PSC-CUNY Grants Workshop
Research is a major part of the librarian's job, and CUNY librarians have opportunities to get funding to help support it. PSC-CUNY Grants are administered by the Research Foundation of CUNY and are open to all permanent full-time instructional staff. Junior faculty members are encouraged to apply. According to City Tech's Anne Leonard, who moderated the September 20 workshop at Baruch's Newman Library, there have been more than 75 successful applicants among CUNY librarians since 2000. The workshop was sponsored by the LACUNY Professional Development Committee which is co-chaired by Anne Leonard and Linda Roccos ( College of Staten Island ). Panel members included recent grant awardees Janet Munch ( Lehman College ), Linda Roccos, Angela Sidman ( Graduate Center ) and David Brodherson (Baruch).
Following Leonard's introduction, Janet Munch, Chair of the Library Panel, reviewed the application process, eligibility requirements and evaluation criteria. (available at http://rfcuny.org under the Research & Awards menu). She discussed the importance of covering the “who, what, when, where, and why” on the application's narrative section. She shared tips on what to include in both the abstract and narrative, especially the significance of the study, its contribution to the field and providing a context.
Munch offered a number of other tips including:
- Talking to colleagues who have applied in previous cycles.
- Talking with your local grant offices to make sure you know the various deadlines which can differ from college to college.
- Making it clear what you absolutely need as requests for items extraneous to research could lead to rejection.
- Reviewing sample applications (available on the Research Foundation web site).
- Asking someone to read your completed application.
- Checking with your campus Institutional Review Board concerning requirements if your research project has involves human subjects.
Linda Roccos, who received a grant for her "Bibliography for the Archaeology Study Collection at the College of Staten Island," suggested keeping the proposal: “It makes sense to get friendly with your local grants officer early on,” she said. Applications go to the Research Foundation of CUNY via local campus grants offices, and local officers can give solid advice and perhaps even be willing to proofread an application before it is submitted. Angela Sidman received funding for a project that grew out of her Masters thesis, "Artist, Collector, Dealer: Medieval manuscripts from the Charles Fairfax Murray collection." She found that some of the “circular documentation” provided on the various websites obscured the application process. She, too, stressed the importance of talking to your local grants office “even if you think you don't need to.”
David Brodherson gave a brief summary of what he learned with his grant to support research on Frank Weitenkampf, the first curator of the print collection at NYPL. He also shared the insight he gained in realizing that he could have used grant money to hire a student for transcribing an unpublished manuscript.
Grant amounts have averaged $3,000-4,000 in the past few years, and Munch said there was approximately a 75% success rate. Notification comes about 6 months after the application deadline, usually in April. The application for the current cycle (Cycle 39, grant funding period July 1, 2008 – June 30, 2009) has passed, but check with your local grant offices for any out-of-cycle and emergency fund needs.
For a list of past library awardees and project abstracts, visit http://lacuny.cuny.edu/committees/professional/ and scroll down to PSC-CUNY Grants.
Kathleen Collins (John Jay)