FY12 SLAA Letter to Key Holders - background on survey

December 27, 2012

Dear SLAA Key Holder:
Congratulations on being named Key Holder for the State Library Administrative Agency (SLAA)
Survey (formerly known as the State Library Agencies Survey (StLA) for fiscal year (FY) 2012). You
will play an important role in this national data collection effort. This data is vital to advancing library
services in the United States, which is the core mission of the Institute of Museum and Library Services
(IMLS). We look forward to working with the library community to keep this program strong.
Background
This survey is the 18th in a series of successful SLAA surveys administered through a cooperative effort
of the Chief Officers of State Library Agencies (COSLA), the American Institutes for Research (AIR, the
data collection agent), and the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). IMLS is authorized to
collect these data under the Museum and Library Services Act of 2010 as stated in section 210, Policy
Research, Analysis, Data Collection, and Dissemination.
Survey Content and Data Collection Schedule
The FY 2012 SLAA Survey content is identical to FY 2010. As in past years, many items are completed
for you with prior-year responses when the data are not expected to change between data collections, but
please update any information that has changed. The functionality of the web-based survey application
has not changed. The User Guide provides a general overview of how the web application works.
Key dates on the FY 2012 SLAA Survey schedule are:
 Data collection begins:
January 14, 2013
 John Lorenz Award:
February 22, 2013 *
 Survey close-out:
March 8, 2013 **
*The survey must be submitted by this date to receive the John Lorenz Award for Timely and
Accurate Submission of SLAA Data.
**This is the final survey submission date.
Key Holder Responsibility
As Key Holder, you are responsible for your state’s data submission. This packet contains the following
information to help you register and submit data for your agency:
 Key Holder Certificate: This document contains the web address for the survey, key survey dates,
your SLAA user ID and password, and SLAA Help Desk information. Please keep this document
in a safe place, and do not share your user ID or password with anyone.


User Guide: This document contains important information for proper use of the web-based
SLAA Survey system. The guide is also available on-line under the help menu.



FY 2012 SLAA Survey: This is an informational copy of the survey only and should not be filled
out and returned. The survey is also available on-line under the help menu.



FY 2012 Instructions for Completing Survey Items: This document provides instructions on how
to answer each item in the survey. The instructions are also available on-line under the help
menu.

Note that in past collections, it was required that the State Librarian Certification Form be faxed to the
State Librarian for their certification of data accuracy. For the 2012 SLAA survey, once you have
completed the survey, an automatic message will be sent to the State Librarian requesting that they log in
to the survey and certify the accuracy of your data submission.
IMLS will provide tabulations of the final data in a report and a copy will be mailed to you as soon as
they are available. The final data file and related data products will be available on the IMLS Web site at
www.imls.gov/statistics.
According to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, no person should be asked to respond to a collection
of information unless it displays a valid OMB control number. The valid OMB control number for this
information collection is 3137-0072. The time required to complete this information collection is
estimated to average 26 hours per response, including the time to review instructions, search existing data
resources, gather the data needed, and complete and review the information collection. If you have any
comments concerning the accuracy of the time estimate or suggestions for improving this form, please
write directly to LibraryStats@imls.gov. If you have comments or concerns regarding the status of your
individual submission of this form, please write directly to SLAA@air.org. The Office of Management
and Budget (OMB) has approved this voluntary data collection through October 31, 2013.
If have any questions regarding this data collection, please contact the SLAA Help desk at
SLAA@air.org or 1-866-261-2295. We look forward to receiving your FY 2012 SLAA data submission,
and I thank you in advance for your time and effort in completing this important survey.

Sincerely,

Carlos A. Manjarrez
Associate Deputy Director for Research and Statistics

Enclosures:

Key Holder Certificate
User Guide
FY 2012 SLAA Survey
FY 2012 Instructions for Completing Survey Items