Virginia Polytechnic Institute (Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Libraries)

The University Libraries at Virginia Tech—in collaboration with the University of North Texas, the University of Colorado Boulder, and Los Alamos National Lab Research Library—will implement a three-year joint professional development institute (PDI) to support more active and embedded interdisciplinary research collaborations among library staff across the country. The PDI includes three commitment levels; each aims to not only help individuals build research skills, confidence, experience, and local networks, but also to invest human capital in the pivoting of libraries and library staff as research-intensive campus partners. Level-one library professionals will attend a series of free online training and mentoring events. Level-two participants will be offered seed funding to support involvement in collaborative research projects. Finally, the six level-three fellows will be allowed three months to conduct focused research and produce scholarly work. Benefitting staff working in academic and research libraries, this project will demonstrate, through multiple institutions, a career path for aspiring library scholars as well as make a strong case for the benefits of embedding librarians directly in research activities.