Consulting and Training Services: Conference Scholarships

You are eligible to apply for a conference scholarship if you satisfy both of the following criteria:

1. You are employed by a Massachusetts library.

• Full and part time paid staff with regularly scheduled hours are eligible to apply.
• Substitutes, unpaid library workers, and library supporters (e.g., trustees, friends, retirees, and volunteers) are not eligible to apply.

2. Your library is a member of the Massachusetts Library System (MLS).

• Check to see if your library is listed in the MBLC Library Database. 
• All of the libraries listed in that database are members of MLS.

You must satisfy these two criteria both at the time you apply for a conference scholarship and at the time your conference begins. 

Applications from individuals who do not meet the two above criteria will not be considered.

This conference scholarship program is intended to help library staff who want to attend a conference that may be relevant to their current library position or library career aspirations. Your conference must be relevant to libraries or library work, although it does not need to be a library conference. In your application, you will be asked to explain why you want to attend the conference and how it relates to libraries or library work. 

For the purposes of this conference scholarship program, conferences are divided into four types:

• Virtual Conferences: conferences that take place online.
• Local Conferences: conferences that take place at a physical location within Massachusetts.
• Regional Conferences: conferences that take place at a physical location outside of Massachusetts, but within New England.
• National Conferences: conferences that take place at a physical location outside of New England, but within the United States.

Except for virtual conferences, conferences that take place outside of the United States are not eligible.

If your Conference Scholarship Application is approved and you accept the scholarship, you are eligible to be reimbursed up to a pre-approved amount to attend your conference. MLS only provides reimbursement; it does not provide monetary advances. The maximum reimbursement amounts are:

• Virtual Conferences: $500
• Local Conferences: $1,000
• Regional Conferences: $1,500
• National Conferences: $2,500

Reimbursable Expenses:

Virtual Conferences:

• Registration fee (including pre-conference registration).

All Other Conferences:

• Conference registration (including virtual conference add-on).
• Pre-conference workshop registration.
• Registration for other official conference programs and events.
• Transportation to/from the conference location:
  • Local conferences: Public transit and/or ground transportation at the current IRS mileage rate (including tolls and parking).
  • Regional and national conferences: Air, train, or bus fare (coach class), ground transportation (at the current IRS mileage rate) to/from the airport, or train or bus station (including tolls, and parking). If driving is more expensive than flying, we will reimburse the price of a reasonably priced flight. 
• Hotel (maximum: conference hotel rates).
• Meals (maximum: $66 per day, inclusive of taxes and tips. Alcohol is not reimbursable).
• Ground transportation at the conference location (e.g., taxi, ride share, bus).
• Associated fees (e.g., luggage fees).

MLS will reimburse eligible expenses for the length of the conference plus one day before or after to accommodate travel. For example, if a conference is October 2 - 4, we will reimburse for October 2 - 4, plus either October 1 or 5 if you travel on that day.

Scholarship recipients must provide detailed receipts or appropriate documentation for all claimed expenses (including meals). Unsupported expenses will not be reimbursed. Reasonable gratuities may be reimbursed if documented on receipts.

Credit card statements are not acceptable documentation for reimbursement purposes. 

Non-Reimbursable Expenses:

• Discretionary costs such as membership dues, books, souvenirs, postage, shipping, entertainment, upgrades, in-room movie and mini-bar charges, rental cars, insurance, alcoholic beverages, or equipment purchase/rental.
• Parking tickets or speeding tickets. 
• Costs for persons other than the scholarship recipient (e.g., partner, child, spouse).
• Costs to cover missed shifts at the library during the conference.

If you have any questions about what is reimbursable, contact us before incurring an expense.

Eligible applicants may submit one Conference Scholarship Application per application period.

It should take approximately 5 - 10 minutes to complete the application. You must complete the report in one sitting. Here is a link to a PDF of the Conference Scholarship Application if you would like to see the questions in advance. 

Application Periods:

• August 1 - 15: for conferences held between September - February (starting next year, this period will be from July 1 - 15).
• December 1 - 15: for conferences held between March - August.

The deadline is 11:59 pm EST on the last date of each period. Applications submitted outside of these periods or for conferences outside the eligible dates will be denied.

Applicants will be notified of their application status within 10 business days after the application period closes. Contact us if you have not heard from us.

Application Statuses:

• Approved: We are offering you a conference scholarship. You must reply to our email within 7 calendar days to let us know that you want to accept the scholarship. If you do not, we will offer the scholarship to someone on the waitlist. At that point, we cannot re-offer the scholarship to you.
• Denied: Application did not meet eligibility criteria or was submitted outside the designated application periods.
• Waitlisted: More applications were received than available budget. You will be notified if a spot opens up.

Each applicant may receive one scholarship per fiscal year (July - June). If an applicant submits a second Conference Scholarship Application in the same fiscal year that they received a scholarship, the second application will be denied.  

If you are offered a scholarship, the offer is personal to you. You may not transfer the offer or the scholarship to another person.

If you accept a scholarship and then discover that you cannot attend the conference, you must notify us promptly so your scholarship can be offered to someone on the waitlist. Failure to do so will affect your eligibility for future scholarships.

This is a non-competitive scholarship. In deciding which applications to approve, we will use the following objective process:

Step One: We will sort all applications into four groups, according to the type of conference that applicants want to attend:

• Group 1: Virtual Conference
• Group 2: Local Conference
• Group 3: Regional Conference
• Group 4: National Conference

Step Two: Within each group, we will divide the applicants into two sub-groups: those who have not received an MLS conference scholarship within the three preceding fiscal years, and those who have. Those who have not will be prioritized within each group. Each applicant in each sub-group will then receive a randomly generated number. We will use this number in Steps Three through Six.

Step Three: Starting with Group 1, we will approve eligible applicants in order of their randomly generated number until we have exhausted our funding. 

Step Four: If we have funding remaining after approving all eligible applicants in Group 1, we will move on to Group 2.

Step Five: If we have funding remaining after approving all eligible applicants in Group 2, we will move on to Group 3.

Step Six: If we have funding remaining after approving all eligible applicants in Group 3, we will move on to Group 4.

Step Seven: Eligible applicants who are not approved will be put on a waitlist according to their randomly generated number.

MLS has budgeted $150,000 to fund this conference scholarships program during FY25. This amount will be approximately evenly distributed between the two application periods.

If your Conference Scholarship Application is approved and you accept the scholarship, you are eligible to be reimbursed up to the following amounts: 

• Virtual Conferences: $500
• Local Conferences: $1,000
• Regional Conferences: $1,500
• National Conferences: $2,500

MLS only provides reimbursement, not advances. You must pay for your expenses up front and then request reimbursement. You are responsible for any expenses that exceed the scholarship amount or are not eligible for reimbursement.

To request reimbursement, send the following to MLS Event & Project Manager Sarah Donnelly (sdonnelly@masslibsystem.org):

• Completed MLS Expense Report (downloadable Excel spreadsheet),
• Completed W-9 form (downloadable online form), and
• Detailed receipts or other appropriate documentation for each claimed expense.  

You do not need to wait until after the conference to request reimbursement for expenses actually incurred before the conference (e.g., registration, flight, luggage fees). We will process your request upon receipt of the required information and documents. A completed W-9 is needed the first time you submit for reimbursement.

Important: Credit card statements are not acceptable documentation for reimbursement purposes.

You may request reimbursement one or two times:

• One Request: Submit all claimed expenses after the conference. 
• Two Requests: Submit once before the conference (for expenses incurred before the conference) and once after the conference (for expenses incurred after the first expense report was submitted). 

MLS will not consider more than two expense reports from any individual.

It is your responsibility to request reimbursement and ensure all required information and documentation is received by MLS in a timely manner. Requests will not be considered until all required information and documentation is received.

Reimbursement Deadlines: 

• You must submit your reimbursement request no later than 30 days after the end of your conference.
• Except for conferences held in June - August, all requests must be received by MLS no later than June 15.
• Late requests will not be considered.

Contact us before the deadline if you have any questions about the reimbursement process.

MLS processes reimbursements through Bill.com. You may receive emails from Bill.com about your reimbursements.

If you receive reimbursements and are unable to attend your conference, you must repay any amounts reimbursed by MLS.

If you accept a conference scholarship, you must complete a Conference Experience Report within 30 days after the end of your conference.

Completion of a Conference Experience Report is a condition of the scholarship.

Your responses will help MLS understand the impact of the scholarship and will be used to continuously improve the scholarship program. It will also provide you with an opportunity to share some of your experiences and learnings with library staff across the Commonwealth. The report will consist of three parts:

Part 1: Provide basic information about yourself, including your name, library position, email, and Scholarship Number. Ensure that your Scholarship Number is entered correctly, as it is case sensitive and is used to track completions. 

Part 2: Answer a series of agree/disagree questions. Your responses will be de-identified and combined with those of other scholarship recipients for analysis, reporting, and marketing.

Part 3: Answer a few open-ended questions. We may publish your responses along with your name, library, and position on our LibGuide, website, social media, or in our newsletter to share your experience with others.

It should take approximately 10 - 15 minutes to complete the Conference Experience Report. You must complete the report in one sitting. Here is a link to a PDF of the Conference Experience Report if you would like to see the questions in advance. 

If you have any questions about the Conference Experience Report or how it will be used, contact us before you submit your application. Once you have accepted a scholarship, it is expected that you will complete the report.

Important: Failure to complete a Conference Experience Report will result in MLS declining any application you submit for any scholarship funds for the next two fiscal years or until you complete the report, whichever comes first.