Technology Planning Approval Requirements

The Library Development Division at MSL has decided to advocate use of TechAtlas in preparing technology plans.

Many of you should already have TechAtlas accounts and should have at least some experience using the tool because we inventoried library public access computers with it about a year ago. It may look daunting because there is a lot you can do in TechAtlas. I'll specify here what you NEED to complete to have MSL approve your tech plan.

Envision (E-Rate requirement - The plan must establish clear goals and a realistic strategy for using telecommunications and information technology to improve education or library services)

• Describe your Mission
• Create your Vision
• Technology Planning Goals
• Objectives

If you're doing a tech plan strictly as an E-Rate requirement, keep your goals and objectives modest and attainable.

Survey (E-Rate requirement - The plan must have a professional development strategy to ensure that staff know how to use these new technologies to improve education or library services)

• Professional Development Strategy - you will probably need to complete one or more of the surveys or assessments to complete your professional development strategy, but we don't need to see them for your tech plan. But these could be really helpful in determining training needs so PLEASE feel free to share the results with your regional consultant: Suzanne, Maggie or Tracy.
• Another note - responses to some of the assessments generate objectives. Some of them are pretty lame - just suggesting that you take additional assessments. It's probably best to just go back and delete those.
  

Inventory (E-Rate requirement - The plan must include an assessment of the telecommunication services, hardware, software, and other services that will be needed to improve education or library services)

• Computers - This is the part of TechAtlas you're probably familiar with. This is useful information to have on hand particularly if you ever run into problems and need to contact support. For tech planning purposes, we will only require you to update your computer inventory. But I would also recommend that you complete as much as you can about your Internet and Telecomm services. Just the contact information will be invaluable if your service goes down.

Budget (E-Rate requirement - The plan must provide a sufficient budget to acquire and support the non-discounted elements of the plan: the hardware, software, professional development and other services that will be needed to implement the strategy)

This is the part of technology planning that makes me a little nervous because we've already had a MT public library turned down for E-Rate because they didn't include sufficient budget information. So, we'll give you two options:

• Setup/Worksheet - this ties your budget information to objectives or activities you cited earlier. If you've set a few modest objectives in the Envision part of the plan, now you'll need to specify plan years (2007-2009), budget categories and funding sources. Then you can download and create a spreadsheet where you fill in the expected costs for each objective for each year and link it to a budget category and source of funds.
• Budget Templates/Small Organization Technology Budget - I wouldn't expect a small library to have a budget like this for technology but I think this gives a good example of what you might want to look at for expected costs: hardware, software, network equipment, services, staffing, training. But we're looking at 3 years for this plan not 5. For hardware and software, you should probably look at replacing a computer about every 3 years. I know we tend to get longer lives from most of ours but look at the age of your computers and consider how much you'll have to spend in the next 3 years. Network equipment includes routers and modems - you'll probably have to replace or upgrade something. Services - certainly include at least your DSL lines and ISP costs. You can include E-Rate as a funding source. Staffing - include salaries for staff who work with technology probably as a percentage of their salary/time spent. Also include any money allocated to tech support. Training - even if you just plan to take advantage of training offered around the state, include some expected costs for staff time, travel, etc. Finally, make sure that your library budget supports this, if you're asked.

Evaluate (E-Rate requirement - The plan must include an evaluation process that enables the school or library to monitor progress toward the specified goals and make mid-course corrections in response to new developments and opportunities and they arise)

• Evaluation Steps - set up a few steps you'll take to evaluate your plan. These should be linked with your goals and objectives. How will you know if you're meeting your goals and objectives?
• Email Plan for Review - when you're ready to have me, Maggie or Tracy take a look at your plan, click on this link and it will email us a URL where we can go in and view what you've done up to that point.

Fear Not! If all of this seems impossibly difficult and cumbersome to you, we will schedule a number of web-based trainings to introduce you to TechAtlas and how to write a tech plan using it.