About Finding Funding…
The previous blog entries have helped me to develop a theory and set of best practices for approaching academic dishonesty and I have built a list of sources for continuing my education about the issue. Now the only question that remains is “How do I fund a professional development collection and an expansion of library services that would allow me to utilize the knowledge I have gained?” My goal for this final component of the project was to generate enough funding to start my own (theoretical) “ethical information use” program.
This is the end of my research journey and this will be the final blog post. However, if you are interested in reading more you can check out my personal reflections about this entire experience by clicking on the “Final Project Reflections” tab in the menu above.
Key Highlights:
Funding Source #1
Photo from the grant website of Carroll Preston Baber.
Grant Name: Carroll Preston Baber Research Grant
Grant Amount: Up to $3,000
Grant Website: http://www.ala.org/awardsgrants/awards/55/apply
The Carroll Preston Baber Research Grant was created to fund research projects that answer “vital” questions in librarianship and are focused on the improvement of service delivery to any type of population. Understanding why students cheat and how to discourage this practice is central to the job duties of an instruction librarian. The practice of cheating is a universal issue affecting colleges worldwide.
Funding Source #2
Image from the grant website.
Award Name: ProQuest Innovation in College Librarianship Award
Award Amount: $3,000 award in one lump sum; this award is given out on an annual basis.
Award Website: http://www.ala.org/awardsgrants/awards/338/apply
This award provides funding to librarians to support their work on continuing projects or recognize ones that have already taken place. The RFP does not specify how the librarian is to use the funding once it is received. Instead, its intention is to honor librarians that have improved library services for undergraduates or faculty members using innovative measures. This would be the perfect award for libraries that are digitizing their information literacy courses or are finding new ways of discouraging cheating and encourage library use with technology. Though the funding would not be used to start a project, it could be used to expand one, continue its momentum, or replace funding that was reallocated for the purposes of the project.
Funding Source #3
Image from the grant website.
Grant Name: Sparks! Ignition Grants for Libraries
Grant Amount: $10,000 to $25,000
Grant Website: http://www.imls.gov/applicants/detail.aspx?GrantId=19
The intention of the grant is support the testing out of innovative ideas that intend to solve common problems that libraries face. The proposal is intentionally broad to allow for many solutions to many different issues. However, it is stressed that the problems applicants present must be generalizable to other libraries of that type, rather than one specific to a single institution. Likewise, the funding agency seeks innovations that can feasibly be applied to many different libraries, rather than solutions that are proprietary in nature. The intent is to encourage new ideas and solutions that benefit the field as a whole.
Funding Source #4
Image from the grant website.
Grant Database’s Name: Grants.gov
Database Website: http://www.grants.gov/
Grants.gov offers a wide variety of grants from various national and state agencies. Users can choose to search for open grants, closed grants, or archived grants and can search by the type of agency or funding category. Grants.gov is free to browse unlike other grant databases (like Foundation Center) that require a subscription. Additionally, many of the grants on the database require that users apply through the Grants.gov interface, rather than through the parent institution.
Brief Reflections:
Funding. The very word that strikes fear into the hearts of even the most steadfast of librarians. Coming from a public library background, I was honestly not sure where to begin to look for funding in an academic setting. I had done a bit of grant research for another course this semester for a public library and after having a bit of difficulty, I was told by one of my librarian contacts that some systems are not allowed to apply for outside funding, but rather must take what they can get from the general fund they are allotted each year. I wondered if the same could be true for college libraries. Were academic libraries limited to the funds granted by their institutions?
I had extreme difficulty finding a single grant that would support academic honesty efforts. Evidence was beginning to support my theory that college libraries could be limited as to what they were allowed to apply for. When looking on the Association of College and Research Libraries website, I noticed all of the funding was in the form of an award, rather than a grant. These awards were for recognition of excellent programs already in place and were not intended to fund new research or services.
When searching for “information literacy” grants, the only thing I could seem to find were grants issued from the library to professors and students on campus. I was unable to find any grants of this type that were being issued to libraries instead.
It was a very frustrating process. Eventually, I just settled for including grants that had vague premises and could apply to any topic. It is also possible that the reason I did not find any directly applicable grants is because preserving academic standards is often viewed as part of an academic librarian’s regular job duties, rather than a special program. Perhaps the fault was with my search terms. It is possible that not having an academic background, I was using the wrong terminology when attempting to find funding for academic honesty programs.
Whatever the case, it seems that in order to obtain funding for these types of programs, librarians must think “outside the box” and consider more general requests for proposals or find ways that their programs could be stretched to fit grants in other categories. Who knew that finding funding for such an important area of research would be so difficult?
Discussion Questions:
How does your library find funding for ethics or information literacy programs? Is there a particular funding source that I am neglecting? If you were given funding to expand your efforts to promote academic honesty, what type of program would you conduct?
See the entire grant report behind the cut!
Section 1: Introduction
Finding grants and funding agencies specifically targeted at academic libraries proved to be difficult. Most of the grants that were found supported activities in public libraries or children’s services. Furthermore, though extensive research was conducted, it seemed that grants focusing specifically on promoting academic honesty were few and far between. When searching for either “academic honesty grants” or “academic integrity grants” one will find information from college libraries discussing why academic honesty is important to the grant-writing process. If the term “information literacy grant” is used instead, the results reflect funding opportunities provided by libraries to faculty and students, rather than to libraries. While these types of grants help librarians promote academic integrity to the wider campus community, they are open only to individuals working at that institution. One of these grants is included in section three, but it is for example purposes to reflect the typical search result given when looking for information literacy grants. The decision was made to broaden the search to include the terms “ethics in academics” and “college library grants” to net proposals that could be generalized to fit any college library research topic due to the lack of available grants addressing the specific topic. In the final section, a popular grant database is explored in detail.
Section 2: Selected Grants
Grant #1
Grant Name: Carroll Preston Baber Research Grant
Grant Amount: Up to $3,000— half to be paid immediately, the other half given within one month of the ALA annual conference
Grant Website: http://www.ala.org/awardsgrants/awards/55/apply
Funding Agency: American Library Association Office for Research and Statistics
Eligibility: The site states that any ALA member can apply for this grant.
Deadline: The second Friday in January each year (this year it was January 9, 2015); the deadline has already passed for obtaining funding in 2015, but grant seekers can apply now to be considered for funding in 2016.
Grant Emphasis: Research projects dealing with questions that are vital to the particular type of library (no one type of library or type of research question is favored) and are focused around improving service delivery. It could be argued that understanding why students cheat and how to discourage this practice is central to the job duties of an instruction librarian. The practice of cheating is a universal issue affecting colleges worldwide.
Grant Requirements:
The grant seeker must be an ALA member;
The project must be completed within 18 months;
The research results must be either published or presented at a conference;
The researcher must specify in their article or presentation that their funding came from the Barber Research Grant pool; and,
Grantees must agree to submit both a six-month and a final report to the committee detailing their progress with the project. After the six-month report, the library will receive the other half of their funding if their progress is deemed satisfactory.
Funding Intention for the Grant:
The request for proposals (RFP) did not specific a particular type of activity supported, but rather just stated that the grant was intended to fund research projects that answered “vital” questions in librarianship and were focused on the improvement of service delivery to any type of population. The RFP did provide the following selection criteria:
A clearly defined research problem and question that can be answered by collecting data,
A clearly described plan for data collection that reflects the research question (no literature reviews allowed);
Research that has the potential to address a vital issue in library science that is national in scope;
Research that has practical rather than theoretical value;
A section that focuses on the benefits of the research to library users; and
Detailed evidence of the researcher’s ability to complete the project including proof of activity planning and resource allocation.
How to Apply:
Along with the detailed proposal that discusses budgeting and research activities, grantees need to fill out the cover sheet provided by ALA with their contact information. Both documents should be sent via email to Rudolph Rose, an ALA staff liaison member, at nrose@ala.org with the subject heading “2015 Barber Proposal.” All documents should be saved in either Word or PDF Format.
Grant #2
Award Name: ProQuest Innovation in College Librarianship Award
Award Amount: $3,000 award in one lump sum; this award is given out on an annual basis.
Award Website: http://www.ala.org/awardsgrants/awards/338/apply
Funding Agency: ProQuest, though the award itself is administered by the Association of College and Research Libraries’ College Library Section.
Eligibility:
Grant seekers must meet the following criteria:
The grant seeker must be an ALA member;
The primary applicant must have at least three years of experience in a college or university library setting; and,
All the applicants must work in an academic library that primarily serves undergraduate students.
Deadline: Yearly in December (this year the deadline was December 5, 2014); the deadline to receive funding in 2015 has passed, but applications for the 2016 funding year are currently open.
Emphasis: This award is primarily for academic librarians.
Requirements:
A letter of recommendation describing an innovative project that a college librarian has conducted and how it is making an impact on the campus community; and,
A CV detailing the applicant’s experience and job activities that shows the applicant has worked for a college library for at least three years;
Funding Intention for the Award:
Unlike the first grant that intends to fund projects that will happen in the future, this award provides funding to librarians to support their work on continuing projects or recognize ones that have already taken place. The RFP does not specify how the librarian is to use the funding once it is received. Instead, its intention is to honor librarians that have improved library services for undergraduates or faculty members using innovative measures. This would be the perfect award for libraries that are digitizing their information literacy courses or are finding new ways of discouraging cheating and encourage library use with technology. Though the funding would not be used to start a project, it could be used to expand one, continue its momentum, or replace funding that was reallocated for the purposes of the project. It seems that most of the proposal requests available from ACRL fall into the “individual service recognition” category, rather than the “funding for new projects” category. Other examples of ACRL award funding are the Excellence in Academic Libraries Award that honors entire libraries rather than individual librarians or the Miriam Dudley Instruction Librarian Award which is specifically for instruction librarians. The only “grant” listed on ACRL’s site was for travel and professional development. This seems fairly common when searching for college library grants.
How to Apply:
Applicants must apply electronically to CLSawardcommittee@gmail.com. Proposals via email must include the following:
The contact information of the applicant and nominator both in the body of the email and on a completed form available from ACRL’s website;
A letter supporting the nomination that describes an innovative project that the college librarian has conducted, what can be learned from it, and how it is making an impact on the campus community; and,
A CV detailing the applicant’s experience and job activities that shows the applicant has worked for a college library for at least three years.
Grant #3
Grant Name: Sparks! Ignition Grants for Libraries
Grant Amount: $10,000 to $25,000
Grant Website: http://www.imls.gov/applicants/detail.aspx?GrantId=19
Funding Agency: Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS)
Eligibility:
An applicant must meet the following criteria:
They must represent a non-profit institution (no for-profit colleges) with tax-exempt status;
They must be located within the United States or its territories (like Puerto Rico); and,
Their parent organization should be either a public library system or educational system.
Deadline: Every February (this year the deadline was February 2, 2015); funding for 2015 is closed, but applications are being accepted for funding in 2016.
Grant Emphasis: This grant focuses on broad solutions to common problems in libraries. No one type of library or research topic is favored.
Grant Requirements:
Grantees must do the following:
Present proposals that have a broad potential impact and address issues that are common among libraries of that type, rather than issues that are unique to that type of institution;
Discuss how they will utilize significant innovation and describe why the proposed method is different than those that have been utilized in the past;
Give credit to the granting agency and explain where the funding came from in all published materials; and,
Provide a detailed explanation of how success will be measured and reported to IMLS. The funding agency is big on “outcomes based evaluation” which means that the study is designed with a clear progression or measurement of achievement (they give the example of a reading program that increases in hours gradually tests student knowledge each week).
Funding Intention for the Grant:
The intention of the grant is support the testing out of innovative ideas that intend to solve common problems that libraries face. The proposal is intentionally broad to allow for many solutions to many different issues. However, it is stressed that the problems applicants present must be generalizable to other libraries of that type, rather than one specific to a single institution. Likewise, the funding agency seeks innovations that can feasibly be applied to many different libraries, rather than solutions that are proprietary in nature. The intent is to encourage new ideas and solutions that benefit the field as a whole.
How to Apply: Applicants should apply by filling an electronic application on Grants.gov. A program officer can be contacted for assistance with this task.
Section 3: A Typical Search Result When Using the Term “Information Literacy Grant”-- Funding from Libraries to Faculty Members
Grant Name: Johnson Information Literacy Grant
Grant Amount: $1,000
Grant Website: http://www.gettysburg.edu/about/offices/provost/jcctl/grants_fellowships/johnson-information-literacy-grant.dot
Funding Agency: Gettysburg College – Musselman Library Reference and Instruction Department
Eligibility: The candidate must be a faculty or staff member at Gettysburg College teaching courses at the 200-300 level in the spring semester.
Deadline: The end of November of each year (this year’s deadline was November 23, 2014) for funding in the spring semester.
Grant Emphasis: This grant does not favor any one discipline, however it does specify that it should be for a level 200-300 class taught in the spring semester at Gettysburg
Grant Requirements:
Applicants must do the following:
Complete the application found on the library’s webpage;
Attach a letter from the department chair endorsing the intended project;
Provide a timetable of when each planning event should take place;
Explain how the results will be reported. If published, applicants have to credit the Johnson Literacy Grant somewhere in the paper;
Provide the library committee with a narrative description of why the course is being revised, the specific goals to be addressed, and the kind of help needed from the librarian contact; and,
Have an assessment method in place for measuring the results.
Funding Intention for the Grant:
The purpose of the grant is to promote academic honesty and information literacy by having faculty members teach the foundations of research in their basic courses. Faculty members are to redesign one of their courses to emphasize student use of the library for research. The award allows the faculty member to work exclusively with a librarian to develop course content and ensuring that students understand academic honesty principles.
How to Apply: Interested faculty members should apply by emailing their applications (available from the library’s website) to the advisory board at JCCTL@gettysburg.edu.
Section 4: Description of a Popular Grant Database
Grant Database’s Name: Grants.gov
Database Website: http://www.grants.gov/
Parent Agency: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Brief Description:
Grants.gov offers a wide variety of grants from various national and state agencies. Users can choose to search for open grants, closed grants, or archived grants and can search by the type of agency or funding category. Grants.gov is free to browse unlike other grant databases (like Foundation Center) that require a subscription. Additionally, many of the grants on the database require that users apply through the Grants.gov interface, rather than through the parent institution.
How it relates to Academic Honesty Grants or Academic Libraries:
While Grants.gov does not specifically feature grants for academic libraries, when exploring various college library websites in Utah, it was discovered that much of the funding for special projects came from government agencies like the Department of Education and the Institute for Museum and Library Services. Many of the institutions that fund library projects across the nation are represented here. Additionally, many research projects can fit the goals and parameters for education, preservation, or humanities grants, even if they do not seem so at first glance based on their agency names.
Justification:
This database has a .gov web address and is sponsored by a government agency, meaning that the information sponsored there is likely to be accurate. Additionally, all of the listed grants are required to come from government agencies lessening the possibility of scam postings.
Grants.gov is the major provider (similar to the major publishers listed on the collection development assignment) of grant listings for government grants (rather than private funding). Some of the largest grants are listed first and foremost on this site. This includes grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Institute for Museum and Library Services, Department of Education, and the Department of State. Unlike other grant databases, Grants.gov requires grantors to have special codes assigned to their specific government department before posting their funding opportunities, rather than allowing anyone to post anything they find. Again, this lessens the possibility of fraudulent grants.
Post References:
American Library Association. 2015. “Carroll Preston Baber Research Grant.” American Library Association Office for Research and Statistics. Accessed March 28, 2015. http://www.ala.org/awardsgrants/awards/55/apply.
---. 2014. “ProQuest Innovation in College Librarianship Award.” Association of College and Research Libraries - College Library Section. Accessed March 28, 2015. http://www.ala.org/awardsgrants/awards/338/apply
Gettysburg College. 2014. “Johnson Information Literacy Grant.” Johnson Center for Creative Teaching & Learning. Accessed March 28, 2015. http://www.gettysburg.edu/about/offices/provost/jcctl/grants_fellowships/johnson-information-literacy-grant.dot.
Grants.gov. n.d. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Accessed March 28, 2015. http://www.grants.gov/.
Institute of Museum and Library Services. 2015. “Sparks! Ignition Grants for Libraries.” Accessed March 28, 2015. http://www.imls.gov/applicants/detail.aspx?GrantId=19
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