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Data Retrieval Tool Now Available from SLD
Message Posted September 23, 2002
I have received many questions from applicants wondering whether their
school or library is one of the ones that still has Year 4 funding remaining
or Year 5 486's due. Well, this is the first year that we can actually find
out this data -- straight from the SLD's database. Below are the
step-by-step instructions on how you collect, download, filter, and read
this data (for all of you who aren't Excel guru's!)
1. Go to: www.sl.universalservice.org
2. Select "Data Requests" on right toolbar.
3. The next page has instructions... simply choose "Clicking here" in the
third paragraph.
4. Choose the Year and State you want to view, then click on ">>Build Data
File" at the bottom of the page.
Note: There are other optional criteria besides just the Year and State,
such as selecting just one particular FRN, but the easiest way to see ALL of
your applications at once is to just choose the year and state, and let it
retrieve all of the data for Pennsylvania. If you're a service provider
reading this, you can enter your SPIN and see all of the data for a
particular year and state with for only your SPIN.
(hint: If you want to find out whether you have Year 4 funds remaining,
choose Year 2001. If you want to find out whether your 486's have been
submitted for Year 5, choose Year 2002).
5. The database will be compiled, and when it is done, you will see a blue
box that says "Download Data File."
6. RIGHT click on the box and select "Save Target As." The file will be
saved as a Text File.
7. Open Excel or other spreadsheet, and then open the file that you just
downloaded. (Remember, it was a text file, so don't look for it saved as a
spreadsheet yet.)
8. When it opens, it will show you a mini-tutorial on how you want the data
to look on the screen. Simply select "Finish" and it will show it formatted
to the columns you need.
9. At this point, you will see all FRN data for applications submitted
WITHIN THE WINDOW for that particular funding year. To only view your
applications, select the Tools menu on your Toolbar, then select "Filter"
then "AutoFilter." This will allow you to only view selected entries from
your spreadsheet.
10. To view only your entity, select Column C "Applicant Name." This will
only bring up the rows that your entity filed.
-- If you chose the 2002 data on the SLD website, you probably want to know
whether your 486's have been submitted. To find this out, go to column N,
Service Start Date 486. If this is blank, your 486 has not yet been
submitted. If it has been submitted, it likely will say 07/01/2002, the
earliest date that you could receive discounts for Year 5.
-- If you chose the 2001 data on the SLD website, you probably want to know
whether your entity has any funding remaining to be collected or invoiced
for Year 4. To find this out, go to column AT "Authorized Disbursement
Amount". If a cell is blank, you have not submitted a BEAR (or your
provider has not submitted a SPIF) for that particular funding request. If
a cell has funding listed, be careful to check that you have invoiced the
SLD for the total amount (up to your funding commitment) for that FRN. For
example, if your local telephone commitment was $10,000, but column AT only
lists $4,500, your entity likely submitted a BEAR for 6 months worth of
funding and still needs to invoice the SLD for the remaining amount that
you've spent. Please keep in mind that if you were committed X, but only
spent Y, you can only collect Y. X would simply be your funding CAP.
11. Please note that this is not a static file... so re-download a new
database from the SLD website after you've submitted your documents to find
out if they've received them or not.
Questions? Don't hesitate to contact me.
-- Julie
Julie Tritt Schell
jtschell@comcast.net
(717) 730.7133 (voice)
(717) 730.9060 (fax)
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