Children's and Young Adult Librarians:

Abstract

The Yolith Omnibus Bill passed during he WHLIS in July 1991, includes oprovisions for six separate grants for children's, school, and young adult services in libraries. Funding cuts have made developing alternate sources of revenue vital for the survival of existing librarv services and the develooment of new ones. Are children's and young adult librarians trained in writing grant proposals? Are children's and young adult librarians writing grant proposals to receive alternate funding? These two questions were the basis for a research study undertaken at the University of Texas Graduate School of Library and Information Science. A questionnaire was mailed to sixty-two children's and young adult librarians in public libraries in both small and large library systems in Texas to determine if these librarians were writing grant proposals, and if not, why not. This article reports the results of the questionnaires in detail and begins a discussion of the following questions: Is there a need to create a clearinghouse to supply libraries with information on grant availability? Should instruction in the writing of grant proposals be included in library school curriculum?