CRSA Annual Report - 2022-2023

Library Governance Committee Final Report

Fiscal Year: 2023

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

Committee Chair: Elspeth Healey

Members (with terms): https://lfsa.ku.edu/committee-members-2022-2023 Jill Becker*, FY2023-FY2024; Samantha Bishop Simmons*, FY2022-FY2023 (LFA executive liaison, FY 2023); Elspeth Healey*, FY2022-FY2023; Jon Giullian*, FY2023-FY2024; Carmen Orth-Alfie*, FY2021-FY2023.

* a minimum of three who have a requirement to engage in research and scholarly activities as part of their professional assignment 

Standing Charges:      

The Committee on Research and Scholarly Activities, in keeping with the Libraries’ mission, encourages, promotes, and supports research and scholarly activities of the members of the LFSA.

• Library Research Fund (LRF). The Committee on Research and Scholarly Activities establishes and reviews, on an annual basis, guidelines for the disbursal of research funds provided by the Dean of Libraries. The Committee on Research and Scholarly Activities allocates these funds based on those guidelines.
• General Research Fund (GRF). The Committee on Research and Scholarly Activities also administers the University’s General Research Fund designated to KU Libraries based on the GRF Guidelines.

Standing Charges Progress/Accomplishment Summary:

KU Libraries allocated $6000.00 for the Library Research Fund (LRF) for distribution and expenditure during FY 23. CRSA received and approved six (6) LRF awards for a total of 

$1,376. 

General Research Fund (GRF)  

In November 2023, the KU Office of Research notified the CRSA chair that KU Libraries was allocated up to $13,105.80 for the General Research Fund (GRF) to be awarded in FY23 for expenditures during FY24. A formal email announcement and call for applications was posted via KULIB-L on December 14, 2022, with an application deadline of February 27, 2023 (which was later extended to March 6, 2023). In this same email message, CRSA announced a three-part research series to promote the GRF and research in general. This series, also publicized throughout the spring semester, included the following sessions:

• Part 1 - General Research Fund (GRF) Q&A Panel 
  Wednesday, January 11, 2-3pm (Zoom). Moderated by Samantha Bishop Simmons and featuring recent successful GRF recipients, Whitney Baker and Michael Peper (recording: https://mediahub.ku.edu/media/t/1_xv8m5jfs).
• Part 2: The IRB: The Why, The What, and the When
  Tuesday, January 31, 10-11am (Zoom), featuring Alyssa Haase from the Human Research Protection Program (HRPP) (recording:  https://mediahub.ku.edu/media/t/1_emzbtmqg).
• Part 3 – Human Subjects Protocol workshop
  Tuesday, February 14, 1-2:15pm (Watson 503A), led by Jill Becker 

Although all three workshops were potentially relevant to the process of applying for the GRF, the final two sessions on the IRB sought to draw a wider audience, providing an overview of the kinds of research that need to be submitted to the Institutional Review Board (IRB) and offering advice on completing the Human Subjects Protocol, a component of the IRB submission. The goal for these workshops was to provide broader support for library researchers interested in conducting research with human subjects.  Though CRSA was not given any special charges this year, this expanded series of workshops was in keeping with a suggestion in last year’s final committee report, which advocated for “programming aimed at expanding ideas and opportunities by exploring what research could be done if we had the funding to make it possible.”

CRSA received and approved one GRF application, and the chair forwarded the decision to KU’s Office of Research in advance of the April 7, 2023 deadline. The Awardee was notified of acceptance. The allocation for the award was the applicant’s requested amount of $10, 261.00.  

Special Charges:  None

Special Charges Progress/Accomplishment Summary:  n/a

Other Activities or Accomplishments:

• CRSA worked with the website migration team to gain editing permissions for the CRSA web pages and made updates to two of its subpages for the Library Research Fund (LRF) and General Research Fund (GRF): https://lfsa.ku.edu/crsa/lrf and https://lfsa.ku.edu/crsa/grf.

Potential Charges for Future Committees/Recommendations:

Last year’s final committee report recommended that “a special charge be given to analyze the questions that have appeared in the Three-Year Review of the General Research Fund and the stated guidelines for LRF and GRF funds for the purpose of creating a system for regularly collecting relevant information in anticipation of these reviews and other needs of the committee.”  Though such a charge was not given this year and though the committee’s other activities during the spring kept CRSA occupied, it seems that it would be a useful endeavor—for future reporting purposes—to collect data annually on the research outputs that the LRF and GRF help fund.  CRSA is required to report this information on General Research Fund awardees as part of its three-year report to the Office of Research, and, relatedly, the template approval notice for LRF funding includes a reminder that "Recipients of these research funds will be expected to file a report to the Committee on Research and Scholarly Activities explaining how the funds were used.”  Over the summer, the Chair of the committee will consult with the Office of Research regarding any reports that GRF recipients are required to file directly with the Office of Research and whether these reports might be accessible to CRSA for its own future reporting purposes.  If these reports are not accessible or do not contain the type of information needed for CRSA’s Three-Year Review of the General Research Fund, it is recommended that CRSA develop a simple survey tool to collect information about research outputs (articles, conference presentations, further grant funding, etc.) that have resulted from GRF funding.  This survey should be easy and quick to complete for GRF awardees, and it should be distributed every year for five years following the GRF award to capture longer-term research outputs.  A similarly simple tool should be developed for the LRF to likewise capture longer-term research outputs resulting from the award.  If these tools are not developed by CRSA over the summer, it is recommended that CRSA be charged with developing and executing them in FY 24.

Please review the Committee’s portion of the Library Governance website and the Code.  Does it need updating/correcting?

No

Prepared By: Elspeth Healey, FY23 CRSA Chair