1 Running head: CLIENT DIANOSIS AND RECOMMENDATION

Client Diagnosis and Recommendation of Information sources: Finding Grants for Independent Farmers Valerie Bogert LI 813XR- Reference and User Services Emporia State University

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Faced with many issues regarding the economy and growing recession many people are turning to farming. Ben and Jenifer Wilson are urban farmers just outside Kansas City Metro, and a great example of this growing trend. They specialize in heirloom poultry, organic vegetables, honey, rabbits and dwarf pigmy goats. While their garden is thriving they could use some extra funding for future projects. They have been unsuccessful in finding money on their own so they asked me for ways to find grants and more information about money available for individual farmers.

Reference interview
The interview for this project was completed entirely online due to the locations of all parties involved. Using Dervin and Dewdneys Neutral questioning approach, tips from Cassell and Hiremath on Virtual Reference and Dewdney and Mitchells article on why questions, I attempted to find a list of grants and funding that applied to their situation. First, I talked with Jenifer about what she wanted me to research. Her initial response was that they were looking to see if there was grant money available for individual farmers in urban settings. Based on that information I came up with a blend of open-ended, neutral, why, and closed questions to fine tune my searches. Open questions such as Tell me more about topic X allow users to respond in their own words and do not limit answers to the narrow range of choices presented by the closed question: open ended questions are invitations to talk. (Dervin and Dewdney, 1986) Since this was an online interview, having plenty of good open-ended and neutral questions was crucial to getting her the right information. The first question that I asked was: What do you

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raise on your farm? She responded with a list of animals and crops that they currently have. I asked her to tell me what kinds of farming techniques they employ. She told me that they do all organic farming and use free range techniques with their chickens and other poultry. This led to my next question: Are there any specific projects you are wanting help with and what are they? She explained that they were just getting started with Apiculture (beekeeping) and raising heirloom poultry. She wanted to know if there was funding for maintaining bees and or chickens. From this information I decided to ask a few why and closed questions to gain additional insight and further narrow the information needed. In Dewdney and Mitchells article on asking why questions they make a point to say that these types of questions can be misconstrued if not asked correctly. However, further reading shows that one of the main reasons for asking them is to understand the true information need. For this topic I felt that asking why was crucial to understanding exactly what they wanted. Additional use of closed questioning helped me get some quick answers. I asked her why she was looking for grants. She explained that they did not qualify for any loans for other financial reasons, so they were looking for alternative ways to fund specific projects. Next, I asked if there was a specific amount they were looking for and the answer was no. I then asked if there were deadlines for getting money and again the answer was no. Finally, I asked her how she would like the information returned to her and she requested it by email. I told her I would search for links as well so she could continue her research and would give her an outline explaining what I did and did not find. Since there was no specific deadline I asked for several days to complete a thorough search.

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Research Process
Once I had armed myself with as much information as I could, I began my search. The main focus of this search was to find grant money whether local or federal for small individual farmers. I did not find Databases to be a helpful resource for this search. If they had wanted instructions regarding grant writing, then databases would have been useful. I used Google and Google Advanced to do the majority of my searching. By using techniques learned in class I was able to control the amount of information received with each topical search. The first topic I chose to search was small farming grants Missouri. My first results were huge (in the millions). Next, I narrowed it down to org and gov sites. I did find three sites that had good information regarding grant money. The first was listed under Financial Assistance, at the Missouri Department of Agricultures website. Once there I found an entire page with topic specific listings such as grants, loans, tax credits and energy programs. Under each topic were small paragraphs describing services offered and links for further information. Unfortunately there were no individual grants that applied to the Wilson family. There was one that was available for specialty crops if they were to partner with someone else. I decided to include it on my list for her since one of the crops mentioned was honey. I sent a quick message to Jenifer detailing what I found and she was very interested to at least see what that particular grant would require. I asked her if she was in a partnership with other farms and she replied that they were not currently, but were considering it for the future. Two other sites that came up using this phrasing were for the business bureau for Missouri outlining funding for Missouri farmers and Beginningfarmers.org. Both sites had limited information and beginning farmers was very hard to navigate. I did include both links on

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her factsheet just in case she might be interested. I changed my searches several times using the following phrases: urban farming grants, federal farming grants, and Missouri grants. All returned mostly the same results and pages. While looking into small farming grants I kept noticing that honey was mentioned. I decided to look into Apiculture grants since they have a hive. The results were fewer and after about 20 minutes in I found the same suggestion, contact your local Beekeeping association. I did notice that sites offering grants only provided them to Universities or research programs. Only five states had funding programs for individuals and Missouri was not one of them. Using Missouri beekeeping grants returned similar results. I listed this on my page and gave her information on local beekeeping associations in Missouri. Several had web pages and discussion boards for people interested in assistance. With that search proving to be a bust I looked into heirloom chicken farming. This has become very popular recently and there are many sites devoted to this cause. Jenifer has been on the search for rare breeds of chickens to add to her flock and now has about 2 dozen unique individuals. Per our interview, I discovered that they wanted to expand their chicken tractor and find sustainable heating and cooling alternatives (possibly solar panels). I used the terms sustainable and grants in my next search. One of the best results came from SARE (sustainable agriculture, research and education). They offered a whole sited devoted to finding funding for the North Central United States. When I clicked on the grants tab I found a great opportunity for Ben and Jennifer.

The Farmer Rancher Grant is for individuals seeking to complete projects on sustainability, research and education. One of the key qualifications for the money was the following:

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Grants support producers who are protecting natural resources, enhancing communities, and boosting profitability. They also support farmers who are exploring innovative marketing of sustainable agriculture projects, in addition to other project topics. (NCRSARE, 2011)

Out of all of the searches on grants this seemed to be a resource that they could use. The site details all of the requirements and guidelines for writing a grant proposal. While the cutoff for this year was in May, it does give them time to plan for next year.

Evaluation and Reflection

I had high hopes going into this project of finding lots of results. I was hugely disappointed that after 3 days of research I was only able to come up with two grants that might work. Still, I went ahead and created a factsheet for Jenifer with links to sites that I thought were of use. I talked with her on the phone and she was not surprised with my results. She said that they had been searching for months and had similar results show up. She was excited to see more information on the two that I did manage to find. For my searches I used the tips presented on pages 278-289 of our text to guide me. One of the best tips was to create a list of everything that I needed to search. I created mine based off the results of my interview with Jenifer. Step four gave further guidance on using search operators that helped me eliminate rural farming and focus on urban farming. One of the key things was using alternative words and not getting hung up on certain phrases. For example beekeeping grants returned much different results than Apiculture Grants. I also found that many sites suggested calling local extension offices for local funding opportunities. I also came across sites for cost cutting strategies and tax credit options. While this

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was not free money, Jenifer did find the tips very useful. By taking my searches beyond the word grant I did come up with some alternative resources for further research. I presented Jenifer with all the information and did a short phone review explaining some of the results. She said she was happy with what I did find, but was still frustrated that there was not more out there for individuals vs. research and educational facilities. She was impressed with the link sheet and said that would help them continue searching at home. She expressed that maybe those links might provide help in the future as they are updated frequently when funding becomes available. She stated she was satisfied with the amount of work I put into this project and would be comfortable asking me for help in the future. I feel that I did a fair job of finding information. I wish I had found better results and had been able to find things faster. This was a difficult topic and I feel like the state of the economy has limited resources for people like Ben and Jenifer. Some of the sites were confusing and there were many irrelevant topics. I think I did a good job of weeding out the bad and focusing on the more reliable resources that came from the org sites and the gov sites. I do think I need more practice and that maybe I could have used another search engine. All in all I did refine some skills and take note of the ones I need to improve.

Conclusion
The art of reference research takes time to develop. It takes time to become comfortable navigating the internet, books and databases. I had hoped for lots of success in finding results for my client, but I also had to realize that sometimes there just isnt anything out there to find. I have to be able to maintain a positive attitude no matter what kinds of results I end up with. I now have more skills and tools to help me in future transactions. By applying what I have

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learned in the text and with experiences like this I know that I can become an affective Reference Librarian.

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References
Cassell, K. A., & Hiremath, U. (2009). Reference and information services in the 21st century: an introduction (2nd ed.). New York: Neal-Schuman Publishers Dervin, B. & Dewdney, P. (1986). Neutral questioning: A new approach to the reference interview.RQ, 25(4), 506-513. Dewdney, P., & Michell, B. (1997). Asking why questions in the reference interview: a theoretical justification. The Library Quarterly, 67, 50-71. doi: 10.1086/629910 North Central SARE (2011) Farmer rancher grants. NCR-SARE, Retrieved July 22, 2011, from http://www.northcentralsare.org/Grants/Types-of-Grants/Farmer-Rancher-Grant-Program

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Funding Factsheet:
Potential Grants: Here are two grants that you might be able to receive in the future. The first is a partnership pertaining to specialized crops. If you were to go in with several people on beekeeping you might qualify. There is further information in the link. The second focuses on sustainability projects and has funding for individuals. Grants: Value Added Producers Granthttp://www.rurdev.usda.gov/BCP_VAPG_Grants.html Sustainability Grant: http://www.northcentralsare.org/Grants/Types-of-Grants/Farmer-Rancher-Grant-Program

Other links for Grants: Below are links for grant sites that you can look at. They seem to be updated regularly so you never know when something new might show up. The government sites also have loan and tax credit information. Grant and loan list for Missouri: http://www.stateagfinance.org/missouri.html http://mda.mo.gov/abd/financial/ Found under individual farming grants search: http://sustainableagriculture.net/publications/grassrootsguide/farming-opportunities/individualdevelopment-account/ Another Grant list: http://sustainableagriculture.net/publications/grassrootsguide/farm-bill-programs-and-grants/ Federal Agriculture Grants: http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usda/usdahome?navid=KYF_GRANTS

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Other links and useful information: One thing that I found over and over was to contact your local extension center for funding opportunities and programs. Local Extension Service: http://extension.missouri.edu/jackson/location.shtml Beekeeping Sites: Only a handful of states offer individuals grants for Apiculture. Most of the Federal and State money goes to Universities and Researching facilities. There are few out there for individuals. The ones I found were for individuals doing bee research and ways to help sustain hives and bees. However, I thought you might find these at least useful. http://mostatebeekeepers.org/ Resources for Missouri beekeepers http://www.honeybeehelp.com/grants Several sites recommended calling a local Beekeepers Association for help with start up. Here is a link that lists all of the sites in Missouri. http://www.beeculture.com/content/whoswho/index.cfm?state=MO#state

Heirloom Poultry: I know you love your fancy chickens! Found these to be interesting. Heirloom Grant: Thought this might give you ideas and a contact for Heirloom chickens. http://www.northcentralsare.org/Newsroom/Regional-News-and-Press-Releases/Farm-Fresh-Eggs-andChicken-Coming-to-the-Table-in-Missouri Society for the preservation of Poultry Antiquities: http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/SPPA/SPPA.html American Poultry Producers: http://www.apppa.org/index.html Hatchery Sites:

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http://www.poultryconnection.com/hatchery.html http://www.motherearthnews.com/Sustainable-Farming/2005-02-01/Enjoy-Heritage-Chickens.aspx

Heirloom meals: http://heirloommeals.com/

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