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Research : Opportunities : OCLC/ALISE grants overview

OCLC/ALISE Library & Information Science Research Grants

Recognizing the importance of research to the advancement of librarianship and information science, OCLC Research and ALISE, the Association for Library and Information Science Education, annually collaborate to offer the Library and Information Science Research Grant Program.

The overall goal is to promote independent research, particularly work helping to integrate new technologies that offer innovative approaches, and research that contributes to a better understanding of the information environment and user expectations and behaviors.

Grant awards range up to $15,000 and support one-year research projects. Research related, but not limited, to the following areas is encouraged:

  • Impact of digital technology on libraries, museums, and archives
  • Social media, learning, and information-seeking behavior
  • New developments in knowledge organization (metadata, social tagging, linked data, etc.)

Full-time academic faculty in schools of library and information science or related fields are eligible to apply. OCLC and ALISE encourage international proposals and collaborative projects. To aid new researchers, priority will be given when possible to proposals from junior faculty and applicants who have not previously received LISRGP funds.

The annual application deadline is 15 September for one-year projects starting the following January. Grant recipients are notified by the end of December and announced at the ALISE Annual Conference the following January.

View a list of previous recipients and read their final papers and presentations at: www.oclc.org/research/grants/awarded.htm.

Submission criteria and procedures are available on the Call for Proposals. Feel free to contact us for more information.

About the sponsors

Founded in 1967, OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc. is a nonprofit, membership, computer library service and research organization dedicated to the public purposes of furthering access to the world's information and reducing library costs. More than 72,000 libraries in 170 countries and territories have used OCLC services to locate, acquire, catalog, lend, preserve, and manage library materials. Researchers, students, faculty, scholars, professional librarians and other information seekers use OCLC services to obtain bibliographic, abstract and full-text information when and where they need it.

ALISE (Association for Library and Information Science Education) is a non-profit organization that serves as the intellectual home of university faculty in graduate programs in library and information science in North America. Its mission is to promote excellence in research, teaching, and service and to provide an understanding of the values and ethos of library and information science. ALISE serves 500 individual members and more than 60 institutional members, primarily in the United States and Canada. www.alise.org.

Updated 6 April 2011