================================================================= ALAWON Volume 6, Number 77 ISSN 1069-7799 September 10, 1997 American Library Association Washington Office Newsline In this issue: (140 lines) ALA AND IRS WORK TOGETHER TO STRENGTHEN BPOL TAX FORMS PROGRAM U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION FUNDS AVAILABLE TO IMPROVE HIGHER EDUCATION OPPORTUNITIES _________________________________________________________________ ALA AND IRS WORK TOGETHER TO STRENGTHEN BPOL TAX FORMS PROGRAM More than 14,000 public and college libraries should have received their August Internal Revenue Service order blanks for tax forms for the upcoming tax season. The IRS Bank, Post Office, and Library Program (BPOL) allows the IRS to meet the needs of many taxpayers who might otherwise be inconvenienced in their search for tax forms and related materials. Distributing Internal Revenue Service federal tax forms is an important public service for libraries to perform, especially in locations where there are no other readily available sources. Such governmental services performed by libraries are a powerful argument for funding from federal sources above the local level (see ALAWON, v6(39), May 21, 1997. Order blanks were sent to those who participated in the BPOL program in the previous year, according to Diane Cichocki, IRS management analyst. This year the new and improved order blanks feature an all-in-one self-mailer in an easy to understand format. The order blanks recommend either a specific plan or a specific quantity based on previous form use. Libraries are encouraged to either increase or decrease the quantities needed. BPOL order blanks are due back to the IRS by Friday, September 12. Libraries can join the BPOL program anytime during the year. For more information call the BPOL program at 1-800-829-2765 or Ed Hardy, BPOL coordinator at 309/662-2478. Tax forms will begin shipping in mid-November. ALA's Public Libraries Association has an advisory committee which will meet during the ALA midwinter meeing to address this issue. To make comments or to participate in this process, contact Beth Bingham, chair of PLA's IRS Advisory Committee, at bbingham@ebr.lib.la.us or fax 504/231-3742. _________________________________________________________________ U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION FUNDS AVAILABLE TO IMPROVE HIGHER EDUCATION OPPORTUNITIES According to a notice in the Federal Register (August 22, 1997 62 (163),pp. 44855-57) the Department of Education is inviting applications for new awards for fiscal year FY98 for the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education--Comprehensive Program. The purpose of program is to provide grants or enter into cooperative agreements to improve postsecondary education opportunities. Eligible applicants are institutions of higher education or combinations of such institutions and other public and private nonprofit educational institutions and agencies. The deadline for preapplications is October 24, 1997 with final applications due March 20, 1998. Many of the priorities of this grant program could be appliciable to libraries, especially those in higher education: Invitational Priority 1: Projects to support new ways of ensuring equal access to postsecondary education, and to improve rates of retention and program completion, especially for low-income and under-represented minority students, whose retention and completion rates continue to lag disturbingly behind those of other groups. Invitational Priority 2: Projects to improve campus climates for learning by creating an environment that is safe, welcoming, and conducive to academic growth for all students. Invitational Priority 3: Projects to support innovative reforms of undergraduate, graduate, and professional curricula that improve not only what students learn, but how they learn. Invitational Priority 4: Projects to make more productive use of resources to improve teaching and learning; and to increase learning productivity--that is, to transform programs and teaching to promote more student learning relative to institutional resources expended. Invitational Priority 5: Projects to support the professional development of full- and part-time faculty by assessing and rewarding effective teaching; promoting new and more effective teaching methods; and improving the preparation of graduate students who will be future faculty members. Invitational Priority 6: Projects to promote innovative school-college partnerships and to improve the preparation of K-12 teachers, in order to enhance students' preparation for, access to, and success in college. Invitational Priority 7: Projects to disseminate innovative postsecondary educational programs which have already been locally developed, implemented, and evaluated. For applications or information contact the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE), U.S. Department of Education, 600 Independence Avenue SW., Room 3100, ROB-3, Washington, DC 20202-5175; phone 202/358-3041 to order applications or 202/708-5750 for information. Individuals may also request applications by submitting the name of the competition, their name, and postal mailing address to the e-mail address fipse@ed.gov. Individuals may obtain the application text online at www.ed.gov/offices/OPE/FIPSE/. Individuals who use a telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD) may call the Federal Information Relay Service (FIRS) at 1-800-877-8339. _________________________________________________________________ ALAWON is a free, irregular publication of the American Library Association Washington Office. To subscribe, send the message: subscribe ala-wo [your_firstname] [your_lastname] to listproc @ala.org. To unsubscribe, send the message: unsubscribe ala-wo to listproc@ala.org. ALAWON archives at http://www.ala.org/ washoff/alawon. Visit our Web site at http://www.alawash.org. ALA Washington Office 202.628.8410 (V) 1301 Pennsylvania Ave., NW, #403 202.628.8419 (F) Washington, DC 20004-1701 800.941.8478 (V) Lynne E. Bradley, Editor Deirdre Herman, Managing Editor Contributors: Carol C. Henderson Claudette Tennant All materials subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be reprinted or redistributed for noncommercial purposes with appropriate credits. =================================================================