Scout is a conversational library assistant that lets every Philadelphian search their library's entire collection in plain language, in twelve languages, in three seconds.
Drafted at ~172 chars. Tighten to 140 on real form.Scout is a conversational discovery tool that lets public library patrons ask for what they need in plain language and get unified results across the library's entire collection in under three seconds. Built by two working librarians, it logs zero patron queries, supports twelve languages, and runs on any device. We will pilot with Tredyffrin Township Libraries in the Philadelphia metro and partner with Free Library of Philadelphia to make local information radically easier for 1.5 million Philadelphians to reach.
Drafted at ~528 chars.Philadelphia's public libraries hold the largest, most-trusted, freely accessible information collection in the city. Free Library of Philadelphia serves 1.5 million residents across 54 neighborhood branches, and it spends millions each year on digital content most patrons never find because catalog search, OverDrive, Hoopla, and licensed databases each live behind their own interface. When a Philadelphia teen needs a primary source for a history paper, when a Kensington parent needs Spanish-language picture books, when a small-business owner needs market data, they should be one plain-language question away from the answer. Scout closes that gap. It turns "search four systems and hope" into "ask once and find everything," in twelve languages, in seconds. Philadelphia becomes measurably more successful when its public knowledge infrastructure works as well as the commercial discovery tools residents use every day, and when the city's most trusted community institution becomes the first place residents look for reliable information instead of the last.
Drafted at ~1,112 chars.Every Philadelphian with a library card benefits, but the patrons Scout helps most are the ones current tools fail most often. Spanish-speaking and multilingual households get voice input in twelve languages, including Spanish, Mandarin, Vietnamese, Arabic, Russian, and Haitian Creole. Patrons with visual or motor impairments get WCAG 2.2 AA accessibility, keyboard navigation, and screen-reader compatibility on day one. Teens get a search experience that does not treat them like they should already know Boolean syntax. Seniors get an unhurried conversational interface that can read results back. Caregivers balancing work and kids get an answer in three seconds instead of twelve minutes. Free Library of Philadelphia staff get relief from routine discovery questions so they can do the reference work only humans can.
Drafted at ~806 chars.Libraries have tried to solve discovery for twenty years with federated catalogs, faceted search, and new discovery layers. Patron behavior keeps snapping back to baseline because the underlying interaction model never changed. Scout is bold because it rejects the interaction model entirely. We stopped asking patrons to speak library and started letting them speak human. We also rejected the business model of every commercial discovery tool by logging zero patron queries, an architectural choice rooted in Article VII of the ALA Library Bill of Rights. Nothing in library tech today combines a plain-language conversational interface, twelve-language voice input, sub-three-second cross-collection results, and a zero-logging privacy floor. Scout is the first tool that does, and it was built by two working librarians.
Drafted at ~807 chars.Search with Scout designs, builds, and operates the conversational discovery assistant. Scout is the applicant. Our two founders, both librarians, handle product, engineering, and deployment. Tredyffrin Township Libraries is our launch pilot partner; Tredyffrin's director and head of reference are committed participants in testing, evaluation, and staff training. Free Library of Philadelphia is our scaling target for Year 2; we will use the first six months of this grant to move from verbal interest to a formal memorandum of understanding with Free Library and to prepare for a Philadelphia-wide rollout. Knight's contribution funds engineering, librarian tester stipends, multilingual expansion, accessibility audits, Philadelphia community launch, and evaluation. We do the work; Knight makes the timing possible.
Drafted at ~830 chars.Months 1 to 3: Finalize Free Library of Philadelphia partnership. Deepen integration with Free Library's ILS and digital collection vendors. Begin multilingual model expansion for Mandarin, Vietnamese, and Haitian Creole to match Philadelphia demographics. Entity formation and operational setup. Months 4 to 6: Soft launch at two Free Library branches chosen for language diversity, plus continued Tredyffrin pilot. Structured librarian tester program; patron intercept feedback; accessibility audit. Months 7 to 9: Expand to eight Free Library branches. Public launch with Free Library communications team. Run bilingual workshops and neighborhood outreach. Months 10 to 12: Full Philadelphia rollout across Free Library's 54 branches. Publish outcomes report and open-source replication guide. Final evaluation review. Submit final Knight report. The target at month twelve: 50,000 Philadelphia residents served, 12+ languages supported, zero patron queries logged.
Drafted at ~1,040 chars.| Category | Amount |
|---|---|
| Engineering and product (2 founders, partial support, 12 months) | $80,000 |
| Multilingual model expansion and voice input for Mandarin, Vietnamese, and Haitian Creole | $22,000 |
| Language model inference, hosting, infrastructure (scaled to Philadelphia volume) | $28,000 |
| Librarian tester stipends (12 Philadelphia-area librarians at $1,500 each) | $18,000 |
| Free Library of Philadelphia integration (ILS, OverDrive, Hoopla, databases) | $15,000 |
| Accessibility audit (independent, WCAG 2.2 AA third-party review) | $8,000 |
| Philadelphia launch events and bilingual outreach | $15,000 |
| Evaluation, reporting, and open-source replication guide | $9,000 |
| Contingency and administrative | $5,000 |
| Total requested | $200,000 |
Drew Garraway, co-founder, is a working Reference Librarian at Tredyffrin Township Libraries in the Philadelphia metro. He built Scout because he watched the discovery problem fail patrons every shift. Kenny Allen, co-founder, is a former librarian turned product designer who brings library domain knowledge plus product and engineering experience. Mallory Hoffman, Director of Tredyffrin Township Libraries, is our institutional champion. Jonathan Trice, Head of Reference and Adult Services at Tredyffrin, leads frontline pilot operations. For Free Library of Philadelphia partnership, see partner section.
Drafted at ~655 chars.Drew Garraway, co-founder, Search with Scout. Email: [CONFIRM PREFERRED CONTACT]. Phone: [CONFIRM]. Website: searchwithscout.com. Location: Chester County, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia metro). Entity status: in formation as of April 2026; form completed before grant funds transfer. Kenny Allen, co-founder, secondary contact: [CONFIRM].
Knight reviewers read hundreds of pitches. They reward specificity, practitioner credibility, and boldness over polish. This draft deliberately leans into the founder story (two working librarians), names the concrete Philadelphia communities Scout serves (multilingual households, teens, caregivers, small-business owners), and cites specific Free Library of Philadelphia infrastructure (54 branches, 1.5 million residents). The tone is confident without being salesy. Cut any line that reads like marketing copy when tightening.