CRSA Annual Report - 2023-2024
Library Governance Committee Final Report
Fiscal Year: FY2024 (July 1, 2023-June 30, 2024)
Committee Name: Committee on Research & Scholarly Activities (CRSA)
Committee Chairs: Jill Becker, Phil Cunningham (co-chairs)
Members: https://lfsa.ku.edu/committee-members-fy-2023-2024
Jill Becker, 2022-2024*
Phil Cunningham, 2023-2025*
Jon Giullian, 2022-2024*
Amber Ovsak, 2023-2025*
Paul Thomas, 2023-2025
*Denotes a minimum of three members who have a requirement to engage in research and scholarly activities as part of their professional assignment.
Standing Charges:
According to the University of Kansas Libraries Code of Governance available at https://lfsa.ku.edu/lfsa-code-and-bylaws, 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. To support these endeavors, CRSA promotes and reviews applications for the Library Research Fund (LRF) and General Research Fund (GRF).
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:
Library Research Fund
The committee worked with LFSA Executive Committees to revise and update LRF Guidelines to broaden scope to research and scholarly activities and provided examples to be more current. LRF guidelines were approved by Dean Carol Smith in Spring 2024.
KU Libraries has allocated $6000.00 for the Library Research Fund (LRF) for distribution and expenditure during FY24 (2023-2024). CRSA received and approved seven (7) LRF awards for a total of $1,038.00.
Name | Amount Awarded (USD) | Project Name | Description of purpose of funding |
Amalia Monroe-Gulick | $155.00 | Gender Equality in LIS Research | Funds to cover 1-year membership to Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE) |
Lars Leon | $150.00 | Meeting our Challenges Collectively as a Kansas Interlibrary Loan Community | Funds to cover registration for Kansas Library Association (KLA) conference |
Heather MacBean | $25.00 | Before R&P and the Memo: What Does Historical Data Reveal about the Changing and Future Landscape of OA? | Funds to cover printing of poster for Charleston Conference |
Cecilia Zhang | $80.00 | Rules, Guidances, and Possible Future of AI | Funds to cover subscription (Feb-May) to explore ChatGPT plus |
Andi Back | $405.00 | Data Relationships of the Arts and Natural History | Funds to registration for Art Libraries Society of North America (ARLIS/NA) and pre-conference workshop “Art + Data in Libraries” |
Angie Rathmel | $79.00 | Asking for help in a helping profession webinar | Funds to cover registration for ALA CORE webinar “Asking for help in a helping profession” |
Paul Thomas | $144.00 | Style analysis of generative writing tools | Funds to cover annual subscription to ProWritingAid |
General Research Fund (GRF)
KU Office of Research notified CRSA co-chairs that KU Libraries has been allocated $13,105.80 for the General Research Fund to be awarded in FY2024 for expenditures during FY2025. A call for applications was announced at the December 7 All-Staff meeting. A formal email announcement was also sent out February 19. The application deadline was March 15, 2024. CRSA received and approved one (1) GRF application for the applicant’s requested amount of $6,405.00.
Name | Amount Awarded (USD) | Project Name | Description of Purpose of Funding |
Carmen Orth-Alfie | $6,405.00 | Thesis/Dissertation Literature Review Workflow Writing Group for Graduate Students: Pilot Study | Funding to provide access to online productivity tools for graduate students for evaluation for pilot study |
Additional Activities
To support engagement with LRF and GRF funds by library colleagues, CRSA hosted a series of four programs throughout the academic year to increase understanding of these funding opportunities and other internal funding opportunities available such as New Faculty Research Development (NFRD) awards.
CRSA hosted an LRF/GRF Information session on Tuesday, November 14, 2023, in Watson 455 and via Zoom. The session, led by Jill Becker, provided information on guidelines and examples of successful LRF and GRF applications. Attention was given to LRF funding for participant incentives and the New Faculty Research Development (NFRD) award available to new faculty within the first two years of their appointment at KU. CRSA hosted a GRF panel discussion with this year’s recipient Brian Rosenblum on December 6, 2023.
During the Spring 2024 semester, CRSA hosted a workshop “Generating Ideas for Research” on January 29, 2024, in Watson 455. This was an in-person group workshop designed to build momentum toward individual research projects at any stage with a goal to foster collaborative research projects and lay the groundwork for future GRF applications. CRSA hosted a panel discussion on book publishing on May 9, 2024, discussing experiences with book publishing as research and scholarly activities.
Special Charges:
In last year's final committee report (CRSA Annual Report 2022-2023), a special charge was given to the committee to develop a survey tool to capture longer-term research outputs resulting from LRF awards. Discussion with committee this year acknowledges that LRF applications include purpose and final outcomes of research or scholarly project. Information provided in applications is sufficient to capture research and scholarly output. It has also been determined with the revision of LRF guidelines that funding is not limited to library faculty and staff for whom research is a part of their professional assignment and capture of longer-term research output may not apply to all award recipients.
Potential Charges for Future Committees/Recommendations:
A topic of discussion with this year’s committee has been the creation of a “Funding Flow Chart” to help colleagues find the most appropriate funding sources for research and scholarly activities. Ongoing efforts of the committee has been to compile a list of past NFRD recipients. It is recommended that CRSA continue this charge by developing a Funding Flow Chart in FY2025.
Please review the Committee’s portion of the Library Governance website and the Code <http://lfsa.ku.edu/code-versions>. Does it need updating/correcting? No
Prepared by Phil Cunningham, FY2024 co-chair.