded a link to these landing pages on the district's student portal, connecting students to approved resources that the students can use any time they are logged in to the student portal. Project activities will complete the roll-out of the Learning Link project, with (1) training for school teachers and librarians to ensure usage of the resources, (2) the supplementing of e-content with materials particularly suited to the needs of students with Limited English Proficiency, and (3) extension of the partnership to include additional school districts.

Port Isabel Public Library — LMYC Learns!, $32,263
The Port Isabel Public Library plans to expand its Kids E-Club program which began in FY2016, to an outreach program called LMYC Learns!  The new program will be held at the Laguna Madre Youth Center which currently provides after-school programs for 75 children ages 6-17. The library will purchase and install desktop computers  at the center for the children to use to improve reading skills and to access a digital youth library collection. The library plans to upgrade the Center's technology; provide  workshops to instruct the children on how to access online databases and library eBook offerings; and hire a new staff member  at the LMYC to work with library staff specifically on reading and learning skills.

Schulenburg Public Library — Digital Inclusion 3, $75,000
Digital Inclusion 3 (DI 3) will continue the cooperative effort of Flatonia ISD,  Schulenburg ISD, St. Rose of Lima Catholic School, and the Schulenburg Public Libraries to build e-content, share e-books, and provide tablets for the schools. The project targets 1,511 students and will provide Chrome books and charging carts to each partner  library and e-books for the Schulenburg Public Library to share with the partner schools. The project also reaches out to a total population of 4,235 people in Flatonia and Schulenburg. The focus is to maximize delivery of in-school and out-of-school reading material.

University of Texas at Austin — From Prototype to Service: Development of a Statewide Aggregation Service for Texas Digital Collections, $74,920
This project continues work begun under a 2017 Library Cooperation Grant (“Development of a Statewide Aggregation Service for Texas Digital Collections”) to increase the visibility of Texas digital collections through aggregation and inclusion in the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA). The proposed service, developed and sustained by a partnership of academic and public libraries, will increase access to valuable but currently underutilized Internet resources stewarded by Texas libraries and archives. In Fiscal Year 2018, the project partners propose building on the research, planning, and  technology work done in the previous year to transform a prototype aggregation hub into a service through a phased roll-out.

Bedford Public Library — I.D.E.A.S. Phase II, $25,820
The Bedford Public Library proposes to expand the I.D.E.A.S. Lab Program, funded in FY 2017, creating I.D.E.A.S. Phase II.  I.D.E.A.S. serves as an acronym for “Innovate, Design, Engineer and Apply Science.”  The goal is to improve STEAM literacy and encourage family engagement to increase girls’ participation in traditionally male disciplines.  Partnering with the Hurst-Euless-Bedford Independent School District, the Library will incorporate the arts into current STEM education programming, through an extension of the Kits program, as well as through informal education training, and on-site programming opportunities.  Special attention will be given to create kits that inspire girls and encourage their participation.

Bertha Voyer Memorial Library — Bringing Art To Life (Honey Grove), $37,000
The library in Honey Grove, Texas, seeks to start a Bringing Art to Life program. Bringing Art to Life will enable students in K-5th grades to participate in art and music education in an after-school setting. Students will have the opportunity to develop skills in drawing, painting, pottery, music and art appreciation, percussion and recorder instruction. The program will meet twice weekly at the library.

Brownwood Public Library — Little Free Libraries Outreach, $9,786
The Brownwood Library proposes to reach out to communities that find it difficult to get to the library by creating Little Free Libraries in their communities. The library will partner with local organizations, including Experience Works, Lake Brownwood State Park, nursing homes, city parks, and others, to install Little Free Libraries in those communities. In addition, they will partner with schools, nonprofits, community groups, and individuals to build these Little Free Libraries. This will give shop classes, boy scout troops, etc., a practical and community-building use for their growing engineering and math skills. The library will also partner with local nonprofits and businesses to maintain these Little Free Libraries.

Buda Public Library — Pop Up Makerspace, $29,558
Building on the success of the current Pop Up Makerspace program funded with a 2017 TSLAC grant, Buda Public Library would like to expand this program from four middle schools to all students within the Hays school district for a total service area of 24 campuses. The program provides portable makerspaces in a box to schools for classroom use.

Bulverde/Spring Branch Library — Young Scholars Enrichment Program, $9,150
The Bulverde/Spring Branch Library, in collaboration with Comal Independent School District and the Comal Master Gardeners, will offer a Young Scholars academic, arts, and play enrichment program from September to May for at-risk elementary aged children attending select Comal ISD schools in the district.  The primary goal of the program is to help improve students’ school achievement by working with them on their reading skills, providing one-on-one and group tutoring, and offering other activities focused on creativity, gardening, and team building play.

Dallas Public Library — Applied ESL Program, $75,000
Dallas Public Library (DPL) requests funds to support staff costs associated with the creation, launch, and provision of Applied ESL Classes that will enhance the Library’s existing suite of Adult Education & Literacy Programming. DPL aims to provide access to language learning classes that go beyond what is currently offered by the Library or other literacy service providers. Building on the existing ESL program model, the program will add customized curriculum that addresses language-learning for specific domains of community life and the workplace.

El Paso Public Library — Pop-Up Civics Lab, $25,963
The El Paso Public Library will create a Pop Up Civics Lab (PUCL) which is intended to be a mobile, multigenerational, bilingual library experience which introduces civic literacy to El Paso families. Each PUCL module has age-appropriate, bilingual materials and media on subjects relating to government, voting, citizenship, civil rights, American history and other related  topics. The PUCL will set up at locations around the city to engage with El Pasoans of all ages. The topics presented will generate discussion between adults, children and teens in a safe, non-judgmental space that encourages critical thinking. Assistance on providing non-partisan civics information will be provided by the League of Women Voters of El Paso.

Euless Public Library — HEB Reads On the Go!, $75,000
The city libraries of Hurst, Euless and Bedford, in partnership with the Hurst-Euless-Bedford ISD, propose to purchase and customize a mobile outreach van to provide library and STEM-based education to the underserved areas of their community.

Georgetown Public Library — Community Resources Coordinator, $67,712
In November 2016, the Georgetown Public Library hired a licensed social worker as a Community Resources Coordinator (CRC) to match residents in need  with nonprofit social service organizations in Georgetown, Texas, that provide services to seniors, residents with disabilities or limited mobility, low-income families with children, and the homeless. The library seeks a second year of funding to continue the services and outreach.

Houston Public Library — Camp STREAM Unleashed, $74,800
Camp STREAM, a weeklong camp focused on Science, Technology, Reading, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics, has been successfully piloted at a small scale by the Houston Public Library. Houston Public Library is now ready to offer it at neighborhood library locations around the city, specifically targeting those neighborhoods with the lowest income and educational levels, as well as relatively low visitor-to-service area population ratios. The overall goal of Camp STREAM is to provide young students with positive library exposure, academic enrichment activities to combat the “summer slide,” and to raise their interest in the sciences, technology, and related career opportunities.

Jennie Trent Dew Library — Honoring our Heritage (Goldthwaite), $8,145
The Goldthwaite library wishes to equip the citizens of Mills County with updated genealogical tools and to offer the residents programs to enable them to record their family histories.  The library will work with the local museum to replace the microfilm reader printer and offer educational programs on gealogical themes to residents to better enable them to research and record their stories.

Johnson City Library — 2018 Discovery Academy, $13,519
Blanco County North Library District/Johnson City Library Inc. requests  a third year of funding for its after-school science and math program, Discovery Academy.

Lake Travis Community Library — Lake Travis Community Library Bookmobile - Year Two, $72,722
The Lake Travis Community Library requests a second year of funding for one community outreach librarian position and one outreach library assistant position to continue and expand their popular bookmobile service. Close to 1,000 people per month currently use this service.

Lee College — Smartboards for Prisoners, $75,000
Lee College Huntsville Center (LCHC) students live and attend classes within prisons. LCHC has created computer labs in six of the prisons where classes are taught and added grant-funded closed information servers to each of these labs, providing a wide range of software and information to enhance the students’ ability to perform authentic research.  This year’s grant would provide interactive flat panel screens (SMART boards) for all six of the labs. The labs would provide projection of all varieties of electronic media and support collaborative (active) learning, primarily through annotating the content displayed on the screen and demonstrating successful research strategies.

North Richland Hills Public Library — MaKits: The Maker Spot Circulating STEAM kits, $30,611
The North Richland Hills (NRH) Library seeks seed funding to develop mobile maker kits (i.e., “MaKits”) to supplement the opportunities provided by their makerspace and to be made available to all North Texas Consortium Library patrons.

Nueces County Keach Family Library — Tech You're @ the Library 3.0, $74,962
“Tech You’re It! @ the Library 3.0” is a continuation of the existing “Tech You’re It! @ the Library” at the Nueces County Public Libraries. The first “Tech You’re It! @ the Library,” funded in FY 2016, allowed the library to update the technology available to youth and purchase tech products. “Tech You’re It! @ the Library 2.0” expanded the type of STEM programs offered and allowed staff to be more mobile. “Tech You’re It! @ the Library 3.0” broadens the program goals to reinforce some of the most critical 21st century skills in learning: collaboration, creativity, critical thinking, and communication to help the youth of our community become lifelong learners.

Plano Public Library System — Art Spark, Year 2, $67,250
The Plano Public Library System (PPLS) seeks funding to continue its STEAM-based learning (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math) initiative, Art Spark. The program will continue multi-faceted art initiatives for all ages through the 18st AIRSpace (Artist In Residence) program, outreach events, and new art STEAM kits as well as youth and family art programs, exhibits and community art events at all five libraries in Plano.

Pottsboro Area Public Library — Placemaking for a Healthier Community, $72,889
The proposed project is, in part, a continuation of the 2017 TSLAC-funded HEALTH LITERACY HAPPENS HERE! Initiative which focuses on the importance of healthy habits to gaining/maintaining good health, with establishment of a community garden and healthy eating demo/tastings at the library. In addition,  2018 funding will allow the library to implement a "Book-A-Bike" program — checking out adult tricycles and bicycles and children's bikes — and provide a book tricycle to take the library to those who have mobility issues or who are homebound. The library would also circulate equipment such as volley and basketballs, horseshoes, and other active games for use at an adjacent park.

Texas A&M University Central Texas — Pop-up Library Programming, $45,210
The Texas A&M University-Central Texas University Library is requesting funding to support STEM, literacy, and civic engagement programs targeted at children with disabilities, children from disadvantaged households, and children in the rural communities of Central Texas.

Tom Green County Library System — STEAM Central, $73,491
Tom Green County Library (TGCL) seeks to build on STEAM Central, a library supported community makerspace and outreach service point that, with the help of community organizations, local businesses, artists, and hobbyists, provides a place to share knowledge, access tools and equipment, and participate in maker programs for all ages. In this second-year funding request, the library would expand the outreach kits which are aligned with TEKS curriculum for classroom and after school programs, and continue curriculum development.

Aransas County Independent School District (Rockport), Amount Requested: $25,000.00
The Aransas ISD facilities are closed indefinitely forcing students into makeshift facilities thereby affecting the programs and services of five campuses. The libraries will purchase books, rolling shelving, tablet and/or notebook computers, makerspace materials, and other furnishings.

Aransas County Public Library (Rockport), Amount Requested: $5,000.00
While sustaining no damage from the storm, the public library seeks to provide information and programming for those who were affected. The library will purchase materials covering topics such as home repair, construction, renovation, and decorating,and provide two programs - Landscaping After Hurricane Harvey and Your Taxes and Hurrcane Harvey.

Beaumont Public Library, Amount Requested: $5,000.00
Beaumont Public Library requests funds to augment its collections at four branch libraries to include materials to help citizens recover from Harvey. The library will also provide two seminars. Materials and seminars will cover recovery-related topics of stress, home repair, etc.

Clear Creek Independent School District (Friendswood), Amount Requested: $5,000.00
Brookside Intermediate School in Friendswood sustained extensive damage from Hurricane Harvey. The district will purchase library supplies and books.

Coastal Bend College (Beeville), Amount Requested: $4,936.00
The college will purchase additional seating and table space to accommodate the dramatic increase in students and community members using the library at their main campus in Beeville.

Dennis M. O'Connor Public Library (Refugio), Amount Requested: $5,000.00
The public library received significant water damage primarily affecting the children's area. The library will purchase computer software, a dehumidifier, office supplies, and books to supplement their collection of home renovation/repair titles and junior nonfiction titles.

Ed & Hazel Richmond Public Library (Aransas Pass), Amount Requested: $4,824.00
The library seeks to refurnish a conference room and study rooms that suffered damage and replace several non-fiction books.

Effie & Wilton Hebert Public Library  (Port Neches), Amount Requested: $5,000.00
The Port Neches library will purchase two dehumidifiers plus monitoring equipment to help stabilize the environment to prevent the spread of mold to other library materials.

Fort Bend Independent School District, Amount Requested: $5,000.00
The district seeks to replenish lost resources for an elementary school that could remain closed until the  fall of 2018. The new books will be housed at a neighboring elementary school and middle school which are accommodating displaced students.

Hardin Independent School District, Amount Requested: $5,000.00
While incurring no damage, Hardin ISD is housing approximately 240 students displaced from their school in neighboring Hull-Daisetta school district. The district will purchase Accelerated Reader books.

Hardin-Jefferson Independent School District, Amount Requested: $10,000.00
The district experienced the complete loss of a newly renovated middle school. The district seeks funding to replace a portion of the 8600 books lost to help the high school accommodate the displaced students.

Houston Public Library, Amount Requested: $24,816.00
Houston Public will put into place mini-libraries to address the derth of services caused by the continued close of seven of 42 branches.  To support the  six mini-libraries, Houston will purchase  basic equipment needed to provide residents with computer access, internet access, the ability to check out and return library resources, and receive assistance with assistance applications.

Hull-Daisetta Independent School District, Amount Requested: $5,000.00
The elementary school is closed until further notice. In the meantime, 240 students are being bussed 12 miles to neighboring district, Hardin ISD. The funds will be used to  purchase Accelerated Reader books.

Humble Independent School District, Amount Requested: $10,000.00
The district seeks to help two campuses rebuild the collection of a high school that was flooded to help its 2500 students who are bussed 45 minutes away to the other high school.

Kirbyville Public Library, Amount Requested: $4,960.00
While not damaged, the Kirbyville library has served as the information HUB and has been greatly impacted by the resulting foot traffic. The library seeks to purchase two smart TVs for use as digital visual aids and information sources and chairs.

Klein Independent School District, Amount Requested: $5,000.00
Approximately 700 elementary school students have been relocated to a high school while their school is restored. The district will purchase age appropriate tables and chairs and library supplies to accommodate the students.

Lamar State College Port Arthur, Amount Requested: $5,000.00
Gates Memorial Library has assumed the responsibility of serving the patrons of the Port Arthur Public Library which is closed until further notice. The college will purchase laptops and iPads to accommodate the additional demand for technology on campus.

Little Cypress-Mauriceville Consolidated Independent School District (Orange), Amount Requested: $15,000.00
The district seeks to replace books on three campuses that were flooded with category level 3 water.

Lone Star College - Kingwood, Amount Requested: $5,000.00
The library will replace instructional and supplemental course materials, including text books, lost due to flooding.

Orangefield Independent School District, Amount Requested: $10,000.00
The Orangefield district will replace shelving and furniture lost at the elementary and high schools.

Shepherd Public Library, Amount Requested: $5,000.00
The library would like to purchase 5-6 patron computers to replace those lost in the flood.

University of Houston, Amount Requested: $5,000.00
To support its Harvey Texbook Relief program, the university library will provide students access to textbooks  through its course reserves collection. Funds will be used to purchase $70 + textbooks.

University of St Thomas, Amount Requested: $5,000.00
To help its students affected by Harvey, the library gave 27 laptops to their IT department to distribute to students.  Funding will allow the library to begin  replacing those computers.

Victoria Independent School District, Amount Requested: $9,540.00
The district will replace student seating, books, and rugs at two elementary schools damaged by wind and rain.

William R. Ellis Memorial Library (Port Aransas), Amount Requested: $4,995.00
The area library was temporarily closed and stripped to the studs following Harvey. It will purchase DVDs and audiobooks to meet the needs of area schools and winter visitors.

In response to Hurricane Harvey, and acting under emergency procedures issued by the Governor’s Office, the Texas State Library and Archives Commission released the Rebuilding Texas Libraries grant program on September 18, 2017. The Rebuilding Texas Libraries Grant was designed to aid libraries that sustained damage during the hurricane and its aftermath. The goal was to assist Texas libraries in restoring services and programs to their patrons and to enable libraries to respond directly to the disaster. This grant program funds operating expenditures such as library supplies and materials, technology, furniture, and contractual services.

Public, school, and academic libraries located in the counties declared disaster areas by the Governor, and counties that provided assistance to displaced persons, were eligible to apply for grants. The maximum grant award was $5,000 for a single location. If there were multiple locations affected, libraries were eligible to apply for up to $5,000 per location for a maximum award of $25,000. The source of funding is the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) Grants to States Program under the Library Services and Technology Act. TSLAC received specific permission from IMLS to extend the federal deadline for expenditure and reporting on FY 2017 funds to allow expenditure for this purpose.

Proposals were due October 16, 2017. All funded projects must be completed between August 28, 2017, and January 31, 2018.