Letter keyholder request

January 2, 2017

Dear Chief Officer:
The purpose of this letter is to request your participation in the State Library Administrative Agency
(SLAA) Survey (formerly known as the State Library Agencies Survey (StLA)). 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.
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 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.
The FY 2016 SLAA Survey content is a web-based application that may be accessed only by the staff
person you designate as the Key Holder. Last month we sent you a request to provide information for
the Key Holder. The Key Holder will be responsible for the data submission. We strongly urge you to
appoint the survey respondent as the Key Holder. Please designate the Key Holder now. Instructions on
how to input Key Holder information electronically are attached to this letter. To ensure the timeliness
of the survey, we will contact you again if your Key Holder is not registered by January 10, 2017.
Key dates on the FY 2016 SLAA Survey schedule are:
•
Data collection begins:
•
John Lorenz Award:
•
Survey close-out:

January 17, 2017
February 21, 2017 *
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.
As in past years, the Key Holder will request your sign-off of the survey data submission to certify its
accuracy. Once the Key Holder submits their data, you will receive an automatic email with the survey
link, your username, and password. Please log in to the survey and certify the accuracy of the data.
Technical assistance for your data submission will be available from the SLAA Help Desk at AIR. If you

need any additional information or have any questions, please contact AIR at 1-866-261-2295 or at
SLAA@air.org.
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 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 [Insert new end
date of reauthorization].
Thank you in advance for your cooperation in this very important effort.

Sincerely,

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

_______________________________________________________
INSTRUCTIONS TO INPUT KEY HOLDER INFORMATION FOR FY 2016 SLAA
In order to collect Key Holder contact information we have set up a website. Below are instructions on
how to enter the Key Holder information in the website.
1.
Click on http://slaa.airprojects.org/Keyholder/default.aspx .
(if the website link does not open you can copy and paste to your browser)
2.
Scroll to the state you represent.
3.
Click on the state.
4.
Enter the contact information for your Key Holder.
5.
Once you are finished entering the information press save and confirm.
6.
The Key Holder information is now saved.
If you encounter any problems please contact the AIR SLAA data collection team at slaa@air.org.