Dear Colleagues,
We hope this message finds you, your family, and your friends safe and well. As the COVID-19 pandemic poses unprecedented personal and institutional challenges, we want you to know that CLIR is committed to our ongoing work in support of libraries, cultural institutions, and communities of higher learning.
As a distributed staff that works remotely, we are continuing our operations as normal, including issuing payments, managing grant application and reporting processes, and being on hand to answer questions from constituents about our programs. Here are a few updates by program:
Digitizing Hidden Collections: After consulting with many applicants who have taken the time to share how response to the crisis is affecting their work, the grants team has decided to extend the March 31 Digitizing Hidden Collections deadline to May 20, 2020. A message about this extension will be sent to the relevant account holders in CLIR’s online application system today. The team would appreciate help in circulating this news to affected applicants and their collaborating partners. More information about how the extension will affect the review and award schedule for the program will be available on the program website within the next two days.
Recordings at Risk: The current Recordings at Risk review process remains on schedule and applicants who submitted proposals in January should expect notification in April.
Reporting deadline extensions for Recordings and Risk and Digitizing Hidden Collections recipients are available upon request, and all grant recipients facing unforeseen delays in project work may request no-cost extensions at any time using the modification request form linked from the Recordings at Risk and Digitizing Hidden Collections recipient resources web pages. In recognition of the additional challenges recipients are facing at this time, CLIR will grant second no-cost extensions when needed.
Leading Change Institute: At present, plans for the Leading Change Institute (LCI) and alumni workshops in early June remain unchanged, but we will be monitoring developments and will stay in regular communication with participants.
Postdoctoral Fellowships: The selection process for 2020-2022 postdoctoral fellows continues, and we expect to name candidates by June 2020. We anticipate that the summer seminar for new fellows in late July will be held as planned, but we’ll continue to monitor circumstances to ensure we can provide a safe and healthy environment for our fellows. The program team stands ready to answer any questions applicants and host institutions have, and we are here for current and former fellows, supervisors, and institutions to answer questions about evolving plans for program online sessions and previously scheduled meetings, symposia, travel, and research. You can reach the team at postdoc@clir.org.
DLF Forum and associated events: Planning for the DLF Forum, Learn@DLF, NDSA’s Digital Preservation 2020, and the Digitizing Hidden Collections Symposium Nov. 8-12 continues apace, and we are currently welcoming proposals for all four. We look forward to convening the community later this year and sharing experiences and lessons learned during this time.
How has COVID-19 affected you? In the meantime, we are interested in how COVID-19 has affected you and your workplace. CLIR is collecting the stories of library, information, and cultural heritage professionals to better understand how we are responding to this historic challenge. By offering a platform to process and share experiences, we hope to help our community members support each other as we collectively strategize, adapt, grieve, and regrow. You can propose a COVID-19 story and learn more about the series here.
We will continue to keep you abreast of developments, and will also share updates on social media:
Instagram: @clirnews, @clirdlf
With best wishes,
Charles Henry
President, CLIR
The Council on Library and Information Resources 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.