OARS funding Libraries & Museums

The University of Leicester is inviting applications for funded PhD studentships starting autumn 2014 in a range of arts and humanities disciplines.

Preservation and Access Research and Development grants support projects that address major challenges in preserving or providing access to humanities collections and resources. These challenges include the need to find better ways to preserve materials of critical importance to the nation¿s cultural heritage¿from fragile artifacts and manuscripts to analog recordings and digital assets subject to technological obsolescence¿and to develop advanced modes of searching, discovering, and using such materials. Applicants should define a specific problem, devise procedures and potential solutions, and explain how they would evaluate their projects and disseminate their findings. Project results must serve the needs of a significant number of humanists.

The Foundation's Innovations in Reading Prize recognizes exceptional initiatives and programs that have created and sustained a lifelong love of reading: thoughtful, groundbreaking projects that generate excitement and passion for literature and books. The Foundation is particularly interested in applications from those that have developed interdisciplinary approaches and incorporate innovative thinking in design, technology, social change, social entrepreneurship, or other fields. Potential candidates can enter themselves for consideration or be nominated by others. Winners receive $2,500 each and are featured prominently on the Foundation's website and in other digital publicity that reaches around the world.

CIRD supports rural communities with a population of 50,000 or less located in a non-metropolitan county or a metropolitan county on the urban fringe. CIRD defines "community" broadly: not just the town center or area within the town boundary, but also the surrounding areas that depend on its goods and services and contribute an economic base, agricultural land or open space, and recreational opportunities. Ability to carry out the logistical and practical preparations for a two-and-a-half workshop (secure a facility for the workshop, provide breakfast and luncheon for participants, provide audio visual equipment, arrange for field trips), including a public engagement event Matching funds (suggested $7,000 in cash or in-kind donations) Support of a local governing body, municipal agency, or other appointed or elected officials, including an expressed willingness of these individuals to serve as official partners and to actively participate in the workshop Support of additional local and/or regional partner organizations and leaders Ability to identify and engage a diverse group of community members as participants in the workshop and follow-up activities Intention and readiness to implement actions emerging from the workshops, participate in the evaluation of the workshop, and report on results

The History of Art program supports scholarly projects that will enhance the appreciation and understanding of European art and architecture. Grants are awarded to projects that create and disseminate specialized knowledge, including archival projects, development and dissemination of scholarly databases, documentation projects, museum exhibitions and publications, photographic campaigns, scholarly catalogues and publications, and technical and scientific studies. Grants are also awarded for activities that permit art historians to share their expertise through international exchanges, professional meetings, conferences, symposia, consultations, the presentation of research, and other professional events.

This program therefore helps cultural repositories plan and implement preservation strategies that pragmatically balance effectiveness, cost, and environmental impact. Sustainable approaches to preservation can contribute to an institution's financial health, reduce its use of fossil fuels, and benefit its green initiatives, while ensuring that collections are well cared for and available for use in humanities programming, education, and research.

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston seeks applicants for five Undergraduate Internships and three Graduate Fellowships for the Summer 2014 term. The available opportunities are in the Curatorial, Education, and Legal Administration Departments. Interns and Fellows are provided with a stipend. Applications are due March 3, 2014 at 6pm. The Summer 2014 term runs from June 2 to August 8, 2014 and takes place in Houston, Texas.

Historical thinking is now included as a foundation of the Ontario history curriculum. It plays a key role in the new draft social studies curriculum in British Columbia. Other Canadian provinces are moving in the same direction. The summer institute is designed for teachers, graduate students, curriculum developers, professional development leaders and museum educators who want to enhance their expertise at designing and teaching history courses and programs with explicit attention to historical thinking. The 2014 Historical Thinking Summer Institute will explore six historical thinking concepts: evidence significance continuity & change cause & consequence perspective-taking the ethical dimension of history These concepts will shape our exploration of two substantive themes: Aboriginal-settler relations, and human-nature relations over time. We will use local cases, resources and expertise available in Vancouver, but the work will be applicable to other locations across Canada and internationally.

The Vilcek Foundation will award three prizes of $50,000 each to young fashion professionals who demonstrate outstanding early achievement. Professionals in the following fields are encouraged to apply: Designer - including but not exclusive to womenswear, menswear, textile design, accessories, and other artifacts Stylist - including editorials, advertising campaigns, and fashion presentations Makeup/hair artist - truly experimental pushing the breadth of materials used to communicate their narrative of makeup or hair Image Maker - including fashion photography, film, animation, and illustration Curator - including exhibitions, presentations, and display through real and/or virtual environment Writer - fashion writing, including curatorial, journalistic, critical, editorial, and historical

The Professional Development for Arts Educators (PDAE) program supports the implementation of high-quality model professional development programs in elementary and secondary education for music, dance, drama, media arts, or visual arts, including folk arts, for educators and other arts instructional staff of kindergarten through grade 12 (K-12) students in high-poverty schools. The purpose of this program is to strengthen standards-based arts education programs and to help ensure that all students meet challenging State academic content standards and challenging State student academic achievement standards in the arts. 

The Cummins Grant provides a stipend of $10,000 to support short-term historical research using Special Collections at GW's Jacob Burns Law Library, which is noted for its continental historical legal collections, especially its French Collection. Special Collections also is distinguished by its holdings in Roman and canon law, church-state relations, international law, and its many incunabula. The grant is awarded to one doctoral, LLM, or SJD candidate; postdoctoral researcher; faculty member; or independent scholar. Candidates may come from a variety of disciplines including, but not limited to, law, history, religion, philosophy, or bibliography.

In recognition of the importance of research to the advancement of librarianship and information science, OCLC and ALISE promote independent research that helps integrate new technologies that offer innovative approaches and contributes to a better understanding of the information environment and user expectations and behaviors. 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.)

We are pleased to announce that the new OARS website is up and running (although the new Research Compliance and Undergraduate Research sections are still in development).   If you haven't had a chance to check it out yet, we hope you will soon.  Once you've visited, we'd be grateful if you'd give us five minutes of your time to let us know how we're doing by completing a brief eight-question survey at https://miamioh.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_erhRsEFwwWVP6m1 Finally, don't forget to update any bookmarks you may have to material on our old website!

NEH is soliciting proposals from institutions to participate in the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP). NDNP is creating a national digital resource of historically significant newspapers published between 1836 and 1922, from all the states and U.S. territories. This searchable database will be permanently maintained at the Library of Congress (LC) and will be freely accessible via the Internet. (See the website, Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers.) An accompanying national newspaper directory of bibliographic and holdings information on the website directs users to newspaper titles available in all types of formats. During the course of its partnership with NEH, LC will also digitize and contribute to the NDNP database a significant number of newspaper pages drawn from its own collections. NEH intends to support projects in all states and U.S. territories, provided that sufficient funds allocated for this purpose are available. One organization within each U.S. state or territory will receive an award to collaborate with relevant state partners in this effort. 

The ACRL Academic/Research Librarian of the Year Award recognizes an outstanding member of the library profession who has made a significant national or international contribution to academic or research librarianship and library development.

The Emerald Research Grant Award will be awarded to individuals seeking support to conduct research in business librarianship. The funds may be used at the discretion of the award recipients. Award recipient must be an ALA member or at least one member of a collaborative team must be an ALA member. Recipients may be asked to present their findings at a public BRASS event within two years of receiving the award (at the discretion of the BRASS Executive Committee). Recipients will also be required to acknowledge the Emerald Research Grant when publishing or presenting their research. One $5,000 award will be presented. The awards (check and citation) will be presented at the RUSA Awards Ceremony at the annual conferences each year. Recipients will be required to attend the RUSA Awards Ceremony.

National Leadership Grants (NLG) for Museums support projects that address critical needs of the museum field and that have the potential to advance practice in the profession so that museums can improve services for the American public. Successful proposals will generate results such as models, new tools, research findings, services, practices, and/or alliances that can be widely used, adapted, scaled, or replicated to extend and leverage the benefits of federal investment.

The Museums for America (MFA) program supports projects that strengthen the ability of an individual museum to serve its public. MFA grants support activities that strengthen museums as active resources for lifelong learning, as important institutions in the establishment of livable communities, and as good stewards of the nation's collections. MFA grants can fund both new and ongoing museum activities and programs. Examples include planning, managing and conserving collections, improving public access, training, conducting programmatic research, school and public programming, producing exhibitions, and integrating new or upgraded technologies into your operations. There are three categories within the MFA program: Learning Experiences IMLS places the learner at the center and supports engaging experiences in museums that prepare people to be full participants in their local communities and our global society.Projects should provide high-quality, inclusive, accessible, and audience-focused learning opportunities; provide access to collections, information, and educational resources; encourage the use of technologies; and develop programs for specific segments of the public. Community Anchors IMLS promotes museums as strong community anchors that enhance civic engagement, cultural opportunities, and economic vitality.Projects should harness a museum's expertise, knowledge, physical space, technology, or other resources in order to address a specific need originating in the community. Museums may undertake the project alone or in partnership with one or more community organizations. Collections Stewardship IMLS supports exemplary stewardship of museum collections and promotes the use of technology to facilitate discovery of knowledge and cultural heritage. Projects should address high priority collections care or conservation issues.

Established in 1990, the Gale Cengage Learning Award for Excellence in Reference and Adult Library Services is a citation and $3,000 monetary award presented to a library or library system for developing an imaginative and unique resource to meet patrons' reference needs. The resource can be a bibliography, a guide to the literature of a specific subject, a directory, a database, or any other project that has helped the library meet adult or children's reference needs. Tools, guides or databases that have been developed for reader's advisory or adult service questions and needs are also eligible for the award.

Loleta Fyan, 1951-52 ALA President, bequeathed funds to ALA with the intent that "these funds be used for the development and improvement of public libraries and the services they provide."