2010 CAAP Grant

1)       Describe your past, present and planned activities as an organization.  (Cite performances, exhibits, publications, venues, dates, etc.)   How are you qualified to accomplish the proposed project(s)? See "Artistic Merit," page 7.


Our programming is intended to help make Chicago culture more inclusive, accessible, collaborative and fun. The Chicago Underground Library has developed and participated in many events designed for all age groups as well as writers and publishers at all educational and socio-economic levels. These events include Orphan Works, an event which invites artists from all disciplines to re-interpret little-known and anonymous works; and the Science of Obscurity event celebrating unpublished and in-progress works as lead-up event for the Printers' Ball. 2010 will mark our fifth year as a lead partner in the annual Printers' Ball, which attracts 2,000 people and is coordinated with the Poetry Foundation, Columbia College Chicago's Center for Book and Paper Arts, and over 200 local and national publishers and literary organizations. 2010 will be focused on outreach. We plan to increase our partnerships and expand existing relationships with Alternative Press Center, Marwen, Open Books, the Intuit Museum of Outsider Art, Chicago Literary Alliance, Center for Book and Paper Arts, No Coast, and other independent innovative libraries across the U.S. We also plan on developing programs for teachers, artists-in-residence, and workshop leaders who want to provide access to the collection, but for whom transportation to the library is an issue. Volunteers will curate a selection of materials tailored to curricula or students' neighborhoods about Chicago, independent media, technology, art, zines, writing, collaboration, and other relevant subjects.

2)     Provide a mission statement.  Discuss your artistic vision for this organization and explain what you plan to accomplish through its work.  See "Artistic Merit," page 7.   Please refer to "Glossary of Terms," page 8.

The Chicago Underground Library provides an open forum for creative exchange between all producers and patrons of Chicago's independent media, facilitating collaboration and awareness between diverse communities. Through innovative and inclusive approaches to acquisitions, cataloging, and programming, we illuminate connections and provide both a historical and contemporary context for the creation of new local media.
 
We provide a reading room and community space where all of our collection can be accessed, in addition to a social online catalog that that traces connections between every book and every user who wants to read it, complete with maps of where the item was produced in Chicago and space for users to add their own historical notes which will be incorporated into the catalog records. Our collection development is Chicago-specific, incorporating everything from such well-established publishers as Poetry magazine and University of Chicago Press to zines about art made by seventh and eighth graders at a social justice high school. We're 100% inclusive, without making quality or importance judgments. We take absolutely everything, as long as it's from the area. We catalog by every single person who contributed and compile exhaustive lists of subjects so that one can see how publications are linked and how communities have developed over time. We serve as a companion to traditional repositories; an alternative but parallel history that is interwoven and even frequently overlaps with established, mainstream collections.

3)   Describe the project for which funds are requested. Please attach sketch of proposed project if applicable.  See "Quality of Project Plan," page 7.

Funds will be used for fees associated with securing 501(c)(3) status, namely filing form 1023 with the IRS since we have funded the rest of our incorporation fees out-of-pocket. In keeping with our outreach focus for the coming year, funds will be used to expand activities to get the word out to users and producers of local media as well as potential volunteers. We have identified a number of large-scale public events where we could maximize our visibility among our target group of community organizations, working and aspiring artists and writers, students, and especially everyday Chicagoans who may or may not already be involved in cultural production. These include literary events, neighborhood festivals, and arts festivals. We will be printing bookmarks for distribution at events, schools, businesses, and organizations throughout Chicago. We would like to commission new artwork from Chicago artist Grant Reynolds for our website and promotional materials, such as  t-shirts and buttons (to be purchsed at a later date) that strengthen our brand identity and recognition. Funds will also be used to maintain our online newsletter service provided by YourMailingListProvider. We currently have a 500-person mailing list that we plan to grow exponentially over the next year via the aforementioned events and new programming, and we send out 1-2 updates a month, depending on our programming activities.

4)     Address issues related to starting a nonprofit organization: Who will serve as your board of directors? List their qualifications and describe plans for development.  Where do you plan to operate, how do you plan to attain revenue, etc.? See "Quality of Project Plan," page 7.

Our working board is made up of librarians and arts professionals including directors and event coordinators, writers, editors, and visual artists. As our organization develops, we will assemble a board of advisors made up of recognized business, legal, arts, library, and education professionals with longstanding histories of community support. We have a strong volunteer group who have wholly supported all activities of the project so far. We've researched and examined organizations with committed volunteer communities and have structured our participation management to reflect best practices. Every volunteer is encouraged to bring their own ideas to the table. We plan to create 1-2 paid positions over the next two years for administration and programming. We are operating rent and utility-free out of a fringe theater located in a church and have a multi-year commitment from the theater and church to maintain that relationship since we serve the community. Without rent, we will be able to focus on saving money raised through events and our upcoming "sponsor-a-book" program in which users will contribute $75 to have their name included in the book's catalog entry as "Name Here thinks this book is worth saving." We recently established a finance committee who will plan our budget and explore future creative fundraising. We will apply for grants for conservation plans and materials, acquisitions, and project-based positions. We will also expand our internship program for library students.

5)     How do you expect your organization to benefit from obtaining 501(c)(3) status? See "Potential Impact," page 7.

With 501(c)(3) status, we will be able to raise funds for collection preservation, programming, and greater community outreach while continuing to build on our own internal infrastructure to create a sustainable, lasting organization. We will apply for specific grants for archiving equipment and space expenses that will allow us to create conservation plans for our existing collection in addition to raising funds for an acquisitions budget to actively build the collection, which will directly benefit the Chicago publishers from whom we purchase. We would also like to fundraise for hiring a fulltime staff. We have relied exclusively on donations of printed material and volunteer time and labor up to this point. We work hard to be neutral and serve a broad audience, unlike many independent press collections with political agendas. We also make sure that we avoid any perceived favoritism to people or publishers. 501 (c)(3) status will ensure that we maintain our neutrality and lack of individual promotion by creating boards and volunteer communities who hold each other accountable so that no one's personal interests direct the development of the collection. Planned expansions for special projects include: The Storefront Theater Project, a collection of materials from Chicago's theater community; a children's and YA area where kids can see work produced by people their own age; and eventually an audio/video collection from musicians and filmmakers provided we develop the infrastructure.

6)     Are there plans for additional organizational development initiatives beyond obtaining federal tax-exempt status? If so, please describe.  See "Potential Impact," page 7.

 We are currently exploring which professional library organizations to join, which conferences to attend and present our model at, and are in the process of organizing our volunteers into more specific committees. Conferences identified include ones on the subject of library science, nonprofit technology, and the future of media. We are actively working to recruit more professional volunteers who have experience in education and community outreach, as well as people from communities where English is not the first language. This is a new model, and we want it to be able to be replicated by organizations in other cities. We have already begun discussions with potential groups in Canada and Seoul, Korea who are interested, including cities throughout the US. We plan to keep up our conversations with these other organizations and hope to eventually be able to provide our library catalog software, built on Drupal, as an open source catalog that any community library can use. A number of our volunteers have become actively involved in local technology networking groups for nonprofit workers and librarians and we are constantly showing our model and asking for feedback from groups who have more experience than we do and from the kinds of people who would be regular users. Our next catalog will serve as social networking platform for users and publishers alike, but also as a history project where users can add background and context for individual items.