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New ‘Secure Your Funding’ Initiative to Help Libraries

Userful Corp. (www.userful.com) announced the "Secure Your Funding" initiative to help libraries, community colleges, and other public sector organizations apply for and receive Broadband Technology Opportunity Program stimulus money. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) has allocated $7.2 billion to stimulate the development of broadband infrastructure. This includes a minimum of $200 million to expand public computing-center capacity. The federal government began accepting applications for the first $4 billion of funding on July 14. The application period for this round will close on Aug. 14.

The initiative aims to help libraries and other public sector organizations who wish to secure funding by providing a dedicated team of people that these organizations can phone or email to get advice on how to secure funding. The initiative is also providing a series of webinars (online seminars) and resources that provide an overview of the program, eligibility, and tips on how to prepare a successful application to make it easy for organizations to apply with confidence. The first such webinar took place on May 19 with John Windhausen, a Washington, D.C.-based technology funding consultant who served as communications counsel for the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and who has written numerous studies and white papers on technology funding. A video of the webinar can be seen at http://userful.com/media/webinar/stimulus-bill.

On July 2, the Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and the Department of Agriculture's Rural Utilities Service (RUS) released a Notice of Fund Availability (NOFA) that describes application procedures and project evaluation processes for the $4 billion first round of funding that opened for applications. A synopsis of the NOFA highlighting the important items that organizations need to know to apply for the public computer center category is available at http://library.userful.com/btop-synopsis.php. All of the money in this round is expected to be granted by Sept. 30, 2010, with two additional rounds of funding expected to follow. Libraries, community colleges, and other public sector organizations who would like to take advantage of this initiative should phone 1-866-873-9126 or email info@userful.com.

Userful, based in Calgary, Alberta, helps libraries achieve and implement sustainable public computing solutions. Founded in 1999, Userful solutions are used in more than 100 countries and are bringing affordable green-desktop computing to millions of users worldwide.

Source: Userful Corp.