6.17+Budget+Project

You have discussed what three areas of the library you would renovate in building toward a learning commons. Now you are ready to seek the money for the project. Woolls gives an excellent description of the components that should be included in a budget proposal for additional services or equipment on pages 152-160. **Using her points as a guide:**
 * Budget Project (30 points) **
 * Excluding construction, come up with a plan for implementing your design plan over a three-year period. The only requirements for this plan are that your purchases cannot be all of one type (not all books, equipment, subscriptions, etc.
 * You can construct your project with any software that will allow your finished product to be embedded in your blog. If you feel really adventurous, you can construct the project directly in your blog. Google Docs is an obvious choice but there are many, many directions you can go. Use software you are comfortable with and that you would use in a realistic presentation to your administrators. My ultimate objective: you could take this plan to your administrators tomorrow.
 * Briefly restate the library situation that you decided to renovate from the previous project.
 * Be sure to give me the information of what you plan for purchases over the three-year period.
 * Construct your budget along the lines of: Goal > Measurable objectives > Activities to meet the objectives > Evaluation for each of the objectives
 * Include other points as described by Woolls for the project as a whole.
 * I am not asking you to provide reviews for the items to be purchased, although I would hope that you would purchase based on professional reviewing sources. One way to be more successful in your purchases is to buy from reliable and well-known vendors
 * In your plan I want you to list where the items would be purchased from. In a real situation you might be limited to certain vendors for your purchases by your district. I do want you to consult the following library vendors but you don't have to buy from them if you can find equivalent material elsewhere for a better price. Depending on your plan you may need to consult a number of other vendors.
 * Demco []
 * Highsmith []
 * Gaylord Brothers []
 * Brodart []
 * The Library Store (TLS) []
 * Either hyperlink to the item you are purchasing in your narrative so I can see what it looks like or insert a small image. (You would not do that in a real budget request but it will help me understand what you are trying to achieve with your three-year plan.)
 * This is a proposal for your principal. You need to get her on board in order to get her assistance in getting the money you need. She’s busy. She doesn’t want a proposal that is // War and Peace // but rather “The Gettysburg Address." Limit your proposal to three pages. Your proposal does not have to be completely narrative.
 * GRADING (30 points total)
 * 4 points – Introduction
 * 4 points – Construction of goal statements (as many as are needed to address your 3-year plan)
 * 4 points – Construction of objectives (minimum of one per year)
 * 4 points – Activity Discussion (congruent with the objectives)
 * 4 points – Evaluation statements – (how you will know if you have reached your objectives)
 * 10 points – Discussion of your purchases including a hyperlink to the items or inclusion of images

Typical problems with this project:
 * Confusion between what is a goal and what is an objective. Objectives: If you can answer the question, "yes, it happened" or "no, it didn't happen" then it is an objective.
 * Evaluations that are too general. Answer these questions: how can I tell that the money that we have allotted you for this project is making a difference in what? student attendance? student achievement? student production of information? You don't have to show all of these possibilities but you have to have specific methods of evaluation.
 * If you don't construct your plan directly in your blog, then use something that can be embedded in your blog or linked to something that can be shared with the reader (such as a Google Doc) -- **it shouldn't be done with software that I have to have on my specific computer.**
 * Keep in mind your design and connect it to your budget.
 * I want to know what you hope to achieve with your change beyond making the library a nice place to be. Pretty doesn't sell well in today's economy.
 * Finally, keep in mind that I will be reading your proposal as an administrator who has a lot of constituencies to support. I think we have to agree that you and the administrator have talked about this before you submitted your project, but you have to drive home your request and make me want to fund your project rather than the request from the art department or the sixth grade.

When you finish your project, post a link or upload the document to the DISCUSSION BOARD.

There is no single format for this project. If your district has a process you would use, then by all means fit the elements of this project into that format. You can design the proposal any way you like -- just keep it to the point and cover all the points. I will post an example of one project that I thought was fine on Blackboard, but you can go you own way.