A r c h i v e d I n f o r m a t i o n

Biennial Evaluation Report - FY 93-94

Chapter 611

Strengthening Research Library Resources--Discretionary Grants to Major Research Libraries

(CFDA No. 84.091)

I. Program Profile

Legislation: The Higher Education Act (HEA) of 1965, Title II, Part C (20 U.S.C. 1021, 1041) (expires September 30, 1997).

Purpose: To promote high-quality research and education throughout the United States by providing grants to help major research libraries maintain and strengthen their collections, and to help make their holdings available to other libraries and individual researchers and scholars outside their primary clientele.

Funding History

Fiscal Year	Appropriation	Fiscal Year	Appropriation
1978	$5,000,000	1987	$6,000,000
1980	6,000,000	1988	5,744,000
1981	6,000,000	1989	5,675,000
1982	5,760,000	1990	5,738,000
1983	6,000,000	1991	5,855,000
1984	6,000,000	1992	5,855,000
1985	6,000,000	1993	5,808,160
1986	5,742,000	1994	5,808,160

II. Program Information and Analysis

Population Targeting

This program targets and benefits scholars and users of research collections by assisting institutions with major research libraries (1) to acquire rare and unique materials; (2) to preserve fragile and deteriorating materials not generally available elsewhere; and (3) to provide access to collections by converting bibliographic information into machine-readable form and entering the records into national databases.

Services

FY 1993 funding supported a total of 46 projects. Thirty-five were awarded competitively, and 11 were non-competing continuation awards. Projects were concentrated in the following areas:

Twenty-five grantees chose bibliographic control as the only area of project activity, adding new entries to national databases and making additional research materials accessible to users.
Twenty grantees chose both bibliographic control and preservation techniques to make rare and unique materials more accessible.
One grantee chose both bibliographic control and collection development as the areas of project activity.
Two institutions are promoting cooperative activities by administering joint projects involving a total of 11 institutions.

An example of a project funded in FY 1993 is the $65,000 award made to the New York Public Library in New York City for processing records of the Luening Collection. The collection consists of manuscript scores and correspondence, as well as academic, business, and family papers of Otto Luening, a noted flautist, composer, educator, and administrator. Collection records will be processed and entered into a national database. A computerized archival finding aid will also be created.

Program Administration

Grants are awarded for one year; however, some multi-year projects are eligible for non-competing continuation awards (some go as long as three years beyond the year of the original award). All non-continuation awards are selected following an annual peer review.

Management Improvement Strategies

Continued efforts were made to improve technical assistance to grantees and applicants. Fiscal and program data have been prepared and published annually as a part of the program brochure--Abstracts of Funded Projects--which has been refined and widely disseminated.

The program application booklet has been improved and now includes a section that provides greater explanation of the program criteria to assist applicants in preparing their grant submissions.

Information packets were distributed in FY 1993 to provide the library community with complete and up-to-date information concerning the program scope, eligibility requirements, and all other necessary information needed to apply for funding.

In FY 1993, the program staff became involved in a government-wide group, the Federal Funders Committee, which includes representatives from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Science Foundation, the National Archives, the National Historic Records and Publications Commission, the Commission on Preservation and Access, and the Coalition for Networked Information. This group provides a forum for Federal agencies that fund information-science-related activities to share information and ideas and to better reach their joint constituents.

III. Sources of Information

Program files.
Abstracts of Funded Projects, published annually by the Office of Library Programs, U.S. Department of Education.

IV. Planned Studies

None.

V. Contacts for Further Information

Program Operations :: Linda Miles, (202) 219-1315
Program Studies:: Frank Forman, (202) 401-0182

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[Library Research and Demonstrations--Discretionary Grants and Contracts]

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