[OPLINLIST] Urban/Rural Lookup Tools

[Knapp, Mandy]

Hi all,



There's now a tool that you can use to see if your library is considered Urban or Rural for the purposes of eRate. It's located here: https://sltools.universalservice.org/portal-external/urbanRuralLookup/. As you may know, the FCC recently updated their definitions of rural and urban. This is important because the discount matrix for eRate is different for rural and urban libraries.



Below are instructions on how to use the lookup tool. I'll warn you that I did notice a number of "Address not founds" for our libraries. If that happens to you, call Client Service Bureau (CSB) at 1-888-203-8100.



Best,

Mandy Knapp





 URBAN/RURAL STATUS TOOL



The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) adopted the E-rate Modernization Order on July 11, 2014. The Order takes major steps to modernize and streamline the E-rate program and focuses on expanding funding for Wi-Fi networks in eligible elementary and secondary schools and libraries across America. In the Second Modernization Order, adopted on Dec. 11, 2014, the FCC took significant additional steps to ensure that the nation's schools and libraries have access to robust high-speed broadband connections. In an accompanying Order on Reconsideration, the FCC modified its urban/rural definition, effective in funding year 2015, so that an individual school and library will be designated as "urban" if located in an "Urbanized Area" or "Urban Cluster" with a population of 25,000 or more as determined by the U.S. Census Bureau. Any school or library not designated "urban" will be designated as "rural" and would be eligible to receive an additional discount. The Order retains the current rule that any school district or library system must have a majority of schools or libraries in a rural area that meets the new urban/rural definition to qualify for the additional rural discount.



The FCC also directed USAC to post a tool on its website that will allow schools and libraries to obtain information regarding whether they are classified as urban or rural.

Following is a description of the Urban/Rural Lookup Tool that is now available on the USAC website on the Search Tools page. You can use this to:



* Locate the urban or rural status for an individual school or library.

* Find out if a school district or library system is eligible for an urban or rural discount by locating the urban or rural status of its member schools or libraries.

* Identify schools and libraries whose addresses must be updated in order for USAC to determine their urban or rural status.



Urban/Rural Lookup Tool<https://sltools.universalservice.org/portal-external/urbanRuralLookup/>

The Urban/Rural Lookup Tool allows users to locate the urban or rural status for an individual school, an individual library, a school district, or a library system. In order to receive the correct urban/rural designation for a school district or library system, the user must exclude the entity numbers of certain entities (see below for more specific information).



Any changes to the database that USAC makes - such as address corrections - are sent to the U.S. Census lookup and returned within an hour. The Urban/Rural Lookup Tool will show any changes when the updates arrive.

To perform a search using this tool, first find the type of entity below and then follow the instructions.



-Individual library

Click the radio button to the left of "Individual library." This will open up a field where you enter the entity number of the library.

You can type the entity number, paste it from your clipboard or computer memory, or use the lookup tool (the magnifying glass to the right of the "Entity Number" caption).

* The lookup tool allows you to search by name, state, or zip code. If the search criterion you specify returns multiple results, click on the appropriate entity number and the tool will automatically populate it in the entity number field.

When you click "Lookup Urban/Rural Status," you will see the entity number, entity name, street address, type of entity, and urban/rural status. The status can be:

* "U" for urban

* "R" for rural

* "?" if we cannot determine the status, either because the entity number cannot be found or the address is incomplete or incorrect.

If the urban or rural status cannot be determined, we suggest that you call the Client Service Bureau (CSB) at 1-888-203-8100 for assistance.

Remember that, unless you are an independent library, you must use the discount calculated for your library system, even if it is urban and the individual library is rural.





- Library system

Click the radio button to the left of "Library system." This will open up a field where you enter the entity numbers of the individual library outlets/branches in your library system.

You can type the entity numbers, paste them from your clipboard or computer memory, or use the lookup tool (the magnifying glass to the right of the "Entity Number" caption).

* If you paste entity numbers from another data source, you must first put them in comma-delimited format (individual entity numbers separated by commas).

* The lookup tool allows you to search by name, state, or zip code. If the search criterion you specify returns multiple results, click the radio buttons to the left of the library or libraries you want to add. Notice that you may have more than one page of results. You can click radio buttons for multiple entity numbers on multiple pages, but once you click "OK" you cannot add more entity numbers using the search tool; you will have to add them manually.

NOTE: Certain entity numbers must be included or excluded to receive the correct urban/rural designation.

INCLUDE:

* Bookmobiles and library kiosks, if they are considered library outlets/branches in your state.

EXCLUDE:

* Entity numbers that represent a library administrative function or building and not an actual library.

* Non-instructional facilities (NIFs).

When you click "Lookup Urban/Rural Status," you will see three fields:

* A pink notification of the number of errors (i.e., library outlets/branches that could not be found or assigned a status). If you click on the "Show/Hide" link you can get details on those library outlets/branches.

* The percentages of the library outlets/branches in the library system that are urban (U), rural (R), or undetermined (?), along with a notification that the library system is eligible for an urban discount, a rural discount, or the eligibility cannot be determined because there are too many entity numbers with errors.

* A list of the libraries from your search, featuring the entity number, entity name, street address, type of entity, and urban/rural status for each library.

If the urban or rural status cannot be determined for one or more entities, we suggest that you call the Client Service Bureau (CSB) at 1-888-203-8100 for assistance.










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