Five Year Plan Guidelines Justification A 20201029

2022-2024 IMLS Grants to States Program Five-Year State Plan Guidelines for State Library Administrative Agencies (3137-0029)

PART A. Justification:

1. Necessity of the Information Collection

The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) requests an approval of a new three-year clearance for the agency’s information collection requests for the Grants to States Program Five-Year State Plan Guidelines for State Library Administrative Agencies under the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA).

The Grants to States program is the largest source of Federal funding support for library services in the U.S. Using a population-based formula, more than $150 million is distributed among the State Library Administrative Agencies (SLAAs) every year. SLAAs are official agencies charged by law with the extension and development of library services, and they are located in:

• Each of the 50 States of the United States, and the District of Columbia;

• The Territories (the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands); and

• The Freely Associated States (the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, and the Republic of Palau).

Each year, more than 1,500 Grants to States projects support the purposes and priorities outlined in the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) (see 20 U.S.C. 9121 et seq.) SLAAs may use the funds to support statewide initiatives and services, and they may also distribute the funds through competitive subawards (subgrants or cooperative agreements) to public, academic, research, school, or special libraries or library consortia (for-profit and Federal libraries are not eligible). Each SLAA must submit a plan that details library services goals for a five-year period (20 U.S.C 9134). SLAAs must also conduct a five-year evaluation of library services based on that plan. These plans and evaluations are the foundation for improving practice and informing policy. Each SLAA receives IMLS funding to support the five-year period through a series of overlapping, two-year grant awards.

2. Purposes and Uses of the Data

The Five-Year State Plan Guidelines provide the structure under which each state and territory applies for the funds to support a Five-Year State Plan of library services to their jurisdiction. IMLS publishes the approved plans on its website. SLAAs then carry out federally funded projects that reflect the Five-Year State Plan and report on them annually. A separate reporting system (State Program Report system, OMB Control Number 3137-0071) currently gathers descriptive information from SLAAs about the project inputs (e.g., budget categories), activities, outputs and narrative fields for describing the results of the plans. This administrative data is used for IMLS program planning, GPRA/PAR and other reporting with the Administration and Congress. A searchable public view of this report data is available on the IMLS website but does not include granular budgetary information (https://imls-spr.imls.gov/Public/Projects). In recent years, IMLS has provided a national analysis of this project data that is shared with SLAA contacts at an annual training conference and made available on the IMLS website. Select portions of this project data are also shared through conference panel presentations with stakeholders in the library field. As part of the SLAAs Five-Year Evaluations, independent evaluators secured by each SLAA will assess this project data to determine whether the Five-Year State Plan goals were “achieved,” “partly achieved,” or “not achieved.” These Five-Year Evaluations will also be published on the IMLS website and help inform the development of the subsequent Five-Year State Plan.

3. Use of Information Technology

IMLS is committed to the use of information technology to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of its programs while reducing burden on SLAA grantees. The State Administrative Agencies submit their Five-Year State Plans electronically to IMLS.

4. Efforts to Identify Duplication

This information is collected only once every five years and is not duplicated in other collections. Because the collection is a statutory requirement of the federal program, many SLAAs also use it to satisfy their state requirements related to strategic planning, and thus eliminate duplication efforts.

5. Method Used to Minimize Burden on Small Businesses

Not applicable.

5. Consequences of Less Frequent Data Collection

These collections of information are essential to IMLS in meeting its statutory mission under 20 U.S.C. 9101 et seq. The information collected is necessary to support IMLS in prudently expending its appropriations, monitoring the progress of award completion, and meeting its performance and accountability reporting requirements.

5. Special Circumstances

None of the listed conditions applies.

5. Consultations Outside the Agency

The 60-day notice for this collection was published in the Federal Register November 3, 2020 (85 FR 69649). A 30-day notice requesting comment for this clearance was published in the Federal Register on January 8, 2021 (86 FR 1540).

Agency staff consults informally with its communities throughout the year, including regular meetings with professional staff and the chief executive officers of SLAAs.

5. Payments or Gifts to Respondents

No payments or gifts are provided to any of the respondents.

5. Assurance of Confidentiality

The requested information is publicly available and not confidential.

5. Justification for Sensitive Questions

There are no questions of a sensitive nature.

5. Estimate of Hour Burden to Respondents

The affected public for this information collection are the State Library Administrative Agencies (SLAAs), which currently number 59. The estimated average burden per overall response is 90 hours. The total estimated total annual burden is 5,310 hours. Based on a mean hourly wage of $29.77 for Librarians and Media Collections Specialists, the total annual costs are $158,078.70.

5. Estimate of Total Annual Cost Burden to Respondents

The total estimated burden cost burden to respondents once every five years equals $2,679.30.

5. Estimate of Annualized Costs to Federal Government

Annualized costs to the Federal government is $432,064.08. This is based on the average review of 59 five-year plans with a total 9912 estimated annual burden hours, and a mean hourly wage of $43.59 for IMLS Staff.

5. Explanation of Change in Burden

The increases in total annual costs to respondents, individually and in the aggregate, reflect the increase in the mean hourly wage for Librarians and Media Collections Specialists from $27.67 to $29.77 since 2018.

5. Statistical Usage

This is a non-statistical administrative collection.

5. Request to Not Display Expiration Date

Not applicable. The expiration date for OMB approval of the information collection will be displayed.

5. Exception to Certification Statement

Not applicable.

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