CRSA Annual Report 2017-2018

Committee Name: Committee on Research & Scholarly Activity (CRSA)

Committee Chair: Jill Becker (co-chair) & Lea Currie (co-chair)

Members (with terms): Callie Branstiter (2017-2019), Corinne Forstot-Burke (2017-19), Sharon Riley (2016-2018).

Fiscal Year: 2017-2018

Standing Charges: 3.3.9.1 The Committee on Research and Scholarly Activities in keeping with the Libraries’ mission, shall encourage, promote, and support research and scholarly activities of the members of the Library Faculty and Professionals Assembly.

  1. The Committee on Research and Scholarly Activities shall establish and review, on an annual basis, guidelines for the disbursal of funds received from the Dean of Libraries for scholarly pursuits. The Committee on Research and Scholarly Activities shall allocate these funds based on those guidelines. The Committee on Research and Scholarly Activities shall also administer the University’s General Research Funds based on the established criteria.
  2. The Committee on Research and Scholarly Activities shall be composed of five members of the Library Faculty and Professionals Assembly, appointed by the Executive Committee, three of whom have the requirement to engage in research and scholarly activities as part of their professional assignment. A reasonable effort will be made to appoint members who represent the various ranks of faculty as well as the different units of the Libraries.
  3. The appointed members shall serve two-year overlapping terms and shall select a presiding officer and a recording secretary.

Standing Charges Progress Summary (please include progress and/or accomplishments related to Standing Charges):

CRSA approved 12 Library Research Fund (LRF) awards for a total of $2,610.68. LRF funds supported:

Marcella Huggard [$96, poster printing for Society of American Archivists ];

Sherri Brown [$513, registration and poster printing for 2017 Charleston Library Conference];

Lars Leon [$200, presentation at KLA in Wichita];

Amalia Monroe-Gulick, Lea Currie, and Corinne Forstot-Burke [$48, poster printing for 2017 Charleston Library Conference];

Andi Back [$117.59, poster printing for University of Kansas Institute for Digital Research in the Humanities, and Art Libraries Society of North America];

Angie Rathmel [$250, pre-conference workshop at ALA Annual 2018];

Nate Chamberlain [$205, SharePoint conference (also reflected in FY17 final report)];

Jon Giullian [$250, conference registration for ALA Midwinter];

Callie Branstiter [$251.09, registration for Personal Librarian and First-Year Experience Conference];

Karna Younger [$290, registration for LOEX];

Carmen Orth-Alfie [$290, registration for LOEX];

Sara Morris [$100, registration for the Agricultural History Society’s annual meeting].

CRSA received one General Research Fund (GRF) request which was approved.

  • Ada Emmett – Sophisticated Forms of Cooperation: Mechanisms for Equity in an Open Access Publishing System ($6,000)

Special Charges: CRSA had no special charges this year.

While there were no special charges, CRSA did promote available funds through email communication and forums. In partnership with Organizational Development (OD), CRSA facilitated a Research Sharing Forum in the fall and a Sabbatical Sharing Forum in the spring.

CRSA also attempted to streamline the fund approval process using SharePoint.  Due to technical difficulties and staff departures this approach did not work according to plan.

Special Charges Progress Summary: N/A

Recommendations: CRSA recommends that next year’s committee continue to explore using SharePoint workflows for approving LRF requests. Some system to reduce forwarded email communication and automated recorded keeping is needed.

Potential charges for future Committees: No recommendations at this time

Prepared by: Jill Becker, CRSA Co-Chair