Librarians are experts at finding and evaluating data, information, and research. This expertise can support grant-seekers in both the pre-award and post-award phases.
Research Assistance
Basic Support
Definition: Reach out to your Subject Librarian who can provide the following services as part of the scholarly support that we regularly provide researchers:
- Help locating articles, books, data, and other research sources related to your grant
- Research possible publication venues for your grant outputs
Example: Reviewers suggest that your proposal include dissemination in the top journals in a particular field, so you ask the Subject Librarian for that discipline what the top journals are.
Costs: In-kind assistance (cost-sharing/no direct costs for the grant) of 2% librarian effort at $2,400/year (includes fringe benefits)
Contact: Start with your department’s Subject Librarian
More Advanced Support
Definition: Librarians are able to serve as co-primary investigators on grant proposals and provide more advanced grant support such as:
- Conducting specialized information searching and retrieval, including support for scoping reviews
- Analyzing and synthesizing trends in research
- Creating or writing portions of the grant or grant-related products
Example: A librarian located hundreds of historic newspaper articles that met particular criteria. The interpretation of those news articles formed the basis for a grant-funded exhibition and the librarian’s time along with the cost of the database that was used to find the articles was written into the grant budget.
Costs: 3.5% librarian effort at $4,050/year (includes fringe benefits)
Contact: Start with your department’s Subject Librarian
Evidence Synthesis/Meta Analysis
Definition: When it comes to conducting systematic literature reviews that methodically synthesize the evidence on a particular topic, Cook's librarians can serve as co-primary investigators and assist with expert literature reviews by developing a documented, comprehensive literature search and co-authoring the search methods section of the review.
A growing body of evidence demonstrates that including a librarian on the research team improves the quality and reporting of search strategies and methods. Including a librarian has become part of established standards for high-quality reviews.
Example: A Subject Librarian partnered with faculty to serve as an informationist on a grant. The librarian spent hours developing the perfect search query for numerous databases to uncover the most relevant and current research. Because the topic was quickly evolving, they continued to update this evidence synthesis across the course of the grant. The librarian’s time was written into the grant, and they were named an author on publications resulting from the grant.
Costs: 5% librarian effort at $6,000/year (includes fringe benefits)
Contact: Please complete our Request to Partner with a Cook Librarian on an Expert Review of the Literature form. After you submit this form, someone will contact you to schedule a meeting to discuss your project.