Feedback from FRDC "Food for Thoughts" event

Time / Culture – Administration, DFSC/CFSC, FRDC, LFC

• Create a “no meeting” block of time
• “Quiet summers” with limited commitments (e.g., one faculty meeting a month)
• Prominent location for research interest topics and themes of Milner faculty
• More mindful of research time (ten hours a week) honored by and for all (top down)
• Promote an average of 10 hours a week for research  do so intentionally and deliberately
• inform new faculty
• remind all faculty annually
• Work against the culture of “guilt”
• Recognize the support we offer to other faculty, staff and administrators on campus for research, grants, etc.
• Celebrate and promote the Faculty Publications database – add prominent link
• Respect research projects and other major projects for Milner
• Recognize success more than once a year

Mentoring – FRDC

• Offer Milner faculty liaison with expectations for pre-tenure or NTT
• Provide list of research interests of Milner faculty; useful for new faculty looking for partners in research

Writing Circles / Research Groups / Reading Groups – FRDC, LFC

• Partnering with CTLT offerings
• Create a list of volunteers for point of need review for draft manuscripts
• Offer updates in library wide meetings
• Encourage presentations at all levels within research stage
• Share updates electronically

Manuscripts – FRDC

• Provide list of standard library periodicals
• Include names of Milner faculty who have published within specific journals to help interested faculty learn practices, timelines and expectations of specific journals and their editors
• Provide updates of themed journals

Poster sessions – FRDC

• Promote poster sessions as useful method for beginning research

Small or Internal Grants – FRDC

• Promote smaller internal grants, such as Friends of Milner Library and URGs, as stepping stones for larger external grants, or to explore or pilot research ideas

Regional Conferences – FRDC

• Promote local conferences to explore or pilot research ideas

Sabbaticals –DFSC, FRDC, LFC

• Provide college-level guidelines
• Establish clear expectations by building on University requirements
• Show how timeline can work in our schedules
• Offer potential ideas for projects
• Recommend in annual DFSC evaluations
• Leverage our proximity to nearby library schools
• Create win-win situations
• Investigate IWU model of visiting librarians
• Advocate the value of sabbaticals in faculty’s academic career

Grants – Admin, FRDC

• Create clearinghouse
• Provide proposals, successful applications, grant reports
• Provide boilerplate language about ISU/Milner required in nearly every grant
• Provide list of contact people with successful grant experience and/or grant review committee experience that would be willing to offer feedback
• Provide guidelines on submitting technology needs to DTAC
• Provide information on extra help, release time, etc.
• Facilitate a review stage prior to submitting to Toni
• Encourage writing release time into grant
• Develop support staff to handle time intensive tasks (e.g. copying)

Research Skills – FRDC

• Create central clearinghouse
• Provide list of in house or campus contacts (e.g. quantitative/statistical or qualitative expertise; assessment guidance; IRB) for point-of-need assistance
• Assistance in identifying valid research questions
• Lead to larger themes and library research agenda
• Offer monthly brown bag and other ways to encourage discussions
• Offer sessions across a broad range of categories
• Learning about university practices (IRB, grant writing)
• Sharing intellectual discourse to help create a research community
• Provide research symposia as other colleges provide

Research Wiki – FRDC

• Provide a multipurpose resource to assist in research at all stages

Federal Initiatives –  need for a separate message in future by Administration

• Use research wiki to understand research priorities in library
• Leverage Milner’s partnership strengths

Technology – FRDC

• Champion digitization opportunities among collections
• Search for methods to support digitization (funding, staffing, equipment)
• Provide technical support for research projects

Service – FRDC

• Promote use service as conduit for scholarship
• Encourage a balance of time devoted toward service versus scholarship

Return to Faculty Research and Development Committee page