Back in November, I posted this picture with the wish that I'd get to talk about it someday. Luckily, I can finally start talking about it, even though nothing is official yet.

This is the full view of the Zephyr wall on which a couple of colleagues and I came up with a new LSTA grant idea for FY2007 at the request of the Illinois State Library. The idea I pitched to them became the basis for the "Developing a Statewide Technology Toolkit" grant you can read more about at the bottom of this page.

I recently wrote up a more detailed, three page explanation for the Illinois Library Systems Directors Organization, and last week they decided to submit the idea in this grant category. Basically, it offers every library in Illinois a chance to enhance its website and services with blogs, RSS, and instant messaging in an effort to level the web-based playing field in the State.

The first year of the grant is devoted to research and development, during which time a project coordinator will be hired to choose blogging-based, open source software for participating libraries to implement. This will also give them a starting point for RSS feeds for their content. In addition, we'll give each library a Flickr account and get them started using instant messaging for communicating with patrons (not just internally).

Even though it seems to some of us like blogging, RSS, and IM have been around forever and most libraries have adopted these tools, the truth is that the overwhelming number of libraries in this country, let alone in Illinois, have yet to make that leap. This grant will give them the tools (and will take into account hosting the software on servers installed regionally), training at their own institution, website templates designed by usability experts, and tons of documentation (best practices, sample policies, PR materials, and more). Year one will include pilot projects to create, tweak, and finalize everything before the toolkit is rolled out to all libraries (of all types) that want to participate in year two. Illinois libraries will be able to pick and choose which pieces they want to implement, but for the majority of our libraries (which are smaller institutions), this should jumpstart them towards a web-based presence that is more usable for patrons, more efficient for staff to update, and more shifted to go where their users are. In other words, it should help them start down the path to Library 2.0 faster and in ways they otherwise can't pursue on their own due to lack of staff, time, and resources.

There's a lot more in the idea we proposed (this would be the visible tip of the iceberg), but details have to be hammered out and agreed upon by all of the regional Library Systems before I can say more. Two things I want to say here, though. The first is how impressed I am that the Illinois State Library is willing to entertain such proposals that dream BIG. ISL staff - you "get it" and you ROCK! This would be a huge boost for Illinois libraries!

Another point I want to make is that the more we collaborate regionally, the more we can enhance library services by evolving the wheel, rather than reinventing it. I'm pretty impressed that the Illinois System Directors "get it," too!

So what's next? A committee of Systems staff will write the full proposal, which we'll submit in a couple of months. Then we have an excruciating wait until September to find out if we've been awarded the grant. If we get it, we start in October.

We'll take all the well wishes we can get, including crossed fingers, good luck charms, and lit candles. I'll try to share as much as I can about the proposal and [hopefully the eventual] implementation as things progress.

Don't you wish you worked at an Illinois library? ;-)