Libraries receives IMLS grant for Scholarly Communications Notebook

The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) has chosen NC State University to receive a 2019 National Leadership Grants for Libraries Program award for a Scholarly Communications Notebook (SCN)—an open educational resource index and repository that will serve as the location for an active, inclusive, empowered community of practice for teaching scholarly communications to emerging librarians. 

Co-principal investigators on the project are Will Cross, director of the Copyright & Digital Scholarship Center at the NC State University Libraries; Josh Bolick, scholarly communications librarian at the University of Kansas Libraries; and Maria Bonn, associate professor and MS/LIS program director at the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

The project's investigators have a book forthcoming from ACRL Publications intended to support education and training for scholarly communication librarianship. The SCN will complement this book with examples of more modular and focused content, such as case studies, exercises, videos, and games.

“This project is a natural outgrowth of our work over the past two years on LIS+OER as well as a way to more fully embody our values of openness and open-enabled pedagogy,” Cross wrote in a recent blogpost. “We hope that this project can open a door to the multiplicity of approaches and perspectives in the field as well as centering the dynamic and ongoing work of scholarly communication.”

Initially, the partners will populate the SCN with content complementary to the open textbook already under development with ACRL. The openly-licensed textbook will provide a modular foundation for teaching scholarly communication. Throughout the latter half of 2019, a platform for the notebook will be established at an institution selected for its ability to support the platform and its users, as well as its commitment to long-term preservation and access.

As 2020 begins, the SCN content will grow, developed by the grant PIs and solicited through a call for contributions from the community of scholarly communication librarianship. This first iteration of the SCN will be intended for initial testing and review as well as to provide models for further contributions. Year three will be dedicated to promulgation, assessment, and sustaining content recruitment to keep pace with shifts in this dynamic field.

The IMLS grant (MS LG-36-19-0021-19) is in the amount of $247,128. Through the National Leadership Grants for Libraries Program, the IMLS awarded over $8 million to 36 projects this year. 

The Institute of Museum and Library Services is the primary source of federal support for the nation's libraries and museums. The IMLS advances, supports, and empowers America’s museums, libraries, and related organizations through grantmaking, research, and policy development. Their vision is a nation where museums and libraries work together to transform the lives of individuals and communities. To learn more, visit www.imls.gov and follow them on Facebook and Twitter.