Overview
The Mellon Foundation grant to AMICAL for
2007-2008 includes funds intended to help AMICAL staff members take
advantage of professional development opportunities, and also to
facilitate contact with colleagues from other institutions who may have
critical expertise in an area of need at an AMICAL institution. Grant
support is being made available in primarily three areas:
- General scholarship funds for training opportunities
- Support for conference participation
- Support
for staff exchanges: sending local staff to learn from expertise at
other institutions, or bringing individuals with relevant expertise to
AMICAL institutions
Eligibility
Grants can be used to support:
- staff
members from AMICAL institutions for professional development
opportunities that will contribute to the development of library and
information services or curricular resources
- visits by experts
from outside the AMICAL institution to help develop some aspects of
local library services, IT services, or curricular resources. It is
expected that such visits will also add to the professional development
of staff locally, through the transference of expertise.
Scope & Criteria
The
following guidelines indicate the expected scope for grants, as well as
some of the criteria that will be used in selecting grant proposals:
- Requests should generally fall between 500 and 4000 euros. In exceptional cases, requests outside this range may be considered.
- Grants
should be used to help cover travel expenses or fees directly related
to training, conferences, or other professional development
opportunities. Grants may be used to support professional contact
through visiting institutions with expertise needed by the AMICAL
member institution. Expenses that can be covered include:
- Flights, trains or other ticketed travel to and from the destination
- Ground transportation for arrivals and departures
- Hotel accommodation for the duration of the grant-supported activity
- Conference/training fees
- The professional development opportunity should have some kind of real expected
impact not just on their own professional development but on the
development of library and information services or curricular resources.
- Priority
will be given to professional development or exchange opportunities
that fall into one or more of the following categories:
- develop long-term professional capacities of local staff
- are not accessible locally (e.g. requiring travel to, or requiring bringing a consultant/trainer from, another country)
- are exceptional local opportunities that budgetary constraints make it impossible to take advantage of
- bring
exceptional expertise to the campus that is unavailable locally, in a
way that will have a lasting impact on the development of local library
services, IT services, or curricular resources
- promote collaboration between library staff, IT staff and faculty members
- Activity supported should be completed before 31 December 2008.
How to Apply
Applications for an AMICAL Small Grant Award should be sent by the deadline indicated below to Nigel Butterwick (nbutterwick@fc.edu),
Grant Committee Chair. Applications should be brief (1-2 pages max.),
preferably in Word format, and should include at least the following:
- brief description of the activity to be supported
- background and need
- expected
impact
- amount being requested
- any special requests or circumstances
Calendar
Applications will be accepted in three rounds:
| |
Deadline for applications
|
Award notification
|
Round 1
|
7 December 2007
|
14 December 2007
|
Round 2
|
15 February 2008
|
1 March 2008
|
Round 3
|
18 July 2008
|
1 August 2008
|
Disbursement Procedures
Grant
recipients should pay up front for the covered expenses, submitting
original receipts for reimbursement. Reimbursement will be in euros.
Advances may be possible in exceptional cases. Detailed instructions on
grant disbursement will be made available to recipients.
Reporting
Grant recipients must be willing to submit a brief (approx. 1-page) report, no later than 31 December 2008, describing
- what was accomplished
- the
impact of the supported activity on local professional development
and/or on the quality of local library and information services or
curricular resources