The American Library Association (ALA) announced last week that Newtown’s library was among those included in the latest round of Library Census Equity Fund mini grants.

The $2,000 grants are meant to bolster service to hard-to-count communities and help achieve a complete count in the 2020 Census.

In November 2019, more than 500 libraries of all types submitted applications for Library Census Equity Fund mini grants.

The ALA awarded 59 mini grants in December 2019, an additional 21 mini grants on April 9, and 13 more mini grants on April 13, based on available funding at the time. With support from Facebook, the ALA awarded an additional 100 mini grants on September 22.

In total, the association awarded 193 of these mini grants to libraries in 46 states and the District of Columbia, providing more than $380,000 in support.

Applications were reviewed by a selection committee established by the ALA’s 2020 Census Library Outreach and Education Task Force, which includes Susan Hildreth, former director of the Institute for Museum and Library Services, an independent federal agency that provides library grants, museum grants, policy development, and research.

Booth Library Director Douglas Lord said last week that it was “wonderful to be supported by the nation’s top advocacy agency for libraries. This is the exact type of activity that our library is so good at: providing a needed community service for a very small amount of funding.”

Lord told The Newtown Bee that grant activities had been ongoing at the Main Street institution, including through social media.

“Given the current COVID-19 situation, the library is able to provide outreach at program sites and a fairly robust social media campaign,” he said September 25. “It is hoped that these efforts reduce the need for enumerators and follow up and increase the rates of completion. Costs include resource tables, printed materials, and the costs of cellular hot spots and tablets for people who decide to fill out the census on the spot.”

While the Census bureau lists multiple reasons that populations can be hard to count, Lord said locally three categories primarily applied. The first two were “Complex households including those with blended families, multi-generations, or non-relatives” and “Renters.”

Lord noted that the library also checked off the category of “People who have distrust in the government” when applying for the grant.

“Honestly, every community that I’ve ever worked or lived in has a vocal group of individuals.”

A complete count in the 2020 Census supports fair funding for libraries, schools, healthcare, and other vital services. Residents were asked to respond to the 2020 Census by September 30. On September 28, the Secretary of Commerce announced an updated target date of October 5, 2020 to conclude 2020 Census self-response and field data collection operations.

One other library in Fairfield County, Ferguson Library in Stamford, was also selected for Connecticut.