I don't want to give the impression that planning for technology is a waste of time. It's actually a valuable tool particularly when used as a part of strategic planning. We can all provide better library services if we're looking to the future needs of our communities and trying to plan how we can best meet those needs.
It also makes sense to do this in the order required by SLD.
First, develop your tech plan, what are the current trends in my community/region/state/world? Which of those trends do we think we're going to be a part of within the next 3 years? One of the big trends I see is online audio/video, audio downloads like podcasts, audio-books. All of these take up a lot of bandwidth. So, you might be looking at adding additional DSL lines to your library in the next few years to provide more bandwidth. So that should go into your tech plan.
Next, you complete Form 470 with requests for bids on all the eligible items you'd need to reach the goals in your tech plan.
Next, you look at your budget in the tech plan, the costs quoted by vendors and service providers, how much time and training it will take to implement these technologies, your discount rate and file Form 471 with requests for what you believe you can use and afford.
Some libraries apply for internal connections - hardware, software, etc. How you plan on using these items should definitely go into your tech plan. It should be readily apparent how the new server or router requested is going to help your library meet its goals. And you also want to make sure that everything else in your tech plan shows that you can use and support these materials - e.g., budget, staffing, training, etc. I expect that Internal Connections requests receive closer scrutiny than Priority 1 requests so you really want to make sure you've got your ducks in a row from your tech plan all the way through.
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