Frequently Asked Questions
Questions frequently asked by applicants for CLIR Postdoctoral Fellowships
What is CLIR?
- CLIR is an independent, nonprofit organization that forges strategies to enhance research, teaching, and learning environments in collaboration with libraries, cultural institutions, and communities of higher learning.
What is the Postdoctoral Fellowship in Academic Libraries?
- The program offers recent Ph.D. recipients opportunities to develop as scholars, scientists, and teachers while learning about modern librarianship, instructional technologies, research data management, e-publishing, archives, and/or collection development both digital and analog.
Who is eligible to apply?
- Applicants must have received a Ph.D. in a discipline no more than five years before applying (i.e., after January 1, 2008); if a Ph.D. has not yet been received, all work toward the degree (including dissertation defense and final dissertation editing) must be completed before starting the fellowship.
What are the terms of the award?
- Remuneration varies by sponsoring institution and by type of fellowship; benefits and some travel expenses are routinely provided. Fellowships are for either one, two, or three years.
Where do fellows live during their fellowships?
- Fellows must reside at their sponsoring institution for the duration of the fellowship.
Which institutions currently sponsor fellows?
- Bryn Mawr College
- Bucknell University
- Emory University
- Johns Hopkins University
- Lehigh University
- McMaster University
- Purdue University
- University of California, Los Angeles
- University of Michigan
- University of Pennsylvania
What is life like as a postdoctoral fellow?
- Fellows work in libraries and research centers, where they learn about librarianship and allied information professions as well as about challenges facing the future of higher education and scholarly research. Fellows contribute expertise in research information behaviors, research data analysis, pedagogy, technology, and research collections, both digital and analog. Fellows participate in the intellectual life of their institutions by working within the areas of research support; academic librarianship; archives and archive management; special collections; curriculum development; techno-pedagogy; and digital resource production and use.
What are the program requirements?
- All fellows must attend an intensive summer seminar before beginning their fellowship. The next seminar takes place July 28-August 6, 2013, at Bryn Mawr College. Throughout their fellowships, fellows are asked to share works-in-progress; participate in virtual seminars with leading figures in the fields of librarianship, publishing, higher education, and allied professions; and attend conferences and professional meetings. Other requirements may vary by institution.
What kinds of projects do fellows undertake?
Fellows have done the following:
- consulted on the best, pedagogically sound ways to integrate technology and digital materials into the undergraduate classroom;
- collaborated with librarians, archivists, and information technologists on the development of writing and research guides for students;
- participated in the design and implementation of metadata standards for faculty using digital visual resources in their teaching and research;
- worked in special collections and rare materials archives, learning and performing tasks including material review and selection, creation of catalogue records, metadata entry, and authoring of abstracts;
- authored front matter for printed catalogues in special collections;
- co-taught honors research skills courses;
- managed digital archives;
- provided support for discipline-specific research projects;
- developed institutional policies, tools, and practices related to research data curation;
- advised on and contributed to inventories of digital projects in area collections;
- authored and consulted on grant proposals for digital projects;
- presented at national and international conferences in various areas of librarianship, archive management, metadata, humanities computing, and discipline-specific topics;
- taught bibliographic instruction sections for particular disciplines;
- proposed new courses that integrate library and archival research into the undergraduate curriculum;
- taught courses in academic departments pertaining to the fellows' area of specialization;
- curated museum and library exhibitions;
- organized conferences and colloquia; and
- traveled on behalf of host institution to conduct research in archives, libraries, and museums in the United States and Europe.
What types of careers are former fellows pursuing?
- Since 2004 when the program started, about half of former fellows are employed in libraries and half in adjunct or tenure-track teaching positions. Previous fellows are working as reference librarians and subject specialists, library administrators, assistant professors of literature, library consultants, writers, coordinators of faculty development and digital resource management, visiting professors and lecturers, and research associates. Several fellows are pursuing additional degrees in library and information sciences, technology, and/or intellectual property law. For more information about current and previous fellows, click here.
How do I apply?
Once I have applied, what happens to my application?
- You will be contacted by a current or former postdoctoral fellow who will conduct a phone interview with you. The fellow's interview report becomes part of your application which will be forwarded to all host institutions. Note that the list of hosts on CLIR's website is not comprehensive because new hosts and position descriptions are added throughout the academic year. The hiring process can take as long as five months, so you may not hear anything from hosts and/or CLIR until June 2013 or later. Each host determines who from the pool they are interested in pursuing and contacts those applicants directly. It is then incumbent on the host and the individual applicant to discuss the exact nature and terms of employment. Since hosts employ fellows directly, they make final hiring decisions and determine salary and benefits, except in cases where fellowships are supported by grant funds from CLIR.
Where can I learn more about the future of scholarship, academic libraries, and higher education?
- CLIR Reports provide good introductions to these topics, as well as suggestions for further reading.