ALA 2009 Annual Conference: Chicago, IL, July 9, 2009.
Librarians can play an active role in faculty research and enhancing public understanding of science. Now more than ever before, the nation’s scientists are engaging in outreach activities focused on the pre-college pipeline in order to ensure that a continuing supply of students enter college-level science disciplines and education programs, and ensure that schools graduate an informed citizenry appreciative of the sciences. Increased participation in these types of activities can be attributed in large part to funding agencies such as the National Science Foundation (NSF) and other STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) focused grant programs, which now require that their funded scientists articulate both a research program and an outreach program (ie. “broader impacts” ). These outreach requirements present new opportunities for librarians to support faculty research and to further integrate their library into the teaching and learning mission of their institution.
Library and Information Science
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ALA website: http://www.ala.org.