Letter introduction to SLAA

January 4, 2017

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) 2016. You
will play an important role in this national data collection effort. These data are 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 20th 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 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 2016 SLAA Survey content has minor changes from the FY 2014 content based on feedback
provided at the listening session organized through COSLA last March 30. Attached is a list of the
changes you will see for the FY 2016 data collection. 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. In addition to some new questions the functionality of the webbased survey application has improved. The User Guide provides a general overview of how the web
application works.
Key dates on the FY 2016 SLAA Survey schedule are:
 Data collection begins:
January 17, 2017
 John Lorenz Award:
February 21, 2017 *
 Survey close-out:
February 28, 2017 **
*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.



Summary of Changes Handout: This document summarizes the major changes in the
survey from the FY 2014 collection to the FY 2016 collection.

Once you login to the survey you will find the following documentation:
 User Guide: This document contains important information for proper use of the web-based
SLAA Survey system.


FY 2016 SLAA Survey: This is an informational copy of the survey only and should not be filled
out and returned.



FY 2016 Instructions for Completing Survey Items: This document provides instructions on how
to answer each item in the survey.

Note that in collections through the FY 2012 survey, it was required that the State Librarian Certification
Form be faxed to the State Librarian for their certification of data accuracy. This notification procedure
was automated beginning with the FY 2014 SLAA to ease your burden. Once you complete 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 it is
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. 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
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 2016 SLAA data submission,
and I thank you in advance for your time and effort in completing this important survey.

Sincerely,

Matthew Birnbaum
Supervisory Social Scientist, Office of Impact Assessment and Learning

Enclosures:

Key Holder Certificate

Summary of Changes Handout