1. All students (including preschool students if your library serves a developmental preschool program) will be allowed to check out and take home books of their choice for recreational, out-of-school reading. Fiction and nonfiction titles for recreational reading will be allowed in addition to any materials they must check out for required reading and assigned class and project work. No grant funds will be spent on textbooks, classroom sets, literature circle sets, or other materials specifically for classroom assignments. Books may be used for classroom work, of course, but should not be purchased specifically for classroom work.
2. Grant funds will be spent on age-appropriate books for the secondary grades served by the school. When selecting age-appropriate titles for all grade levels, librarians should consider the interest level for students and include high-quality titles for students to read independently or with their families. The reading level (ATOS, AR, Lexile, etc.) should be a secondary consideration, if considered at all.
3. Accelerated Reader tests, library software, library shelving, and signage are not allowable purchases with these funds.
4. A maximum of 50% of grant funds may be spent with any single publisher.
5. At least 40% of grant funds must be spent on age-appropriate, high-quality nonfiction books.
6. All grantee schools will develop a Culture of Reading program or event to establish or improve the reading culture in their school. There are many ways to cultivate a culture of reading, and the school library is uniquely positioned to play a central role.
7. Up to a total of 20% of the grant funds can be used for allowable purposes other than the purchase of books for the collection. The funds used for book processing will be considered part of this 20%, as well as expenses associated with the Culture of Reading project. Some examples of allowable items are:
Give-away books for students to encourage summer and/or out of school reading are allowable.
Bilingual books for English-learning students to keep and take home to read independently or with their adults are allowable.
Food is not an eligible use for grant funds.
Up to 5% of the grant award may be used for book processing and related supplies (i.e. MARC records, labels, barcodes, processing fees with vendors, protective laminant covers, etc.).
8. Grantee will complete at least one training experience in addition to the September 2023 professional development connected to this grant. The training experience should cover a reading- or library science-related topic. This requirement can be met through attending a webinar, completing on online training modules or attending an in-person training event such as the 2023 Idaho Library Association annual conference. The training must be completed during the grant period, except for ICfL's Summer Summit held in July 2023, which also fulfills this requirement.