Chapter 2. General Responsibilities 

More than a sane person would expect. In addition to the federal government, which actually appropriates and allocates the money to each state based on a formula, there are a myriad of players once the money travels electronically from Washington to Massachusetts.

The Grantee - State Library Administrative Agency (MBLC). The Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners (MBLC) is the agency responsible for administering these funds. Once the award is recommended by the State Advisory Council on Libraries (SACL) and voted by the Board of Library Commissioners, then agency staff take over the responsibilities of seeing that funds are spent according to statute and regulation. In the land of legal jargon, the agency is the grantee, i.e., the recipient of the entire state's allotment from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). The Director of the agency sends out award letters pending receipt of funding from Washington and appoints a Project Consultant to monitor your project. This consultant is usually the person in the Library Development Unit at the MBLC who has worked with you during the application part of the grant process. The agency issues a press release announcing the awards and encourages individual libraries to follow up with local media.

Project Consultant. It is the responsibility of the MBLC Project Consultant to assist you in doing a successful project. That often means continuing to work closely with you throughout the year and even beyond. Sometimes that means telling you things you may not want to hear, such as that you may not buy a new copier instead of the board books you'd mentioned in your proposal. It is also his/her responsibility to monitor all aspects of your project - programmatic and financial - and report the results to the agency and to the Institute of Museum and Library Services. The Project Consultant's responsibilities include:

The Subgrantee. The library, network, cooperating group, or regional library system, as the proud recipient of this award, is known in the land of bureaucracy as the subgrantee. As such, it contracts with the MBLC to expend the funds in accordance with the plan set out in the grant proposal and for accomplishing the objectives as approved.

Library Director. The Director of the library, school superintendent (for school districts) or principal (for individual schools), President of the network or cooperating group, or Regional Administrator is responsible for:

Project Director. This is the person appointed by the Director of the library or group to manage the project and do all reporting from start to finish. In some projects, the Library Director is also the Project Director. His/her responsibilities include:

Other State Agencies. In order for the MBLC to administer this program and disburse funds, it must rely on several other state agencies. You will be asked to sign a Commonwealth of Massachusetts Standard Contract.The contract must then be approved by the Office of the Comptroller prior to the start of any project activities that will require funds. This often takes 7 14 days, or longer, from the time the MBLC receives the contract from you. Disbursements, likewise, must be approved by the same agency - only after the Standard Contract has been approved and only after money has been received from Washington. This official start date will be noted on your copy of the documents returned to you for your files.

Other Local Agencies. Since all funds must be accounted for separately, the town's treasurer or accountant must be involved. It is the Commonwealth's requirement that all grant funds to a public library be paid in the same manner that state aid is paid. For most libraries, this means it is paid to the city or town. It is wise, therefore, to alert the appropriate town official when a disbursement is expected so they will identify these funds and notify you that they have been received. Since any interest earned on federal money must be returned to the federal government (Agreement: #10 ) and it is costly to do so, your town should consider placing funds in a non interest bearing account. Local purchasing regulations regarding contracts, payroll, bids, vendor selection, accounting, etc. must be followed for expending project funds (Agreement: #8). This will mean that local officials responsible for these activities on a regular basis will be involved in the project. They should also be aware from the beginning of the project that the funds may have to be audited (Agreement: #13) (See AUDITS). For some town officials, it is important to know the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance or CFDA number for your project. The CFDA # for your project is 45.310.

Non profits, such as networks, are subject to the same requirement for handling funds, but in those cases, funds are paid directly to the network.