The Librarian’s Grants Handbook

This book aims to help librarians develop grant proposals and juggle the differing demands of multiple collaborators both internally and externally.

Grants have long been a tool that allow libraries to increase their reach and offer access to more communities. Libraries are seen as a trusted bridge connecting communities with information and resources. They are often at the intersection of various disciplines, projects, and funding opportunities, making librarians a natural fit to lead grant development. The shifting realities of public, academic, and health sciences libraries today necessitate that information professionals must, more frequently, seek external funding for such projects. Yet few librarians are formally trained in grant-writing, nor in marshaling together a team of grant-seekers with varying positions, experiences, and knowledge fields. In addition, the institutional support staff that might have traditionally helped with such endeavors has frequently disappeared from rosters due to budgetary constraints within their institution, meaning that librarians seeking grants often do so without support often provided to academic researchers.

This book will be of particular use to librarians seeking funding for larger projects that allow more community outreach and librarians working to develop a grant proposal with faculty and community members who may lean on them for support.

Abigail Mann, PhD, MSLS, the Digital Scholarship Librarian at the Ames Library at Illinois Wesleyan University, has been successful in securing multiple smaller grants to support initiatives including ＄60,000+ in funding, internal and external, to support building a Digital Humanities program for students, and working with other faculty members to obtain grants to fund OERs, 3D digitization, and humanities programming. She was an English Professor prior to entering librarianship and has extensive experience teaching professional writing at universities on two continents.

Tony Nguyen, MLIS, AHIP, Associate University Librarian for Rutgers Health Libraries at Rutgers University Libraries, possesses extensive experience in health sciences librarianship, spanning over 15 years. He has a strong history of securing and managing federal grants, totaling over ＄10.5 million. His deep understanding of the grant writing process is further evidenced by his decade-long role as a grant administrator for the Network of the National Library of Medicine and his service on multiple IMLS and NIH grantee advisory boards.

Mary Piorun, PhD, MSLS, MBA, AHIP is the Director of the Lamar Soutter Library at the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School. She serves as the Principal Investigator for the Network of National Library of Medicine, Region 7 program which includes the National Public Health Coordinating Office and the National Center for Data Services. Additionally, she has served as Principal Investigator for multiple digitization and HIV/AIDS information/literacy awards, and as a partner in the National Institute of Health’s All of Us program. All of which total over ＄21 million.With over 30 years of working in health science libraries, she brings extensive administrative and leadership experience to the grant writing and management process.