The SLA Science-Technology and Social Sciences Divisions thank

ElsevierFor their generous support in

sponsoring this program.

“Show me the Money”The Future of Grants Librarianship

June 16, 2010

What is a Grants Librarian?

• Monitors, evaluates and promotes funding opportunities to your organization

• Provides training and expertise in various phases of the funding cycle

• Can you be a Grants Librarian?

SWOT Analysis

Strategic planning method to evaluate a project or new opportunity

• Strengths (internal)• Weaknesses (internal)• Opportunities (external)• Threats (external)

Grant Librarian SWOT• Strengths – Information seeking/retrieval

skills, evaluation, value-added information services, communication skills

• Weaknesses –Busy, low profile, reluctance to self-promote, lack of experience

• Opportunities- Few “grants librarians”, need for funding, information overload

• Threats – Supervisor/colleague buy-in, lack of $ for resources, demands on time

What do I do?

Academic Librarian – State University of NY, College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse, NY

Reference, teaching, departmental liaison, committee member, grants librarian

Full-time tenure-track position blended from two part-time jobs: Academic Librarian and Office of Research Programs Funding Specialist

Getting started….• Know your organization

• Identify your resources (funding sources and people)

• Determine the best ways to reach your target audience

• Adapt, modify, and evaluate what you do on an ongoing basis!

Organizational Knowledge

• Contact your Research Office

• Departmental web pages

• Citation analyses of works published by campus-affiliated individuals

• Join committees, attend events, talk to people

Identify Funding ResourcesFree Resources:

Grants.gov: www.grants.gov(sign up for funding alerts via email)Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance:

www.cdfa.gov State Agencies: i.e. www.dec.ny.gov Local Agencies: i.e. Lake Champlain Basin Program,

Hudson River Foundation

Grants.gov

• Includes funding information for 26 federal grant making agencies

• Can search for grants

• Set up email alerts for grant notices

• Subscribe to grant notices via RSS feeds

Identify Funding SourcesSubscription Resources:

Community of Science – gov’t and private foundations www.cos.com - a Proquest database, associated with RefWorks

Foundation Directory Online – private foundations http://fconline.foundationcenter.org

IRIS – Illinois Researcher Information Service http://www.library.illinois.edu/iris

SPIN - www.infoed.org

GrantStation – www.grantstation.com

Find RFP – www.findrfp.com

Community of Science

• Database of announcements for grants, fellowships, awards and more from around the world, comprising more than 22,000 records worth over $33 billion.

• Can create many searches, track funding opportunities and manage searches easily using your COS Workbench.

• COS user training: http://www.cos.com/usertraining

Foundation Directory OnlineDetailed information on:•1,500+ leading foundations •Application guidelines for 7,200+ foundations•Sponsoring company information for corporate givers.

Outreach• Who is your target audience?

• How to reach them?– Email– Newsletters– Workshops – Web sites– Social Networking tools

Use as many outlets as possible…

• Email selected funding opportunities to target audience

• Workshop training – have participants create funding alerts

• Add value to the information you provide by sorting, evaluating, condensing

Add value to the information – here’s afunding opportunity as it appears in Grants.gov.

Development of Methodologies for Determining Preferred Landscape Designs for Sustainable Bioenergy Feedstock Production Systems at a Watershed Scale http://www07.grants.gov/search/search.do?&mode=VIEW&oppId=54923

Same funding opportunity - Tweeted

College Faculty/Staff Web PortalTwitter feed on www.esf.edu/facstaff

ESF One-stop Grants Search LibGuide

Twitter feed on ESF Grant Seekers Guide

Funding opportunities & information in Faculty/Staff bi-monthly newsletter

Keep track of Funding Opportunities

Why?

•Re-issue notices as deadlines approach

•Insure that you have promoted relevant opportunities

•Evaluations/annual reports

Adapt, modify, evaluate

• Promote funding opportunities based on your intended audience

• Try different formats to see what works

• Evaluate what you do – more funding received, more grants applications, happier faculty/administrators?

New initiatives

• Social networking tools

• Features added to the Research Times:– Works published by college-affiliated authors– Grants received– Library information (connect library to research)– General interest news items (NSF & science-

related)

Unintended Benefits

• Asked to provide reports of funding sources in support of new faculty positions/new projects

• A bit of Competitive Intelligence added to my workload

• Record keeper and promoter of college affiliated periodical publications

• Perform yearly citation analyses for each faculty department

You can lead a horse to water….

http://www.reclaimingthemind.org

Grants Librarianship

• Take advantage of free and paid resources• Learn the language and lingo• Talk to your constituents• Start small, see what works• Evaluate, modify, improve• Document your successes and failures• Review and update (if necessary) your delivery

methods and materials

Thank you!

Linda GallowaySenior Assistant Librarian

State University of New YorkCollege of Environmental Science and Forestry

Syracuse, NYlmgalloway@esf.edu

Questions??

http://researchguides.library.syr.edu/esfgrants