We knew that libraries, literacy, and gaming was a hot topic and growing hotter by the minute. We were very pleased that ALA’s Verizon grant gave us the opportunity to fund 10 libraries to develop and expand literacy and gaming programs for 10-18-year-olds.
We knew the process would be competitive and that there would be many strong applicants. Even with our lofty expectations we greatly underestimated the response to the RFP. By the time the application process closed on March 20, we had received 390 grant applications from 47 states! 315 applications were from public libraries, 69 were from school libraries, and 6 were from academic libraries.
We are determined to carefully review and seriously consider every application. That said, we are deferring the notification date by one week. Please note that funded libraries will be notified April 15-16 and an official press release will issue the week of April 20, 2009.
Thanks so much for your commitment to literacy and gaming in libraries. Thanks for your hard work and thanks for your patience.