Library Acquisitions Grant Program
The Library Acquisitions (LA) grant program is designed to provide University resources to fund library acquisitions in support of research, scholarship, and creative endeavor at the University of Notre Dame. This program is not meant to replace the normal means of enhancing the library’s collections but to provide a means of responding to unique opportunities or challenges. Collection materials requested may be in print, digital, electronic, or other formats. It is expected that requests will normally be in the range between $25,000 and $150,000. Cost share with other units is desirable.
Priorities
The LA program is intended to augment library acquisitions primarily for research, not teaching. Successful proposals will acquire materials that should enhance research, as follows:
- in key areas of scholarship by acquisition of unique materials;
- by providing new primary sources that were previously unavailable and augment current research capabilities; and / or
- in areas that are currently deficient relative to the needs of a major research university.
Eligibility
The following categories are eligible to apply for this program:
- Full-time regular members of the University of Notre Dame faculty, including tenured and tenure-track faculty, research faculty, library faculty, and professors of the practice who have not received a LA award in the past five years are eligible to apply.
- Centers and Institutes not reporting through a College or School may submit one proposal with the Director as lead principal investigator.
Deadline
We are not currently accepting submissions at this time. Please check back.
Grant Period
Funds will be available in the spring following the application period and must be expended by end of that calendar year. Funds not expended by that date will be withdrawn unless an extension is requested and granted.
Proposal Format and Submission
Interested applicants should write the proposal in clear, non-technical language for a general audience.
Each proposal must include the following items in the order listed:
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Cover page with following information: Name of Lead Principal Investigator and Co-Principal Investigators, Department, Center, or Institute affiliation, Phone, Email, Proposal Title, and designation as a LA grant.
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Description of the proposed project (four pages maximum), as follows:
- Acquisition Description: The specific kinds of materials to be acquired (e.g. books, letters or other manuscripts, electronic databases, or retrospective journal purchases, for example) should be identified. If the proposal is for an existing collection that has come on the market, a listing of the kinds of materials in the collection should be provided. Materials requested may be in handwritten, typed, in print, digital, electronic, or other formats.
- Justification: Proposals for library collections must demonstrate that there is a weakness in the library’s current holdings in the field or that important new materials would significantly enhance existing collections. This may be done through a comparison of Notre Dame’s collections with peer institutions through the OCLC Collection Analysis or other means of assessment. The Hesburgh Libraries can assist in conducting the collection analysis. For acquisitions in fields where the library holdings are already relatively strong, the applicants must demonstrate that the new material to be acquired constitutes an addition of major new primary resources that will significantly augment research capabilities for Notre Dame faculty and draw outside scholars to Notre Dame’s collections.
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Budget: Please provide a budget and timeline for expenditure of funds. Provide information regarding additional sources of funding (cost share) or sources where funds have previously been sought to fund the acquisition including name of potential funder, dates, and outcome of the efforts. If the request is for books that are no longer in print and must be purchased through used book dealers as they become available, provide a plan for working with book dealers and library staff in order to ensure that Notre Dame is able to buy the books as soon as they come on the market.
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List of Requested Items: Please provide a complete list (or a representative list if very large or not completely determined). Items should be numbered sequentially. There is no page limit for this information.
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Endorsement: Proposals must be endorsed in writing (email or formal letter) by the relevant department chair(s) and the relevant library faculty member (e.g., subject librarian or Associate University Librarian for Academic Services and Collections). The letter of support from the University Librarian, or a designee, must state that a library faculty has assisted in the preparation of the proposal and the Hesburgh Libraries has the resources and staff available for processing the acquisition and cataloguing the materials
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Current curriculum vitae (two pages maximum) for each faculty member listed on the cover sheet as a co-investigator must be included.
The submission should be uploaded in a single PDF document with naming convention of “<PI NAME>_LA Proposal_<YEAR>.pdf” to this Google Form. Proposals that do not comply with format and content guidelines may be rejected without review.
Acceptance Conditions
All materials purchased under this program remain the property of the University of Notre Dame in accordance with current University policies.
Final Report
All internal grant awardees are required to complete a short final report. Please download the report template as a Word document.
Previous Awardees
Need More Information?
For information on the LA program, or the Internal Grants in general, please contact intprogs@nd.edu.