LSCA: Local Impact, Global Reach

The Library Services and Construction Act has without a doubt had the most impact on the growth and development of the Barclay Public Library since its founding by Pyrle Barclay in 1941. Mrs. Barclay, Warrensburg's first-grade teacher, had such a strong vision for providing library service to the town that she started the library from her own home with her own books. The grant program offered by the LSCA through 1997 provided the means with which to advance Mrs. Barclay's vision beyond her wildest dreams.

Over the past 13 years, Barclay Library has participated in nearly 20 grants, usually in cooperation with other libraries in our area. In recent years, some of these have been "Live & Learn" grants, funded through the Office of the Secretary of State. Prior to 1994, the federal LSCA program provided the funding for all the grants we received. The monetary value derived totaled about $255,000. The impact of this "seed money" is directly accountable for the growth and expansion of this library, from a township library serving 1,600 people to a district library serving more than 7,600 people, including 2,100 by contract with a previously unserved area.

Rather than describe each of the grants one by one, I will highlight a few grants that have had a major impact on library service in our community. The grants that have had the most impact are not necessarily the ones that provided the most money, but rather the ones that most effectively met a specific need at a given time in the library's development. All the grants we have participated in were highly successful — very positive experiences for the library. These are the grants that stand out.

In 1985, and again in 1987, we were approached by Rolling Prairie Library System staff to participate in a cooperative grant being developed with system help. You might say these grants whet our appetite, as we began writing cooperative grants with other area libraries on a regular basis from then on. The early grants were small, but they were confidence builders, and networking with other libraries in our area became routine.

One of the more ambitious grant projects, Services to Young Adults, involved five public libraries: Assumption, Blue Mound, Illiopolis, Mt. Zion and Warrensburg. This highly successful grant brought Booklist reviewer Hazel Rochman to present a program for other RPLS librarians. With this grant each library established young adult collections and began systematically trying to reach out to the youth of their communities. A young adult coordinator was funded part-time through this grant to develop and present programs in each community in conjunction with the local middle and high schools. Young adult advisory boards established in the communities in 1987 are still in existence today. This grant did indeed sow seeds for the future growth and development of our library, as those young adults of 1987 are today's young parents, bringing their children to the library's storytimes.

The Tri-County Rural Resource and Referral Sites, or Farm Grant, was possibly the first grant written in Illinois for equipment — computers, video cameras, video players — to be circulated to library patrons. This grant was the brainchild of Cookie Dierker who was then the director of the Argenta Public Library. The impact of this grant on our predominately rural area was great and immediate. The five libraries cooperating in this project — Argenta, Mt. Pulaski, Clinton, Lincoln and Warrensburg — wrote for and received second-year funding, taking their show "on the road" to the biennial Midwest Farm Progress Show. The Farm Grant generated tremendous goodwill for the libraries, which has served them well over the past decade. All five libraries have since converted to library districts and annexed previously unserved rural areas. The success of these expansions is certainly attributable to the impact of the Farm Grant.

The Barclay Library Trustees had, for some time, been exploring conversion to a library district, and began a library expansion project during the second year of the Farm Grant. That same year, the library decided to take advantage of the Project PLUS grants being offered through LSCA and become a district library encompassing the entire unserved Warrensburg-Latham School District. The full impact of the Farm Grant was felt in March 1988, when the predominately rural, agricultural area voted by a 3-1 margin to become part of the Barclay Public Library District. The positive publicity generated by the Farm Grant was directly responsible for passage of our district expansion. We

*Ann Adkesson, Director, Barclay Public Library District of Warrensburg.

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received major support from area farmers and absolutely no negative publicity from the Farm Bureau. The assistance provided by the LSCA grants made the difference in the overwhelming support this referendum achieved.

Project PLUS was funded for two years, 1988-89, and provided the library with funds to purchase more books, provide more programs, expand library hours and issue library cards to hundreds of people who had never before had a local library. Project PLUS provided nearly $47,000 in funding over the two-year course of the grant and enabled Barclay Library to triple its service population and its tax base. Only seven years later, the district passed a building bond referendum to expand the building it was already outgrowing. Construction of an addition in 1994-95 was completed with a 60-40 percent matching grant from the "Live & Learn " program.

In 1990 an LSCA grant was written by the Decatur Public Library inviting all Macon County libraries to join in developing business centers in their libraries, with Decatur housing a main collection. Each area library received funding to establish a "mini" business collection that would respond to the unique needs of each community. This grant helped focus attention on the library as a resource for small, home-based businesses, entrepreneurs and agricultural-related businesses, including farmers. A better relationship with the high school also resulted, as the business teachers became more aware of the resources available to their students. Publicity generated through this grant was again a major factor in helping build a relationship with yet another type of unserved, or at least underserved patron — the small business owner. Area businesses have been very generous over the past decade in their support of the library and our requests for funding for summer reading and other programs.

A cooperative collection development grant in 1995, once again funded through the LSCA program, strengthened the library's collection in areas that were of particular interest to many district residents. Barclay Library is now an area resource for parents and teachers and features a Parent-Teacher Resource Collection. These materials circulate throughout the area through our participation in the Rolling Prairie LLSAP. Ties with the local elementary school have been strengthened as a result of this grant, and we also serve as a resource for many area home schoolers. This in turn has led to an increase in attendance at children's programs and storytimes. The popularity of CD-ROM software purchased through this grant encouraged the library trustees to move forward into the age of technology. We have discovered that, quite often, with grants one successful idea leads to another.

Just last year we received a technology grant funded through LSCA that allowed the library to set up a LAN within our building. This grant, along with three computers purchased by the Friends of Barclay Library, brought Internet access to the library and its patrons. In March this year, more than 100 patrons used the library's Internet connection. At times, patrons were literally waiting in line to use one of the three public access stations. More than 100 additional patrons, both children and adults, used the CD-ROM software as well during the month of March. Our LLSAP (DRA) connection to Rolling Prairie System Headquarters is also networked through this LAN, providing patrons with access to the on-line public access catalog from their homes. The impact of this LSCA grant on our local community is truly global in scope, opening the Internet and the World Wide Web to many people who would not otherwise have that access. Once again, we are confident the positive publicity generated by this grant-funded project will result in numerous future benefits for the library and its patrons.

Barclay Public Library is very fortunate to have received these grants, each of which has contributed dramatically to the growth and development of the library's service to its patrons. Over the past 13 years, the library's collection size has more than doubled and circulation has tripled. Program attendance has skyrocketed and library staff has grown from 1.5 full-time equivalents to 3.2 full-time equivalents. The hours of operation have increased from 25 to 49 per week, and its operating budget, excluding building bonds, has increased from $26,000 in 1985 to $145,000 in 1998.

To merely say that the LSCA program has had an impact on library operations in this community would be an understatement. Without the opportunities and benefits afforded by our participation in these grants, this library most certainly would not be able to provide all the services and programs it offers today. The impact of the grants provided through LSTA has truly made all the difference in the world to the residents of the Barclay Public Library District.

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