One of the most important tasks for librarians is finding grant resources. In public, academic, and special library settings, librarians are often called upon to help find grant money for their patrons, as well as for their own funding purposes. School librarians should similarly be aware of the availability of grant resources in order to find funding for their media centers and to assist their teaching colleagues.

There are several places that one would look for grant resources. The first place to look is in a directory. There are numerous grant directories that are published, but the most reputable ones come from the Foundation Center.

The Foundation Center in New York is one of the largest publishers of grant directories. They are a non-profit foundation themselves and disseminate a lot of information. They have a very large library in New York, and also have regional offices in Atlanta, Cleveland, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C.

In addition, the Foundation Center has a network of Cooperating Collections around the country, similar to the GPO Depository System. WKU is one of the Cooperating Collections.

One of the advantages of being a Cooperating Collection is that once we pay our membership dues, we receive a substantial number of directories and computer databases for free. The requirements are that we must make them available to the public for free, and give research assistance to anyone who comes in.

There are three Cooperating Collections in the state; in addition, there are a few in nearby states. The Foundation Center Cooperating Collections in Kentucky and in areas adjacent to Kentucky are as follows:

Kentucky
* Lexington Public Library
* Louisville Free Public Library
* Western Kentucky University

Indiana
* Evansville Public Library

Tennessee
* Nashville Public Library
* Knox County Public Library (Knoxville)

Ohio
* Cincinnatti Public Library
* Portsmith Public Library

Virginia
* Washington County Public Library (Abingdon, VA)

In addition to the Foundation Center materials, there are several other places to find grant information. The Foundation Center Website has a fair amount of materials available for free. The Foundation Center Website is found at www.fdncenter.org/ You can also look at the website for the Office of Sponsored Progams at WKU; the website is at www.wku.edu/Dept/Support/SponsPrg/grants/home.htm

Another resource is GuideStar: The National Database of Nonprofit Organizations. It is found at www.guidestar.org/

One resource that a lot of people don't think about for finding grant information is to look at the tax forms that nonprofit foundations have to file. The tax forms give a lot of information, including telling exactly which projects they have funded that year and how much they gave. This allows you to determine important information about the types of recipient and the amount, so that you can write a better proposal. The tax form is called the 990-PF.

Finally, if you are looking for Federal grants, the best places to look are the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance and the Federal Register. The Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance is a guidebook to all kinds of Federal grant programs that are available. The Catalog is a government document that is available in many libraries, and contains listings of government grant programs of all types. The Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance is also available online at http://www.cfda.gov/.We have a copy at the reference desk in Helm.

The Federal Register is a daily listing of new regulations, proposed regulations, new programs, and proposed new programs. It includes new grant programs and proposed new grant programs. You will see this resource again when you get to the section on law materials. The Federal Register includes new and proposed grant programs from the Federal government. You can search the Federal Register Online at www.gpoaccess.gov/fr/index.html.

Here is an interactive grant tutorial created by the Foundation Center. The tutorial will give you the basics of researching grant materials. The tutorial is found online at http://www.fdncenter.org/learn/orient/intro1.html.

Here are some links to sample grant proposals:

• Plugged In Sample Grant Proposal www.pluggedin.org/tool_kit/sample_grant.html
• Patricia Rife Associates Sample Grant Proposal www.patriciarifeassociates.com/SampleProposal.doc
• Kurzweil Educational Systems Sample Grant Proposal http://kurzweiledu.com/files/proof_resources_grant1.pdf
• The Scholastic Grant Seminar http://teacher.scholastic.com/professional/grants/sampropo.htm
• Sample Grant Proposal www.whro.org/friendship/pdfdocs/grant1.pdf