KU Libraries receive Institute of Museum & Library Services grant

The University of Kansas Libraries, along with North Carolina State University Libraries and Illinois School of Information Sciences, are pleased to announce a $247,128 grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS).

KU Libraries and their partners will develop, populate and pilot the Scholarly Communications Notebook (SCN) — an open educational resource index and repository. The SCN will serve as the location for an active, inclusive, empowered community of practice for teaching scholarly communications to early-career librarians. 

“Scholarly communication norms and practices are evolving so quickly, with massive implications for the academy and its libraries,” said Josh Bolick, scholarly communications librarian and co-author of the SCN proposal. “We hope the SCN will serve as a hub of teaching and learning content that library schools can leverage to keep up with the shifting demand and position early career librarians to actively participate in the shift towards more open practices.”

When implemented, the SCN will leverage open education and open pedagogy to empower stakeholders to realize scholarly communications as a transformative practice and support the evolving needs of libraries and their users. 

Will Cross, director of the Copyright & Digital Scholarship Center at NC State Libraries, and Maria Bonn, associate professor and MS/LIS Program Director at Illinois School of Information Sciences, co-authored the grant proposal and will lead the SCN effort at their universities. 

“KU Libraries are proud to be leaders in the scholarly communication and open access realm,” said Kevin L. Smith, dean of libraries. “The generous IMLS grant will allow for the creation of an open educational repository that will have a lasting impact in the library community.”