The study gives data from 28 mostly research oriented higher education institutions about their information literacy efforts in the use of grants and funding databases such as PIVOT, grants.gov, SPIN and the Foundation Directory Online, among many others. The report looks at which departments – libraries, offices of research, academic faculties – pay for grants and funding databases and the extent of cooperation among these entities. Among other issues: staff time expended on grants and funding databases, self-evaluation of information literacy efforts, provision of videos and other forms of instruction in the use of such databases, and the use of alert services, among other issues.
Just a few of the 115-page report’s many findings are that:
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29.63% of the libraries in the sample subscribe to or otherwise provide access to PIVOT, the Community of Science grants database. Almost all access was provided by larger institutions in the sample; no institutional library in colleges with fewer than 6,000 enrolled students FTE subscribed toPIVOT.
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Colleges charging tuition of greater than $30,000 per year were more likely than others to offer research.gov and 62.5% of them did so.
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All GrantForward subscribers in the sample were private colleges, all with enrollment between 6,000 and 14,000 students and all research universities with annual tuition greater than $30,000.
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37.04% in this sample noted that they “really make not effort at all” in information literacy efforts in the use of grants and funding databases.