Hi, it's Frigid. Welcome to Above Life Channel. The purpose here is to inspire your spirit and to fill you up with hope. So the weekly channeling video is going to feature a famous afterlife psychic. This is a psychic from the afterlife. She is very well known. She was one of the first, I would say, psychic. She was the first psychic I ever knew about and she's written tons of books and she was on many, many daytime talk shows. She has some unique features and characteristics such as her voice sounds unique and I thought it would be a kind of an interesting conversation to have with Sylvia Brown in the afterlife. This should be interesting. I have never really channeled a psychic. So let's see how this rolls. All right. So I have a notebook in front of me where I was going to sit before this session and give some energy to allowing myself to connect in with what I might want to ask Sylvia and so I have a few, just a couple. I only wrote three things down and as the questions were coming to me, the responses I could start to hear the sound of her unique voice. She had a very kind of raspy, gritty voice, very unique to her and so it's easy to connect in with that clear audience, which is the ability to hear spirit and I'm a little bit, nervous isn't the right word, but I'm a little, I'm sure about this particular channeling because I at the time that Sylvia Brown was really big and popular I wasn't really, I didn't even know I was a psychic. I didn't even know I was doing psychic stuff. I had no idea that I wasn't aware of all of my gifts and skills and such and so I guess maybe psychic stuff might have been interesting to me but the only way that I even saw it would have been on the daytime TV shows when I was on maternity leave and that's it. Like I never read any books of hers or anybody else's for that matter and after I kind of got psychic then I started being open to psychic stuff and that's when I met other psychics. Before that I hadn't even had a psychic reading. Nothing. So I'm, I feel as though I may have, I know, I know I'm just gonna be really forthright Sylvia and be respectful as she's gonna come in and sit down just kind of standing and say that I know that I judged you. I judged you because all I had access to was my mind and my emotions and I felt like my emotions were just supercharged and I was very focused in my analytical mind. I was very successful in my career and having a family and managing the house and you know working my way up the career ladder and all this success stuff and I really wasn't, I did not recognize the importance of spirit, of intuition. I just thought I had a good sense of things and it turns out I do and it turns out so did you. So I'd love to welcome you and have a very open, minded, hearted and spirited conversation. I'm going to Sylvia Brown in the afterlife. I want to like stand up to kind of greet her. I feel like I should do that. Have a seat. Thank you. She has a long kind of flowing, I don't know what I would call it, a duster on and looks very comfortable. There's a light kind of pale pink color underneath. That's a long shirt and then the duster only goes to like maybe just the long sleeve goes down to here and then the duster goes to maybe, it's not just elbow length, it's a little bit past the elbow and it's loose and it's like a purple lavender and then the pants are really flowy lavender too and then she has small, flat shoes on and she looks very comfortable and she looks spirited. And it's a beautiful color. So the pink is and the pink and the purple for me when I see that, I know that it's a sign of respect. It's a gift of the heart chakra energy and it's also an acknowledgement of divine feminine. That pink energy is connected with archangel handle and that purple energy is connected with archangel area and for me those two are a perfect balance, a whole energetic view of women. And so our soft side, our strong side, all of it. And so that is our thank you. That is beautiful. Thank you. I am kind of excited now. My energy just shifted. I'm kind of excited to talk to you because I've never talked to a psychic before or a medium that is in the afterlife. She says there are, you know, there's a few of us. Yeah, I know, but I've never, yeah, you're my first famous psychic from the afterlife. So all right. So I have several questions for you. First of all, is there anything that you are, you really want to clear up about the afterlife? About being a spirit? Maybe some things that you might have misinterpreted as a psychic and also to psychic or medium, which were you? How would you describe yourself? Because I think that's important because psychic and medium, a lot of people now use the term psychic medium together and some just use psychic, some just use medium. How what would you consider yourself to be? She says psychic is what she considers herself to be psychic. She says psychic is traditionally known as more prediction or predictive behavior and of the human realm and yet has the opportunity to access spiritual helpers and guides to allow humans to fulfill their life purpose and to find meaning in circumstances that are beyond their control, like tragic situations in particular or happy circumstances too. Medium, I don't, I don't really, she's not, there's no energy around the word medium for her and yet that's exactly what you did was connect with the afterlife. But she says, but it was, she said, you have to remember that the times were different then. I was one of the first, you know, I was one of the first very public faces of spirituality of new age and although there were many, many others, I just happened to be one that was invited to the stage and because of that the the term that was used for me was psychic and I'm okay with that, I'm fine with that. So do you consider yourself more of a predict, did you do a lot more predictions or a lot of communicating with the dead people? She says both, I did both, but the mainstay was more in helping to, she is saying helping to determine the future, determine the future, that's different than making predictions, can you talk a little bit about that? It sounds like you know something different now from the afterlife perspective than you did when you were sitting on those talk shows. She says, of course I do, of course it's different, of course you would expect it, wouldn't you want it, don't you want it to be different than what your just limited pea-sized brain would give to you as an explanation, wouldn't you want, of course you would want it to be different, you'd want it to be more, you'd expect more, and she says more understanding. Okay, so talk about predictions and psychic and that, talk more about that, explain that to us then how you understand it in the afterlife. It's one of the powers that you're given as a human, it's another way of seeing things, of managing things and networking and the ideas and the concepts of manifesting and co-creation and setting intentions and letting life unfold are very positive spiritual concepts that many tout, but in actuality for many you will only be as connected to your psychic-ness, to your psychic, no she's not saying psychic-ness, to your psychic abilities as your mind will allow you to, your mind is a powerful ringmaster and it truly is a circus down there, it truly is a circus down here, she says down there and then she corrects down here. All right so predictions then, can you talk about how that works because I call myself psychic and medium because I'm both, however I don't identify the word psychic, the term psychic, as a person that makes predictions because I believe we co-create, we create our future, the best way to predict your future is to create it, that's what I wholeheartedly, I will stand and scream that until the day and go into the afterlife, but that's what I believe, so is that accurate because you're telling me that, I mean kind of get in the sense that is it not true? She says no I didn't say that, she says I didn't say that, it's true for you if that's what you believe, you are limited by what you believe, what you can possibly conceive of and that she says she keeps referring to our brain as like a P, a little P-sized brain, truly the ego mind is much more of a hindrance than you ever could imagine, that is, it is much more abusive to you in your lifetime, it is much more the cause of your pain than anything that actually happens to you, even to your body, even horrible circumstances and situations and I knew about that, I experienced abuse in my lifetime, I experienced devastating loss, I experienced divorce, I experienced a lot of things, I took a lot of things, I used to get death threats, I experienced a lot of that suffering, that human suffering, so I know, I know, okay so I'm shifting and I literally like get pulled kind of over a little bit, so realigning then as a spirit in the afterlife, what do you think about predictions and how our life unfolds then, is there any insight you can give us about that? She says I said it, I've already said it, it's your mind, you are limited by what your mind can think, people say have an open mind, well easier said than done, she says easier said than done, because what that means is a great deal of change for you, so is everyone psychic, can everyone connect with spirit, can everyone see their future and are we supposed to do that, see our future?  Of course you have a plan, you come in here with a plan because if you didn't have a plan your brain would run rogue, it would run amuck, it would be not rebellious but it would be like a dictator and in many cases your brain is because you allow it to be a dictator, you allow it your mind to think for you because that's its job, right, but you can't allow your mind your brain to feel for you and the communication between the way you feel and what you're thinking is where most people get off the track, that's when you step away from your timeline, life plan, life line, she's got a billionaire life line, she shows it to me like this and there's plots on the thing, that's when you step off of that and sometimes all together just stop doing it, stop participating and just let your mind tell you what to do and you just do it mindlessly, mindlessly, kind of ironic isn't it, kind of interesting, but so do we have a destiny, she says that concept of the fate, what is faded is something that you've agreed to before you come in to your life and you know, you recognize, you have spoke about this before, you know that you understand the energy of this, she says to me, you understand the energy of this, is it like life-theming Sylvia, is that what you mean, like we have a theme that we come into our life so we kind of know and those are like fate pieces or destiny points kind of on this linear life that we're living, is that accurate, she says yes, that's exactly right, but it's not what your mind thinks it is, your mind is limited in the definition again, you are not a fan of the ego mind, no I'm not, but it's necessary, she says no I'm not, but it's necessary, you need it, it runs your body and the systems of your body, you need it because you need a body in order to have your experiences, so you need your mind, you need it, thank you, wow, all right, so is there anything in particular that you would want to share with us Sylvia Brown as we are talking to you in the afterlife here, thank you so much for being here, that you would want to share about your human life and reflection or that you might want to clear up in retrospect, I can think of something that pops into my mind and can I just ask you about that, is that okay, I want to make sure that I'm respectful, I remember, I recall this because it was kind of, it's something that sticks out to you in you know a person especially if you're in the same, like if you're in an industry where you have other people in the same business as you, you kind of know, you know, what's going on on a global scale like bigger, like you know who's like heavy hitters in the industry and stuff and so when some, then when this particular situation happened to you and you got a lot of criticism for it, I would like to talk about this, if that's okay with you, she said yes, I know what you're talking about, she said yes, I know what you're talking about the girls in the house, yeah, she said yes Bridget, I would love for you to talk about this, clear this up, shall we, let's do it together, all right, so there was a, I know, I remember recall that there was a situation where you got a lot of criticism because someone connected to a criminal situation and that was highly publicized and I can't remember the state and I don't want to say the wrong state, highly publicized case where women went missing, young girls went missing and they were found in this house as like prisoners of this house for like, they lived there for I think like three years or something, I don't remember, it might have been longer than that and for a long time and this guy was like, you know, imprisoned these women and one of them had a baby and I mean it was just awful situation and you were asked on a public television show if one of the women was still alive and you said no that she was dead and so tons of backlash because years later or I don't know the exact timeline timing of it but later on it was found to not be true that the girl that when you were asked about she wasn't dead she was alive so let's clear this up Sylvia I would love to talk talk to everyone and educate the viewers people who love psychic stuff and spirituality and mediumship and all that this this kind of stuff it happens it doesn't mean Sylvia Brown was a fraud that's not what it means it doesn't mean she's a bad psychic I'm gonna say that I'm gonna stand up for you because I'm gonna say that because that's true because we get it wrong sometimes and you know why because that poor little girl was suffering so much that it's completely possible that her spirit and her body detached and from how she felt when Sylvia may have tried to connect into her energy spirit it felt like she was dead she was not here because she had to check out separate her human experience from her spirit her soul so that she could survive and transcend the situation though horrible circumstances the abusive circumstances that she was in and that's how she survived is that accurate Sylvia is that how it happened she says you do the best you can and I wanted she says I wanted that girl to be alive I did a lot of work in criminal she says with criminal investigations and apprehension I did a lot of work a lot more public cases Sylvia says a lot more public cases than what was ever publicized I had I did a lot behind the scenes that a lot of people did not know and she doesn't say that for like self gratification she says it to broaden your understanding of perspective and to help people like me who are a psychic a medium and a channel and sharing this is how it works we are also human beings and we feel energy this on different levels and experience things and interpret the energy that we feel with our minds which are what limited so she says she felt dead to me there was no life there there was nothing she says usually when I feel into the energy of someone when someone asks me for a missing person's case I can usually see a light she's showing me like right at the heart just above the heart right here right in the chest here between the the throat chakra here in the actual center of your chest right here and she says usually you can see a white just a white circle of light like it looks like a little flashlight kind of piercing through the darkness so when I see that then I know that they're alive and that there's hope for them I can see that so you were clairvoyant yes oh yes very yes very much so very much clairvoyant oh yes very clairvoyant and clairaudience too she says clairaudience too so she saw and heard that was her those were her big her big things I saw and I heard information and most of the time very accurate from what I understand but you have opinions too so and you're on live television like answering this question and writing from the family and feeling their deep desire for her to be alive and give them hope and you had to tell them what you thought was true that she was dead she says well it was true there was no light there I did not see the light there was nothing there was no communication from her there was nothing well then if there was nothing then couldn't you have went and to look for her that in the afterlife or how does that work so if you couldn't feel her life source as a person because it is totally possible you guys to connect in with people who are still alive I mean I've done it many times with people who have Alzheimer's dementia children who have special needs that can't communicate at all I've done it myself it's not hard to connect with someone's spirit and talk to their higher self and and find out in fact I instruct women mothers especially dealing with teenagers dealing with young kids dealing with behavior issues dealing with depression with their kids and they're worried to death about them intentional choice of words but what can they do I'm like if you can't talk to them in person it's not working in person the counseling's not working that kind of thing and you're just frustrated or you're sad or you're you're it's affecting you as the parent I counsel people I encourage people to talk to their higher self or the child see that godlight within them that's what this is that's what you see that's fascinating so then Sylvia then if you couldn't see that in human form then why wouldn't you go then to the afterlife to ask for her she says I did I did I did ask and someone came in front of me that looked like a guide for her an advocate for her and said no she's gone she's done no she's done not gone is it gone or done because I can see the word I can see the oh any she's done she's done like so there was like a guide or somebody that stepped in front and waved their hand and said she's done so either if she wasn't to die from the circumstances that she was in she was so lost from her human life her actual life that she it's like she's a totally different person and totally new person is that accurate like some way to describe that yes so was that a difficult time for you of course it was of course it was she says of course you care about people you want people to be healthy and happy but that's not how it works Bridget you're not going to like this she says Bridget you're not going to like this okay well have a sip of coffee then it's not always pretty talking to spirits getting involved in difficult situations is not always and this is not always happy endings there's a lot of drama and trauma and tragedy and horrific things that you see this is why you don't do it but there are others who do we all have different roles we all we all step in and play different parts for society for the community as a whole for the greater good the common good but it's not it's not pretty it's not easy she's she's she's projecting this energy of you have to just accept that you won't always be right sometimes you'll be wrong and when you're wrong that's when people remember what you say they don't always remember all the times you were accurate you were right you got it right but you have to let that go it's not about your human mind it's not a you have to let go of the mind and the judgment and the criticism you have to just accept and know that that's going to come and that's going to be there no matter who you are or what stage you're on whether you're a psychic or whether you're a teacher or whether you're a mother or what any career you're in any path that you are pursuing for your purpose and your mission here as a human you're going to get criticism you're going to get hit hard at times and it gets get hurts but you got to develop and i would use the word resilience she says you got to have courage you got to just be brave and stick it out because if you don't all the other spirits that you signed up to help in this lifetime won't get the help that you already committed to so you got to stick with it is this the advice to psychics and mediums because i wrote that down that was my number three question do you have advice for psychics and mediums stick with it she says you got to stick with it don't let people who don't know anything about your work who don't know anything about this on a public level who don't know anything determine what you're going to do do not let people that know nothing about this that's it's not their responsibility to keep going it's yours you committed to all those other souls to help them out and they can't get the help from you that you committed to oh maybe they'll find someone else but that's not what you signed up for you signed up to help them and you got to stick it out you got to find a way day after day to get back into work to reconnect with spirit and it's not easy i had dark times i dealt with alcoholism i dealt with incredible depression i had medications i had there was a lot of difficulty for me i was very sensitive highly sensitive you don't see that on television these aren't excuses these are just circumstances and situations that humans face and you still go to work when you got a connection to your purpose you go to work you show up and you keep doing it until you can't do it anymore those are some very powerful words i'm going to watch this back and listen to that thank you for that thank you for that thank you for that so you don't hate me right now because i just i judged you she says you didn't know any better you didn't know did you know no i didn't know what i didn't know she says you remember that the people that are going to judge and criticize you they don't know what they don't know because this isn't their job it's not their job to figure it out it's not their job they're just passersby let them keep walking by they're passersby you guys as you're watching this as i'm talking with silvia brown from the afterlife these concepts apply to you no matter what you're doing in your human life the concepts of criticism and judgment being right apply no matter what you what what you're doing for your life work what you're doing for your career what you're doing with your family and managing your house having kids no matter what is important to you you're going to feel criticized or judged and it's not easy and it's going to be by people that don't know what they're talking about because they don't know your circumstance they may have to think they have some experience in this or in that but they don't know you they don't know what you're made of what you're capable of and what you're supposed to be doing on this earth you just focus on doing what you're supposed to be doing and ignore the rest the rest is just static this was fascinating and fabulous this was great thank you so much for your time silvia i do appreciate it very very much and for those who are fans of silvia brown she's like love thank you she's like giving you love thank you she says thank you we might chat again should we i think that would be great if you have questions for silvia brown in the afterlife please please please post them because i think this would be a fabulous follow-up we could do another interview that would be great have another afterlife conversation with silvia brown but i need your comments to do that there's a couple questions i have that i'd like to chat with her about but i want your comments you guys always ask wonderful questions so please put them below you know i'm going to read them so you have been watching an afterlife interview at above life channel with silvia brown famous psychic medium in the afterlife remember the purpose here is to inspire your spirit to fill you up with hope because this is your life this is your life so live it this is bridget thanks for watching


It is now time for members statements. I recognize the member for Windsor West. Speaker, four years ago this conservative government promised to make life more affordable. Promise made, promise broken. Many people in Windsor can't buy a home. A single family home has increased almost 32 percent in just one year. Because of blind bidding, my constituents have to bid hundreds of thousands of dollars over asking, and young families aren't able to buy a home of their own. This government cut rent control, allowing rental costs to soar. The average one-bedroom unit has jumped from 700 to $1,200 a month, a 71 percent increase. The cost of childcare, groceries and fuel have all gone up under this government's watch. Hydro, which they promised to cut by 12 percent, has increased by 5 percent, and they refuse to sign the $10-a-day childcare deal. Ontario Works and ODSP recipients have been forced to live in legislated poverty, struggling to make ends meet, relying on food banks because they can't afford food and rent. Workers from our casino, Bingo Halls, Auto Assembly and Parts Plans haven't had steady employment in almost two years. They're struggling while this government supports their corporate buddies at Amazon and Walmart who are making billions of dollars in profits. Nurses and other workers have their wages suppressed because of Bill 124. Inflation is 6 percent, yet the conservatives believe healthcare workers are only worth a 1 percent pay increase. That's equivalent to a 5 percent pay cut. In 99 days, people have chosen an NDP government that will take profit out of long-term care, repeal Bill 124, ensure everyone has a home they can afford, reduce childcare and grocery costs, increase social assistance rates, support workers and small businesses. Member Statements. I recognize the member from Aurora Oak Ridge's Richmond Hill. Good morning, everyone. Thank you very much, Speaker. Great to be here in the legislature with all of you. Speaker, I know a lot of great initiatives and events have taken place since I last rose here in this chamber, but today I'd like to highlight one important celebration that's taking place through the month of February. For this entire month, we are celebrating and learning about the contributions that Black Ontarians have and continue to have in our province and in our local communities. This year, I was honored to participate in the first flag-raising ceremony held in the town of Aurora and attended an online virtual event to kick off this month's festivities. Speaker, I'd like to give special thanks to my good friend Fiona Durant, the President of the Aurora Black Community Association, Milton Hart and Michael Korniff from the Aurora Black Caucus and Mark Lewis from the Anti-Black Racism and Anti-Racism Task Force for their incredible work, leadership that they continue to provide in our community, which was on full display at these events. Speaker, at the Virtual Black History Month event that was hosted by the Aurora Black Community Association, it was an absolute pleasure to hear from the event's main guest speaker, the Honourable Jean Augustine. She explained to us her experiences as a member of parliament in Ottawa and the journey in creating and passing the legislation which officially recognised February as Black History Month. Along with all the participants, we were captivated and inspired by her relentless pursuit in achieving this goal. As I mentioned at the event, I believe learning and celebrating Black history in our province and in our country should go beyond just the month of February. Now, it's important to recognise that we have made significant progress over the years, Madam Speaker, but there's still so much we can do and there's always room for improvement. Thank you very much, Speaker. Members' statements. I recognise the member from Thunder Bay, Attacopen. Thank you, Speaker. There is a crisis in healthcare in the North. One person in eight across the North does not have access to primary healthcare. In Northwestern Ontario, we have a shortage of hundreds of positions. Facts like these represent the failure of this government to make sure Northern Ontario gets the healthcare it deserves. Equitable access to healthcare is a right under the Canada Health Act. We need to encourage more positions, healthcare professionals, to work in Northern communities. We must retain those we have and work to help with their burnout. The provincial government needs to take action to build a better and more resilient healthcare system for the North. The Northern Ontario School of Medicine, NOSM, has done an excellent job training the next generation of physicians who work in communities across the North. But this government needs to immediately expand the Northern Ontario School of Medicine's capacity to meet the needs of Northern Ontario. There are other solutions that need to happen immediately. It must work with stakeholders and communities to address shortages of physicians, nurse practitioners, and the healthcare professionals that form our teams. The people of Northern Ontario deserve to have equitable access to healthcare. Member Statements, the Member for Brampton West. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to begin by sending my thoughts and prayers to the families impacted by catastrophic flooding in Brampton. The church will area has dealt with an incredible amount of flooding and many residents were forced to evacuate their homes. It has been estimated that around 100 homes have been impacted by the floods and the water in some areas has risen up to six feet deep. I want to thank all first responders for all of the hard and necessary work they are doing to help residents get to safety. This is devastating news and I pray for the safety and well-being of many Bramptonians impacted by the flooding. If you have friends or family living in the area, I recommend checking up on loved ones. Once again, Mr. Speaker, this natural disaster has caused pain and suffering for many Bramptonians in the church will area, yet it is truly heartwarming to see the community come together to help one another. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The next Member Statement, the Member for Kiwetna. Miigwech Speaker, this morning I'm going to share the words in the notes of Cassandra Fiddler. She was the mom of Grant Mechis, 9, Remy Mechis, 7, and Wilford Fiddler, 4 who passed away in a tragic house fire on the night of January 13, 2020 in Stanley Lake First Nation. This is her note. All my kids were asleep and I went to check up on them and had turned on the heaters in their rooms. I went to put two small logs in the wood stove and I went back to my room and not even after 15 minutes I smelt smoke and saw flashes. I went to look and seen the fire on the ceiling right away. I got my boys up to take their blankets and go to the door. I ran to Remy and Wilford's room, got them up and went towards the door. The boys couldn't open it because it was already too smoky. I had all my kids by the door, so it opened. I ran back to the room to get my baby. I went outside and saw only Malaki and Braden. I was going to go back inside but when I turned the fire was already getting bigger. Two people came to help but the fire was too big. I told them my babies were inside and the girl who came to help told me they're knocking on the windows. They broke it but they couldn't see them inside and then we were taken to the nursing station because I had inhaled a lot of smoke and I was burned. I cried so much for my babies. It made breathing hard and I was on oxygen until I was stable. That's the end of her note. Cassandra, Miigwech for your words. We will always remember Grant, Remy and Wilford. Miigwech. Thank you very much. Member statements? Member for Chatham Kent, Leamington. Speaker, we're all aware of what happened in Ottawa over the past three weeks. Blocking all lanes and bridges, inhibiting the flow of goods between Canada and the U.S. And preventing people from getting to work was problematic. But why were the truckers there in the first place? Fighting for a reinstatement of vaccine exemptions? Initially, yes. But it became much more than that. Defending individual rights and freedoms. To eliminate this peaceful protest all was needed was for the Prime Minister and the Premier to meet with the organizers. Sadly, that didn't happen. Civilian journalism came to light. Paul Harvey would say and now the rest of the story. Were the people of Ottawa disadvantaged? Perhaps. But crime was down and people weren't getting sick and being admitted to hospital. Actions of the many cannot be held responsible for the actions of the very few. Many questions of those causing trouble were in fact associated with convoy. Truckers took care of things. They had rules of conduct, cleaned up garbage, stood guard around monuments, supported local businesses were respectable and fed to hungry. Truckers and non-truckers from my writing provided updates. Ottawa citizens would come up to the truckers, offer food and hugs. Negative reports were from the very few. In summary, I was offended by the characterization of truckers by Trudeau and others. The use of such inflammatory language was unjustified in my opinion. Protests in Ottawa happen all the time. Calling this peaceful protest a siege, illegal or calling truckers and supporters terrorists and occupiers is so wrong. Now the emergency act has been revoked. Why now? Did the PM change his mind? Paul Harvey would say it's pure politics. Member statements? The member for Peterborough Court. Thank you Mr. Speaker. Usually when I rise in the House for a 90 second statement, I'm talking about something that's going on in my writing or we're talking about an individual who's made an outstanding contribution to the community. I want to take this opportunity to talk about an individual that is quite possibly the best listener any of us will ever meet. She's won a number of awards over the last three years for her ability to support people who face trauma. Every day she puts her specialized training to work to help others. But Speaker, she also has a dark side and she knows exactly where the treats are held in the desks of those that she can convince to give one of those treats to her when she tilts her head and flashes those puppy dog eyes. I'm talking about the Peterborough Police Service Victim Support Dog Pixie. Pixie is a black lab who has the most calm demeanor of any dog you'll ever meet. She's never in a hurry to get anywhere and frequently requires a good scratching behind her ears. Pixie has proven to be a great support for many individuals in their time of trauma and she's also been a fantastic addition to help an officer when they've had a particularly difficult day on the job. Sometimes all you need is that unconditional non-judgmental friend who wants nothing more than to sit with you and just listen and that's exactly what Pixie does. Pixie is a credit to the service of Peterborough and I want to thank Alice Citrone for all of her work in victim services with Pixie. Thank you Speaker. Member statements? The Member for St. Catherine. Thank you Speaker. Early on I learned as the City Council that you must be prepared to work with everyone even today in these chambers to get things done. Often I've worked with all political stripes to help the residents in St. Catherine's however it is clear sometimes the vision of the Ontario that this current government has is too far from my own. The disability programs in Ontario is an example of that. One of the first acts by this Premier was to ensure disability programs received no more increases. Since 2018 this program has not seen an increase even though Ontario's annual inflation is over 5%. This is shameful. Last year the average single bedroom apartment in St. Catherine's almost at $1,500 a month. Our Ontario Disability Support Program shelter benefits covers about one third of that. I've requested many times at the very least that this province review this program. Nothing. Advocates have requested livable incomes for individuals on disabilities. Nothing. The Auditor General has called it one of the worst job programs ever created. No change. Premier Ford you inherited the ODSP program from the past Liberal government. Under this government's watch it has gotten worse. We need to see increases in supports for disability programs in the upcoming budget and if we don't we need a new Premier. That will be okay. Member statements? The member for Bruce Grey O'Oan Sound. Thank you very much Mr. Speaker. I rise today to recognize an act of incredible generosity in my great riding of Bruce Grey O'Oan Sound. Recently, Solitary Medical Clinic Incorporated donated a total of $1 million to the foundations of Graybury's Health Services to purchase equipment for hospitals in Wyrton, O'Oan Sound and Southampton. Close to 20 years ago community-minded citizens in Sobble Beach began working on the concept of establishing a new medical clinic in the town. After a lot of hard work and a lot of fundraising the clinic on Main Street became a reality and the Sobble Family Health team was born. Speaker today there are 2,800 patients rostered using this clinic. There are two doctors, two nurse practitioners, three nurses and a social worker who are all working at the facility. The clinic is an amazing success story for the community and it would not have happened without the hard work of many people including the late Marge Lipka, a dynamo Mr. Speaker and let me tell you never underestimate the power of buttertarts and pierogies because she got a lot of stuff done with that. Carl Noble, Dr. John Vandorp, Gina Vandorp, Tracy Jones, Joan Williamson, Dr. Shazia Ambreen, nurse practitioners Kevin Linnan and Kathy Babin Niven. Kathy gets Perry from VON, Sheila DeWinter, doctors Leeson, McNay and Barker, Cecil Groves and to everybody Mr. Speaker that continues to make the clinic such an important community facility. Currently doctors Sue Gundram and Dr. Larry Schmidt and nurse practitioners Emma Lustig and Haley Shapiro continue to provide service. Speaker the owners of the building that are home to the clinic actually sold it to be able to give back. There are plans to spend $400,000 for Warrant Hospital to purchase an X-ray machine, $350,000 for the Owen Sound Hospital to purchase a new C-arm for the operating room and an ultrasound machine and $250,000 will go to the Sathampton Hospital Foundation's CT scanner campaign. Speaker this is fabulous community work that's providing community benefits forever and a day. Thank you so much to those individuals who have been involved. Thank you very much. That concludes our member statements for this morning. Very pleased to inform the House that Page Christian Tanwejea from the Riding of Etobicoke Center is one of today's page captains. We have with us today at Queen's Park his mother Shinta Tewejea and his stepfather Peter Tekeraco. We're also joined today by the parents of our other page captain, Lucia Wei from the Riding of Richmond Hill, her mother Jingyu and her father Shoning Wei. Welcome to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario. It's a pleasure to have you here. The government house leader has a point of order. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If you seek it you will find unanimous consent to allow members to make statements in response to the Russian Federation's invasion of the sovereign country of Ukraine with five minutes allotted to Her Majesty's government, five minutes allotted to Her Majesty's loyal opposition and five minutes allotted to the independent members as a group. Government house leader is seeking the unanimous consent of the House to allow members to make statements in response to the Russian Federation's invasion of the sovereign country of Ukraine with five minutes allotted to Her Majesty's government, five minutes allotted to Her Majesty's loyal opposition and five minutes allotted to the independent members as a group. Agreed? Agreed. Agreed. I recognize the Premier. Well thank you, Mr. Speaker. There are certain dates that will be forever printed in our history books. Dates that will be forever etched into our memories. June 28th, 1914, the beginning of World War I. September 1st, 1939, the beginning of World War II. We must pray that February 24th, 2022 isn't next.  We witness Vladimir Putin's war of aggression begin in the Ukraine. The bonds between Ukraine and Canada run deep. For without the Ukrainian people, their resilience, their bravery, their strength, their willingness to fight for their family and friends, the Canada we know and love today would not be the same. The food that feeds our families. It's farmed by grandchildren and great-grandchildren of Ukrainian immigrants who left aggression and poverty to settle the Canadian West. Our greatest athletes, like Gretzky, our greatest entertainers, like Trebek, our greatest voices, like Bachman, and our greatest scholars and scientists, like Dr. Bondar, Ukrainian-Canadians. We've cheered them on. We've laughed and sang along together. We've touched the heavens. They left a permanent mark on Canadian history. They left a permanent mark on our society. For again, without Ukraine, the Canada we know and love today would not be the same. And because of that, we will forever be tied together as two nations, an ocean apart, but forever one. Canada shall never waver in standing against tyranny. Canada shall never waver in the support of Ukraine. As Putin's aggression lights up the skies of Kiev, they will see the strength of the Ukrainian people emerge from the darkness. We must ensure that your Ukrainian flag flies high above the skyline. The blue and yellow must be the last colors the invaders see. Slava, Ukraine, glory to Ukraine, and glory to our heroes. Thank you, and God bless the people of Ukraine. The Leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition. Thank you, Speaker. Speaker, this morning we stand in solidarity with the people of Ukraine, all Ukrainians who call Ontario and Canada home and Ukrainians worldwide, folks who fear for their loved ones overseas, and are deeply worried about the lives, safety, and sovereignty of the Ukrainian people during this dark time. I join global leaders and peace-loving people around the world in condemning this unprovoked attack by the Russian Federation and the violent invasion Putin is using to drag people into the horrors of war. We all call for diplomacy and immediate de-escalation of military actions. As Ontarians, we know the vital role Ukrainian Canadians have played in building this province and our country, and the Premier just spoke of exactly that. Cities and towns across Ontario are steeped in Ukrainian history and culture. And as Canadians, we are so fortunate to share a strong bond with Ukraine. The official opposition and DP has always been proud to stand side-by-side with the Ukrainian community from working closely together to make September 7th Ukrainian Heritage Day to recognizing Holodomor Memorial Day every November to celebrating Ukraine's 30th Independence Day this past fall. We will always stand in solidarity with the people of Ukraine's efforts to strengthen their democracy and institutions. And we will always reject the path of aggression, the path of stoking the flames of division and imperialism for political gain, and the path of threatening world peace by attacking the sovereignty of others and their democratic right to choose their government. Mr. Speaker, I strongly reaffirm our commitment to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders and to its economic and financial stability and to the well-being of its people. And in closing, Speaker, I ask the Prime Minister, Federal Government, to ensure that we welcome Ukrainian refugees, commit to family reunification and provide humanitarian aid to the people of Ukraine to our best and highest ability. Ukraine, which means, Speaker, we stand with the people of Ukraine. Member for Ottawa, sir. Very much, Mr. Speaker. And we stand with the people of Ukraine, our Ukrainian friends and neighbors in condemning the illegal actions being taken by Vladimir Putin in the Ukraine this morning. There is evil in the world. And it's kind of a shock to all of us this morning and last night, think about the children of Ukraine who are going to be children of war. Think about how do we explain it to our children who are afraid. How do we give them confidence? What is it we need to do? What we need to do is stand united. Not just on this, but on everything. We have to put aside our differences. That's what our children need. That's what the children of Ukraine need. If we're going to stand up for them, we have to stand up for them together. And we've seen recently in Ontario, Ottawa, something similar to what we're seeing in Ukraine, not nearly as bad, not barely as dangerous.  And make no mistake, what's happening right now in Ukraine is hate and anger and division.  Arts, science, sports. They're our neighbors. They're our friends. Many of us have Ukrainian Canadian communities inside our writings. We go to the festivals. It's about family and community. It's really hard sometimes to figure out what you can do. How do you change the things that you can't change? How do we stop the thing that's happening right now? What do we do? The only thing for us to do is to be united, to bring ourselves together, to put aside our differences. Because that's what the people of Ukraine need. That's what our children need right now. It's a scary time in the world. And I'm sure for them, I know for them that it's scary. It's scary for all of us. Thank you, Speaker. Member Perquell. Thank you, Speaker. I rise today to unequivocally condemn the military invasion and bombing of Ukraine by Russia. War is never the answer. Violence is never the answer. Launching bombs at innocent civilians is never the answer. We, as Ontarians, stand in solidarity with the people of Ukraine and Ukrainian Canadians to denounce this senseless act of aggression by Russia. And we, as Ontarians, have a duty, a duty, Mr. Speaker, to stand in solidarity with Ukraine and our fellow Ukrainian Canadians. Speaker, last night, last night I watched in horror when I saw our neighbors to the South having a debate about which side they were on. And so I want to say to the Premier, thank you. I want to say to the Leader of the Official Opposition, thank you. I want to say thank you to the House Leader of the Liberals that in this house, in this province, we stand united for democracy. Democracy must always trump authoritarianism, Speaker. We may have our differences in this house, and we've had a lot of back and forth, but the one thing we stand united as Ontarians is our respect for democracy, our respect for international order, and our respect for peace. So I want to thank every member of this House today to standing in solidarity for the people of Ukraine and for denouncing this senseless act of Russian aggression. Thank you, Speaker. Thank you very much. Leader of the Opposition has a point of order. Thank you, Speaker. I seek unanimous consent for the House to observe a moment of silence for the 2,262 Ontarians who have succumbed to COVID-19 since this House last honoured the victims of the pandemic on December 9th, 2021. Leader of the Opposition is seeking the unanimous consent of the House to observe a moment of silence for the 2,262 Ontarians who have succumbed to COVID-19 since this House last honoured the victims of the pandemic on December 9th, 2021. Agreed? Agreed. Members will please rise. Thank you. Members, please take your seats.


Good afternoon. Morning. Great start. I'm Katherine Klosek, Director of Information Policy and Federal Relations at the Association of Research Libraries, ARL. In this session, you're going to hear about opportunities and resources from federal funding agencies. And the idea is to get your gears turning, to borrow a phrase from Ashley, to really think about projects that these agencies might fund. And also to help you be prepared to put together the best possible submission that you can. So we're going to hear from each panelist. And then the plan is to leave time for questions at the end. And the panelists are all very accessible. So if we run out of time, I'm sure they'd be willing to chat with you in the hallway as well. Great. So the room is filling up to hear from these folks and not me. So first, we're going to hear from Brett Bobly, Chief Information Officer at the National Endowment for the Humanities, NEH. Brett? All right. Thanks, everybody. So don't tell the people outside the room, but we're going to be giving out money in a little bit. Just to you all, though, because we don't have that much. So as if we were asked to kind of give an update on what we're doing at our agencies right now. And I was thinking to myself, what am I working on right now? I think the last 10 or 15 years, I spent a lot of time building the Office of Digital Humanities at the NEH. I thought it was really important that we had a federal presence that was specifically funding digital humanities work. And that was really consumed a lot of my time at the NEH. But that is very well-established now. And I think that the last few years, I've been focusing on something different, which is research. And I think we're trying to raise the profile and the importance of humanities research. I think that, I mean, if I were to ask all of you right now to think to yourself, what are the biggest problems in the world? What are the things you're really worried about? And I know for me, I mean, I would be things like the decline of democracy and the potential rise of fascism. It would be things like privacy and security. It would be things like the inability of society to address climate change. These are things that keep me up at night. But if you think about all those things I just mentioned, at the heart of it, these are all social issues. These are all humanities issues, really. A lot of the major world problems that we need to deal with today are not necessarily ones that are fully going to be solved by the sciences, but rather, need the perspective of the humanities. Humanists can tell us about the history of the Middle East. They can tell us about the history of climate change. They can discuss governance and democracies and why democracies fail. These are really important issues. And I feel that, as I've been at the NEH a long time, and it really concerns me that people don't seem to care about humanities research and don't seem to understand why it is so important and is one of the missing factors that we have today. So I've really been working at the NEH to try to raise our research profile, to try to emphasize more why humanities research is important and that it is not just about discovering what happened in ancient Rome or discovering why Abe Lincoln was a good president. It is very relevant and germane to today and to tackling the problems we have today. So a lot of the work that I've been doing lately has been very much that, making sure that the NEH is willing and able to fund projects that are very much relevant to looking at today's issues. And I think it's also just important from a, you know, more and more you're hearing in the news, you know, that, oh, the humanities is not important. Why would you major in the humanities? But I would say it's the opposite. I think it's never been more important. And I'm hoping that the NEH can help drive that message home. So to that end, I'm going to talk about a new initiative at the NEH that I helped to spearhead, which is trying to, again, drive home the importance of humanities research. This one is called Humanities Perspectives on Artificial Intelligence. We just announced it a little while ago. And I think, crucially, this new initiative is about understanding the ethical, legal, and societal implications of AI, right? It's not about developing new AI. Now, I'll note, you know, if you want to develop new AI for the humanities, we have a digital humanities program that can absolutely do that. And we have done that for a long time. But this is more specifically about looking at AI from the perspective of its impact on truth and trust and democracy, safety, security, privacy, civil rights, civil liberties, that kind of a thing. Because, you know, we're seeing billions of dollars being sunk into developing new AI, and I'm not seeing a whole lot of money being sunk into specifically the humanities perspectives on AI, which I think is really an important one. Now, let me note that AI is just one of the many global problems that the humanities research is important for. And I'm hoping to have other, we really want to emphasize many other areas.  We're really trying to get more humanities research on climate change right now. But for the purposes of today's session, I thought I'd talk a little bit about this new AI initiative. So this AI initiative encompasses several different NEH grant programs fall under the umbrella of this initiative. And I'm going to talk about two of them today. First one is a brand new program called Humanities Research Centers on Artificial Intelligence. And we did model this a little bit on the NSF. They also have a program which funds research centers on AI. Although the NSF ones are a little bit more driven toward developing and new applications for AI, new types of AI, this one, as I mentioned earlier, is 100% on the ethical, legal, societal implications of AI. These are very big grants for the NEH. They're not big in the science world, but these are up to 750K. So the idea here is to establish research centers whose focus is on societal implications of AI. Another program I want to talk about is our DOT program, DOT, Dangerous and Opportunities of Technology. This is a program that we just launched last year. And, you know, as the name suggests, funny, I had to fight hard for this name, Dangerous of Technology, because I wanted it to be provocative, I wanted it to be deliberately provocative. Because I think that coming from the digital humanities world, I've been funding for the last 15, 20 years a lot of projects about how cool technology is and how we can leverage it for the humanities and leverage it for all kinds of interesting research. But this program is much more explicitly about what are the downsides there? How can we use the lens of the humanities to investigate technology and look at how does it impact society and people? So, for example, topics could be things like looking at disinformation in social media and how it impacts democracy, medicine and pandemic response, wealth inequality, cryptocurrency, NFTs, supply chains, streaming economy and how that is impacted by technology. So really, so as you can probably see just by this list, there's pretty much every humanities discipline could be involved here. We've been getting a lot of proposals from philosophy, from media studies, from history, from sociology, very broad amount of stuff. And I will note we've been getting a ton of applications. There's a lot of broad interest here. And I do think, let me just get back to my earlier statement, the fact that we put this program out with a provocative title, I think, is helping draw in researchers who previously would not have thought of the NEH as a funding source. Because I do think we've had a reputation for being shy about funding research that is very contemporary. But I think we're trying to get rid of that reputation and say, because I alluded to earlier, that is absolutely critical that we are willing to find research on these very important topics, very timely topics. So this is, like I said, new program. We've just had our second deadline. Oops, sorry, not too far. The next deadline for this program is September 12th, so a year from now. And there are two different ways you can apply. You can either apply as a single researcher or as a research team. Anyway, that's our new initiative. Thank you very much. Feel free to get in touch. I should note my colleague, Josh Sternfeld, is in the audience somewhere. Feel free. There he is, way in the back. So feel free to grab Josh or me during the break if you have any questions at all. Happy to chat with you. Thank you very much. Thanks, Brett. And I saw folks snapping photos of your contact info. So I'm sure you'll hear from folks afterward. Now we'll hear from Martin Halbert, Senior Advisor for Public Access at the National Science Foundation, NSF. Hi, folks. I'm going to keep my comments fairly short so that we can get to Q&A. I wanted to give you a little bit of context about NSF, although the agency is so large that there aren't, you know, I can't cover all the new opportunities that we've got. But let me just give you a little perspective about NSF and suggestions on how to interact with the agency. NSF is unique in the U.S. Federal research space because it funds all areas of science and engineering. It typically funds more than 11,000 proposals per year at over 1,800 institutions nationally. It's hovered around those rates for a few years. I checked this morning. So it's a lot of different research. We typically are measured as funding about 20% to 25% of the research in the country. And the funding for NSF did go up just recently in the last couple of years because of the Chips and Science Act, which interjected another roughly billion dollars into the budget. So it's now almost $10 billion annually. 9.8 was the latest figure I found. And we pride ourselves on giving out the vast majority of that money, not a lot of it goes to the maintenance of the organization. My main advice is first, check the NSF website frequently. We are always developing new solicitations of various kinds. Unfortunately, we can't announce them before they are officially released. So and because everybody is busily working on developing these things and getting them ready, there is a lot of paperwork actually that or forms that have to be filed in advance of these programs to get them out the door. And this jumped way ahead. But just be sure to understand, you know, or spot the new solicitations as they come out. I know that's annoying thing to have to continually check the website. Be sure to understand the structure of the agency's directorates and divisions which make it up. Because that determines a lot of the focus and just emphasis of the different programs. These are the programmatic areas that develop these solicitations. And there may be programs in parts of the agency that you're unfamiliar with but which may be interested in funding research in your area. Or because I know there's a lot of library and IT professionals here in areas of your institution with which you regularly collaborate. So there's just a tremendous amount of opportunities at NSF and especially in our new tip directorate that I highlighted because that one is all about new partnerships. Many of which are in the public and private sort of space. And just one representative example that I'll go through briefly is open science. That's my main area. And while I'm going to where there is another presentation this afternoon at one o'clock specifically on the public access program of NSF. This is a broad area within the agency now that many areas of NSF are actively supporting with new solicitations. And what I'm going to show you here are dear colleague letters a sort of a lighter you know more flexible mechanism that we get announcements out so that we can fund areas and emerging areas of research. Many of these programs are typically aimed at some intersection of a particular disciplinary community and open science and they very well again may represent opportunities for collaboration with your institution's library or IT centers. These the following are just a couple of representative examples from the GEO directorate which is one of the more active directorates within NSF around supporting open science practices and principles. And I'm just giving these just as exemplars to give you a sense of the kinds of things that come out. A dear colleague letter is literally a letter that goes out to the community that expresses a interest in the relevant program in funding particular kinds of proposals. This is one that is in the polar research area specifically around software. So a pretty narrow focus of software that involves as they say here open source software tools, libraries and frameworks that are critical for polar scientific objectives but that embody open science. They do reference in this DCL the federal year of open science that we gave a presentation about yesterday and the sort of the new focus within the government across federal research funding agencies on open science. So it's an example of a flexible mechanism. You can talk to the program officers that fund these different programs and get a sense of the kinds of things that they're looking for to get a better sense of what you might be interested in applying. Just one more example around a very common category of research of awards that NSF funds workshops. It's one of the most common funding mechanisms at NSF and this is particularly again an area that interlaps or interacts with open science. Again in the geo arena. And it references the Nelson memorandum that many of you are certainly familiar with from last year and the growing emphasis on workshops that advance the understanding, the adoption of practices and open science and specifically in ways that foster public access. So this is just a brief overview of some of the ways to interact with NSF to be aware of solicitations that come out and don't hesitate to contact the listed program officials that are associated with each programmatic listing. That's exactly what they're there for. There's always going to be some contact at the agency that is specifically there to answer questions. That's your NSF program officer and they can explain what the focus of the new solicitations are and how to apply. Thank you and give us a call. Thanks Martin. And finally, we'll hear from Ashley Sands, senior library program officer with the Institute of Museum and Library Services, IMLS, who will close us out before we get to Q&A. All right, so I'm curious, would you raise your hand if you have ever applied for and or received an IMLS grant? Anybody here in this room? Yes, I love it. That is, I don't know, let's say 80%. Okay, so especially the 20% who did not raise your hand, I'm especially talking to you. As was just said, we are available to talk about your ideas. And so the main thing that I want to get across today is that, hi, I'm Ashley and I have other human colleagues that I work with and we're not federal robots or anything like that. We love this stuff too and we enjoy talking about it and we want to make sure that the applications that come in and therefore the awards that are made are as best as they can be as possible. I did print out some copies of a handout, I passed them around a little bit and left some in the back. Again, just that friendly reminder to follow up with me when you have your ideas that you want to talk about. I don't have any specific new initiatives to bring up the way you may have heard here, but in general, you all are telling us what the new initiatives are, what the new priorities need to be when you submit your applications. So if you see on our flyer that we have expertise in certain areas, that's us reflecting back to you what we've seen. Never consider that to be a limiting factor. We want you to tell us what's new and important in the field and we need to consider. So based on the hands, folks are really familiar with IMLS. We do indeed give grants out to libraries across the country. Our biggies, the National Leadership Grants for Libraries and the Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program, they're annual. They will likely continue to have a September deadline. And note that we have two phases in this. So it's only two pages that you submit for a narrative for those two programs. We hope that kind of lowers the bar and allows folks to, even if you're not ready to commit the time to develop a 10-page narrative and the whole proposal package, we get you peer review comments on that kind of smaller amount of work that you need to put in. Also, I'm not sure if anybody here in this room is from a Native American tribe or a Native Alaskan village, but we have specific programs that support you too. So definitely get in touch with us or tell your friends, your colleagues, if that's applicable to them. Obviously, Institute of Museum and Library Services, there's also a whole museum side of the house. I'm not the expert on that, but just, again, a friendly reminder that you can collaborate with your museum colleagues and come to us also. So NLG, this is your generic program. We're looking for projects that are gonna be able to advance the field. Laura Bush, this is kind of a more targeted approach where we're looking to support the workforce, the current, the potential future, and retaining existing into the future workforce of librarians, archivists, information professionals, and especially important is ensuring the diversity of the profession in that regard. Here's a sense of what you can apply for. Sadly, IMLS does not have $10 billion. So we're talking at the $50,000 to a million dollar mark, but is what we're kind of able to fund in that regard. But it could all the way be from an exploratory planning, really trying to figure something out at the $50,000. It could be a forum, hey, we need to bring people in a day early to CNI to talk about X, Y, and Z, or it could go up to $750 for an applied research or an implementation project. I do wanna point out the applied research. That's something that we refined that language in the last couple of years to really hit home that at IMLS our directors are not interested in research for the sake of research. I'd also venture to say they're not interested in research for the sake of, well, I have to do research to get tenure. We're really interested in what is going to impact the field, impact patrons who are working with our information communities, and really especially with our current director, is there a way that the work you wanna do could impact the average American person, the average person in America? That doesn't mean you have to collaborate with a public library, it could mean that. But how are you gonna impact the average person in your community, for example, not just your top three researchers at your institution, but what about undergraduates who are first in their family to go to college? Again, making sure that the average person, not just your good old fashioned ivory tower researcher can benefit from these federal funds. So again, there's lots of ways you could turn these into it. If you ask for over 250,000 and it's not research, we're gonna ask for some cost share. It's always a good thing. Also a reminder that you don't have to necessarily be the one to come up with the new idea. There are already existing awards that you may be able to tap into and to receive benefits. So here's some examples of Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Awards that are currently in existence and offer ways to get training and education that can benefit you all, but especially could benefit your staff. So this is CNI. I know you all are not necessarily thinking, oh, I should learn how to do research today. That kind of a thing, but there may be a number of people on your staff who are really close to being able to take on a new study, really close to being able to do some more technical things and what they need is library carpentry to come in or what they need is to be nominated to be able to be on the idea institute on artificial intelligence or maybe they just need a little free time in the day to go to Lib Parlor and be able to connect with other folks. So just a reminder that the awards that we give out that are currently existing, you and especially your staff may be able to benefit right away. These are just some examples. So obviously, you don't keep your eyes open. Another great professional development opportunity for you all and for your staff is to become a peer reviewer. I feel like it is a great way to kind of get the genre that is the application and to kind of be able to then in the future when you're applying, being able to have that kind of critical eye. So I think it's a great professional development opportunity also. I have a few little additional tips. When you're applying, first of all, you're gonna call me first, call her or email's good, we'll set up a time to chat, but talk to a program officer for an advance of the deadline, whether it's me or one of my colleagues, that's what we're here for. We're here to help. We're here to ensure that the funds are best spent and therefore we don't let anyone floundering and accidentally going to the wrong programmer or anything like that. So again, contact us. Really pay attention to the details in an application. This is really important. We call it the NOFO, the Notice of Funding Opportunity. You may call it the call for proposals. Read it, read it again, print it out. Pay really close attention to these words. Must, should, may. These are federal speak words that have real implications. For example, if you see the word must and you fail to put that into your narrative or your package, it may get completely rejected without review. So that's a fun keyword search. Let's highlight all the musts. Should and may generally are gonna more point to quality. They're gonna say if you have these in them, we've noticed that it's a higher quality proposal that gets reviewed higher. So there's something to take away. Must, should, and may. Also for these two programs, we have the narratives, both the preliminary proposal and the full proposals of the recently awarded grants on our website. So IMLS has awarded grant search. You can kind of be like, all right, show me the National Leadership Grants for the last couple of years and you'll be able to see those awards. And again, I think that can help you get a sense of the genre. How much time did they spend on this or that? How specific did they get? So you can kind of have, again, have a sense of how to write and how to see what has been successful recently. Also, if at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Caveat, as long as you're trying again in consideration of the reviewer comments. And also again, we're available so we can have a counseling call where we talk about those reviewer comments. So, you know, we set up a half hour on Zoom or whatever tool you'd like to use and we kind of chat through those reviewer comments and I can kind of give a sense of, you know, what that means, what the implications could be. Again, doing my best to help ensure every proposal submitted is as strong as possible. Then I just wanted to hit on a couple of recent awards really quickly. So, here's one from Indiana in 2022. And what I want to point out here is that again, this is the room of CNI-ARL. In a lot of ways, the people in this room have some of the highest funded, highest supported institutions in the country, which is awesome and there's really cool brand new innovative things happening. But again, let's not forget the common person, the common academic, the common person across the country. One great way to do that is through really fruitful partnerships. So, here's an example of Indiana that's collaborating with Grand Valley State and Belmont Universities. So, they're doing this to use educational resources to teach negotiation theory and strategy within the academic library for negotiating third-party content provider agreements. So, you may have expertise that you can share and or you can learn from other institutions. There's a lot to learn for us for looking at fill-in-the-blank agreements that need to be made and how each institution is doing it differently. Here's another example of University of Texas at Austin that is providing opportunities for your staff to be able to learn more and also be able or this, sorry, this one is specifically for doctoral students but similarly to some of these pieces where perhaps your continuing staff can have education. Again, they have great partnerships. Austin Public Library, Navarro High School and University of Texas Libraries. So, they were doing the school thing library rotation model where they took it from the ways that nurses do or doctors do rotations through different parts of the hospital. They're specifically taking them to a public school and a university library to give them those expertise, give them a sense of that. Carol Palmer is leading an effort at the University of Washington if you haven't heard about it recently. Coalition of seven additional iSchools and they're really looking at as library and information science evolves within the context of the iSchool, how do we best position our programs to lead the field and the future of libraries. This is something that, I think a lot of us are thinking about and something to also consider if you're curious about that. Again, Carol Palmer at UW is leading that initiative but that's something about where is LAS going, where is what we're teaching in the master's degree helping to support the needs that you all have as you're hiring. Another quick good one, got another minute. The University of Kentucky. In a lot of the things, discussions that I've been recently, there's always the that would be great, that would be great but promotion and tenure. The real carrot is how to make it work with promotion and tenure and here is one way, you can see it's Kentucky Virginia Tech and this international network of research management societies are doing something that's working internationally in Europe and bring to the US this formal training and making strategic research management decisions with responsible evaluation methods. So what if the promotion and tenure criteria were changed, were different and considered in this responsible way. A final point I'd like to make with an example of a Yale award, we have added some language to make archives be more easily eligible to the National Leadership Grants and the Laura Bush program. So that's something else to consider whether on your campus or your community, archives are more closely relevant and certainly interested and here's an example of again, my colleagues and I and some of our expertise but again hopefully y'all are also thinking of ideas that we're not listed here. We wanna hear from you, we wanna take this forward, take the field forward and excited to hear from the 20% and more in the next year, we got plenty of time before September. So thank you. Thank you and we successfully left some time for questions. So if folks wanna queue up at the mics, we can hear more from our panelists. I think folks are making their way. It is hard to see up here. Yeah, I didn't think I'd be the first one here. Well, thank you very much for this useful and inspiring panel. I have one question for the IMLS and the NEH and you two are sitting next to each other which is really helpful. How do you see any potential applications involving climate change being welcomed by your individual programs? I'm not asking the NSF because obviously there's actually a science fiction novel about climate change grants written to the NSF. Hello, okay. I'll start. Climate change is something we are explicitly trying to get more proposals in. On our website, I can't remember the exact webpage, but we have it all over the place. Climate change is one of our priority areas right now so we're very keen to get more proposals in that area. If it's important to you, in theory, it's important to us. There's always the consideration that we are a federal funder. But again, if it's important to you as the field, it's something that we wanna consider. And so again, emailing and we can have a chat about how best to frame it to fit our programs. Very good. Thank you. Thanks, Brian. This is Drew Wichita from University of California Riverside. I have one comment and one question. The comment is, I would really want to thank IMLS over the years for making their awarded project proposals open out there for other peoples to learn. I wish if it's ever possible, NSF and NIH also follow that trend. Question. So one of the, I see major opportunities for the library is to develop much deeper partnerships with our effecting members in different areas of research. When we start to write proposals together, sometimes we hit the wall. If the proposal has too much of a library flavor, it does not smell very well to orthodox NSF or NIH reviewers. If it has some signs or stem flavor or NIH, when the proposal goes to IMLS, we often got to review saying, why don't you seek money from NSF and NIH? So the question is, you guys have got a very great history of interagency collaboration, for example, digging into data. I wonder if it's ever possible for you guys to also start thinking about more interagency collaborations to allow this type of cross-disciplinary research to flourish. Thank you. Is this, yeah, it is on. Great idea, absolutely. We often do joint programs. It just depends, you know, I've had conversations this year about possibilities with Ashley. So it takes, creating new programs though takes a lot of work, to say the least. It just, it has to be really well articulated. It has to be a clear need in the field. But I think it's great synergy.  We don't do that, and that is a great idea that something to, I think, would really help and assist in people learning how to write good, you know, successful grant proposals. So points well taken, I don't know. Yeah, you know, thank you, Jiu-Jitsu, because I can go back to my office now and say, hey, at CNI, there was a call for us to do more working together, so I'm very into it. There is one example of some interagency work that we do, the DAG program at any age, Digital Humanities Advancement Grants. So IMLS provides a relatively small amount of funds to that program to enhance it and allow more awards to be made, which hopefully also encourages you all to work with the humanities and libraries together so that that looks more appealing for the IMLS funds that are going into there. But we are excited to do more of that. The overhead's big, but you know what? We're happy to do that if that's what's gonna help the field, right? We have started doing more programs aimed at libraries. That's some of what I'm gonna talk about, a number of programs at a program, where I'm gonna have some of those awardees present at one o'clock if you're interested in that. And I very much appreciate the points that you made about finding that right sort of Goldilocks zone of how scientific a thing has to be to sort of pass muster with NSF, or how librarian-y it has to be to pass muster with IMLS or scholarly to, you know, that is a real balancing act. That's a recurring issue, yeah. Recurring issue, and I personally, I think interdisciplinary things that combine all of those areas are very well called for and there should be more of those. Absolutely, and then just another example of one, you call us and we chat through a draft. I can say, ah, this framing here, this framing here, maybe to help you situate it for each specific place where you apply. Thanks for the idea. You heard it here first, and ready to take the club. Coming. Hi, Rob Tennison, Yale University. So following on from Jeebu's question to some degree, the NSF this year awarded 26.7 million dollars for the creation of a prototype open knowledge network, which is amazing. Thank you, Martin and colleagues for those awards. I think it was 18 different institutions that part of that program. So here we are. Initiative out of our tip director. Yep. So here we are at CNI, the Coalition for Networked Information. Imagine that people in this room put together a coalition of, say, 18 organizations wanting to build a non-science-based, but more humanities-oriented knowledge, open knowledge network. What are the options, apart from interagency, that you've already spoken to? But for example, could we all, you know, say 18 organizations put in a $1 million implementation grant together, each individually, to get to $18 million? Or would that be frowned upon that you are sort of roughing around the process to get $18 million out of the IMLS rather than a $1 million project, which is, of course, the current limit? And similarly, I believe that it is one to three years. So if you can spend $1 million in one year, and then the following year, you can spend another million dollars, the following year, you can spend another million dollars. Are there some tricks that we can play on the federal government? So. To address the disproportionate amount of funding for the humanities, computer, and sciences? I think that's a great question, and I'll just jump in to begin with, but obviously the grants that we give out, again, they're one to five is the maximum, maximum, that you can end up at, and they need to be project-based. So one way to kind of get around that is come to me first with a planning grant, get something going, then maybe you talk to Fred about a $250,000 implementation. By the time you have such a great layer, you go over here, you see Play-Doh in the back, and you try to get a million dollars to keep it going. It's kind of fragmented, you don't know if it's gonna get funded each piece, but I think that's the best place to start. So at IMLS, we only have about 10 million in NLG, and 10 million in Laura Bush each year. So that's kind of where I'd say, that makes sense for us. Yeah, I mean, you're getting to the fact that the difference in scale between IMLS and NEH, and then jumping up to NSF, and then jumping up to NIH, forget about it. I mean, to put things in perspective, could I make an $18 million grant? No, my entire annual budget is like six million, so that can't happen, which is unfortunate, but the reality is, and I think getting to what Ashley was saying, that if you're looking for grants in the humanities or in the library space, talk to us and we'll let you know what options are out there, and we're happy to help you, and knowledge networks and things like that are certainly something that we can fund, but probably not at the kind of scale that you've seen from NSF or other funders. Now that OKN set of awards, I was on the planning advisory group for that thing, so it would be worthwhile sharing a bit about how that came about. That was an enormous amount of preparatory work. That didn't just, somebody didn't just wave a wand and make $26 million in awards. There were a six to eight month series of very intense and closely facilitated by external groups, series of conversations nationally about the nature of knowledge networks, knowledge graphs, and what would go into that, refining the idea of the whole concept. There was a preparatory document that we spent months generating the OKN roadmap. I would encourage you to take a look at that thing, because we were trying to distill, why was it worth spending $26 million on this nationally? We don't just throw a dart and try to come up with something randomly. We do a lot of preparation, especially when it's a brand new program like that to demonstrate that there's a need, that there's a clear articulated roadmap way forward on that stuff, and that's the kind of preparation that leads to the significant new programs, like $26 million isn't the biggest NSF award. It's not an insignificant one for sure, but the larger the awards and the larger the amounts of money allocated to it, the more preparation goes into, and the more justification goes into that. So if there was a desire to do a similar kind of scale of library networks or repositories or something, there would have to be a lot of conversations to demonstrate the need, the clear return for the country in that level of investment, that kind of thing is all I wanted to share on that. But it's certainly possible, that absolutely, if there were a large number of libraries that wanted to get in that, I see we're running out of time. Thanks for that insight though, I appreciate you sharing. Can we have one more Karim, please? Yeah, Karim Bugida, Stony Brook University. First, thanks to all of you because you for funding us for all these years. It's a comment, not a question, because of the library flavor thing. So for NSF, so I used to work here George Washington University in DC, and it's a privilege to be close to NSF. So we contacted a program director and we met with him. And when he knew I was from the library, he said, that's a big plus. Why? Because you know how to manage things and you know how to sustain things. So the library flavor was a plus. You're here. One more. Thank you. This is a little bit of a, I guess, under the hood question that I have. So over the years we've applied for many, many grants. We've been successful so long with everybody else. Thank you. But what I'm curious is actually campus-wide grants, things that come from outside of the library. And one of the things that has happened over and over and over is kind of to Karim's point, the library is a valued contributor to the grant. However, it often occurs that the library is not properly recognized in the grant. Whether it's for the service component or whether it's actually the cost contribution of what we are providing. So I'm wondering about a level of, I guess I'm curious how do you scrutinize budgets on your side and what can we collectively do in concert perhaps with you to ensure that libraries are properly recognized, properly valued, time properly accounted, et cetera. So we don't just find out that we're expected to all this stuff. So that's my question, thank you. I think that's a great question and there's multiple things that play there. First of all, I think it's a great example of the power dimensions that can come into when you're applying for grants in any case. I've heard of in the past, the big fancy university library practically uses and abuses the local community archive in order to have the cool materials that get them in the grant. That's the kind of thing that we are definitely on the lookout for. So abuse is a power in that way, whether it's the larger institution or more money or whatever it is that that power interplay could happen. I think every university is also different in how their indirect costs are necessarily negotiated and if and how much goes to the library. So in some ways that can be packaged in that. But again, everybody's indirects are pretty opaque also. But I think us and the reviewers are indeed on the lookout for again, that kind of evening the playing field and power dimensions that could be there with that. Especially at IMLS since we, you know, not prioritize, but the community we're meant to serve are the library staff and their patrons, right? I don't know if my colleagues have. Yeah, I mean, I can say that like in our digital humanities programs at the NEH, we always make a point of having librarians among the peer reviewers. And I think they do a really good job, I think scrutinizing proposals to ensure that there's the right amount of library participation and that the library is getting appropriate credit. So I feel like our peer reviewers do a very good job of helping us identify when those sorts of issues come up. I'll just emphasize a build on that comment. We heavily focus on the peer review process. And the question is, you know, has the proposal made a strong case for the role and a justification for, you know, but any category of budget expenditure? Certainly including, you know, a library component, just like everything else though. Peer review panels, that's one of the main things they scrutinize is, and you know, they look at is this a reasonable expenditure? Have they made a strong case? Or is it nebulous? Is it unclear? You know, those are the kinds of things that make an award succeed or not is exactly that kind of consideration. And just a final thought that I think and especially in recent years, peer reviewers and a staffer really on the lookout for is everyone being compensated in this, hey, you actually are getting an award. All that work that people do for free and they're normally, we're gonna make sure people are actually compensated that for their time, for their expertise because we really value the expertise that you all are bringing to this process. And early career researchers, you know, to make sure they're not taking advantage of in the process. Thanks everyone for hanging out for a few extra minutes. Please join me in thanking our panelists.


Begin this video with a very simple question. How would you discriminate between an average answer and an excellent answer? How can you say that this student has written an average answer whereas this student's answer is excellent. It's perfect. I think that the only way you can discriminate to answers is by looking at the content. If an average answer is written by a student, he's going to write points which everybody else would also write. But a student who is writing an excellent answer, he's going to include certain points which no one else would write and that is why this teacher gives more marks to that student. In the last video, if you remember, I discussed a beautiful way in which you can write an introduction in your answers. So, if you are preparing for graduation or post-graduation university exams, then this particular video series that I am doing will be extremely beneficial for you. In the last video lecture in this series, I discussed how you can write a perfect introduction irrespective of the question which is asked. In this particular video, I'm going to give you certain other points which you must include in your answer and these points are going to make your answers stand apart from rest of the students. So, if you want to get those extra marks, if you want to become the university topper, then keep watching this video till the end. When you are preparing notes for your university exam, always make a paragraph where you inculcate a lot of intertextual references. Now, what are intertextual references? Suppose there's a question from Rhyme of Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Now, a person who writes an excellent answer would compare this particular work with a lot of other writers writing during the same age as Coleridge was. So, the student is going to compare it with Wordsworth, Daffodil, Shelley's Ode, Keith's Ode to Gratian Own and he is going to tell us how Rhyme of Ancient Mariner and other works written by other writers are similar as well as dissimilar at the same time. Since Rhyme of Ancient Mariner is a perfect example of supernatural poem, the student can also compare it to Frankenstein written by Mary Shelley or Castle of Otranto written by Horace Walpole. Rhyme of Ancient Mariner is also a perfect example of ballad. So, we can compare it to Oscar Wilde's Ballad of Reading Girl. So, if you look at these works by mentioning these works and comparing Rhyme of Ancient Mariner with these works, the student can actually show how much knowledgeable he is and how his knowledge expands with other writers and in the domains of other literature. So, if you want to make your answer stand apart, always include a few intertextual references in your answer and intertextual references doesn't mean that you have actually read the work as well. You can just read an introductory paragraph on reading Ballad of Reading Girl and then use a few lines to compare Ballad of Reading Girl with Rhyme of Ancient Mariner. It's as simple as that when you type on Google Rhyme of Ancient Mariner and you will automatically find that it has been compared to a lot of other works. You can just pick up those comparisons and include it in your answer to make your answer better than the rest of your classmates. In a good answer, the student would not only talk about other writers and works written by them, he's also going to include a lot of works written by the same writer. If the question is on Rhyme of Ancient Mariner, the student is also going to compare Rhyme of Ancient Mariner to works written by Coleridge himself. So we can take examples of Frost at Midnight, Kubla Khan, Two Wordsworth, we can even compare it to essays written by Coleridge, for example Imagination and Fancy. And by giving all these references, we are actually showing how much we know the writer. And also important thing to remember here is that you can take a few lines from Frost at Midnight or from Kubla Khan and then compare it to the lines written by Coleridge and Rhyme of Ancient Mariner. So in this way, you would be able to enhance your answers quality as well as you will be able to fill a lot more pages. If you keep on writing summary of Rhyme of Ancient Mariner, I'm pretty sure you will run out of pages in three or four pages. You would not be able to expand your answer beyond three or four pages. But if you include all these things in your answer, you can keep on writing till eight or nine pages. So always include a paragraph in your answer where you talk about other works of the same writer. And this can actually make your answer extremely beautiful. And the content of the writer would be appreciated a lot by the teachers. The next thing to include in your answer are quotations from the text which has been asked in the question. Taking the same example of Rhyme of Ancient Mariner, make sure that when you're preparing notes for this particular work, you write down few important lines. Now that doesn't mean you need to read the entire poem. You can just type on Google important lines from Rhyme of Ancient Mariner and you'll get some really, really famous lines. You can make a note of all these lines, learn them and then highlight it while you're writing your answers. Because when you write your answers using these quotation marks, you are actually telling the examiner that you have read the text. And also it is going to make a very good impression on the examiner because a person who can remember lines means that he has actually read the text in detail. He has read the text in so much detail and he has read it so many times that he is able to actually learn the lines. Though we have not done all these things, but yet we can flaunt our hard work and we can flaunt our talent in front of the examiner. So always include quotation marks. Make sure that quotations are highlighted so that they stand apart in your answer. The examiner can find them easily. So highlight it or make a new paragraph when you're writing a quotation or maybe you can just underline it. Do anything but just make sure that the examiner can easily see and locate quotations in your answer. Just like in the last video, I talked about how to write a perfect introduction. You can also incorporate a perfect ending, a perfect conclusion in your answer. And the best way to write a conclusion is to talk about critical comments on the particular writer. If you have a question on Dryden and you are summing the question answer up, in that case, in the last paragraph, you could talk about all the other writers in what they have mentioned about Dryden. For example, there's a beautiful quotation by Walter Scott. He said, glorious John, he appreciated John Dryden by calling him glorious John. Similarly, we have Arnold who said that Dryden was master of middle English, middle style of writing. And then we have Mr. Samuel Johnson, who commented on Dryden telling that he found English as a brick and left it as a marble. So he has actually refined English so much by using all these quotations towards the end of your answer and by telling the examiner that you know more than what the syllabus boundaries allow you to do or your knowledge expands way beyond the margins of the syllabus. You can actually get those extra points and you can actually become a topper of your university. So always conclude your answer by talking about critical comments of other writers on that particular writer. So by incorporating the four important topics that I have asked you to incorporate in your answers, you can actually secure lot more marks than you would if you merely write summaries in your answers. So make sure that you make separate paragraphs or separate points for each of these things in your notes and you learn them up so that on the day of the exam, if you don't get any other thing to write, you can actually write all these things to elongate the length of your answer as well as to show the examiner how well you know the text. This video lecture series is going to continue because we have a lot of other things to tell you so that you can beautify your answer and can become a topper in your university. So stay tuned to this particular channel. If you have not subscribed, then do subscribe to the channel and hit the bell icon so that you are notified next time we post a video. You can also join us on all the social media platforms because we are running a free go net quiz for all our aspirants. Apart from that, if you have not yet visited our website, it's time to check out arpitaagarwa.com because we are running a special online course for UGC net English students. We have already given you the list of writers which you must study according to the new syllabus on our website. You can also find demo material testimonial results of our previous students on the website. The link of the same is given in the description box below. We'll meet you soon in the next video lecture till the time we meet next. Happy learning. Keep loving literature. Stay tuned to arpitaagarwa.com


There is no where I feel safe, no where it feels to him. The president of the United States to target you. Ruby Freeman and Shae Freeman Morris and one other gentlemen, quite obviously, surreptitiously passing around. USB ports assist their vials of heroin or cocaine. She's a vote scammer, a professional vote scammer and hustler. I've lost my name and I've lost my reputation. I've lost my sense of security, all because a group of people starting with number 45 and his ally, Rudy Giuliani, decided to scapegoat me and my daughter Shae. I just don't do nothing anymore. I don't want to go anywhere. I second guess everything that I do. The FBI informed me that I needed to leave my home for safety. A lot of threats. We should death upon me. Same things like be glad it's 2020 and not 1920. As most I understand that people once showed up at your grandmother's house. They just started pushing their way through, claiming that they were coming in to make a citizen's arrest. Mr.  What was your mom actually handing you on that video? A gingerman. The president of the United States is supposed to represent every American, not to target one, but he targeted me, Lady Ruby, a small business owner, a mother, a proud American citizen who stand up to help Fulton County run an election in the middle of the pandemic.