Django can't see my static files

Hello All,

I'm using Django to develop a website, and I'm having trouble getting
it to see my static files. I've looked through Django's static file
documentation and the steps I've taken to get Django to see my files
(using a CSS file as an example) are as follows:

First, I created a folder called "static" inside the main app folder
for this project. Then, I added "/static/" to the STATIC_URLS section
of the settings.py file, and I also added the full path to my CSS file
under the STATICFILES_DIRS section of settings.py.

Then I added the line:

from django.template import RequestContext, loader

As well as "context_instance= RequestContext(request)" as a third
argument to the "return render_to_response()" call.

Finally, in my url.py file, I added this line at the top:

from django.contrib.staticfiles.urls import staticfiles_urlpatterns

And this line at the bottom (separate from the initial "urlpatterns =
patterns()" call):

urlpatterns += staticfiles_urlpatterns()

In my HTML/Django template, I added the following link to my CSS file:

<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href={{ STATIC_DIRS }} />

But then after all of this, when I perform a "python manage.py
runserver" to preview the website, Django still does not appear to
find the external CSS file. I must still be missing something but I'm
not sure what--does anyone know???

I'm sure I'm missing something very basic but I'm a total beginner so
please be patient with me, I probably need a lot of very specific
instructions...

thanks,
Guillaume

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