Monday, May 19, 2008

Annual Register of Grant Support and The Grants Register













This time we're doing two titles since they are closely related.

Annual Register of Grant Support was $252 for the 2008edition. Basically, it gives information on grant support programs of public and private foundations, corporations, community trusts, unions, educational and professional associations, special interest organizations and government agencies. The information included for each organization includes among other things, areas of interest, names of special programs, eligibility requirements, representative awards, and more. The scope of the entries is US and Canadian.

The entries are arranged by 11 broad subject areas with subheadings under most. There are separate subject, geographical, personnel, organization and program indexes. There is a useful explanation of types of grant sources, and a 10 page guide to program planning and proposal writing. This edition has a binding error--it skips from page 1264 to 1337. These missing pages are at the end of the volume after a number of empty pages for notes.

The Grants Register is international in scope and is now edited in the UK. The cost for the 2008 ed was $303. Entries are arranged alphabetically by name of organization. There is also a subject/eligibility guide which is arranged by 19 broad subject areas, each of which have narrower subheadings. Each subject area is subdivided into elegibility by nationality. There is also an alphabetical index of award names.

The information given for each entry is similar to Grant Support but tends to be more brief. A spot check revealed a great deal of overlap in the US entries (approximately half), but at least half of the entries are not US, but are rather from the other 61 countries included.

The question is, do we need both of these sources, in addition to the Foundation Directory? The obvious advantage to The Grants Register is its international scope, but is there enough demand for this coverage in this community. Do we need them every year? None of this information is readily available on the web (at least that I could find).

Also, they have two entirely different call numbers. Grant Support is 001.44 and Grants Register 378.3. Foundation Directory is in yet another--361.7632. Any ideas on whether these sources should be together or remain as they are?

11 comments:

mlh said...

In an academic town those sources are probably of good use. I suspect clients who need them are already familiar with them and might not need our help in finding them. With my limited desk time, I have not used them and must defer to those who have.

DK said...
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DK said...

These are worthy and beautifully organized reference books. The Grant's Register, in particlar, is so elegant and easy to use that I long for a reason to consult it. But there's the problem: during my two years at the PPL, I haven't used either one of them once.

Perhaps Mary Lou is correct in assuming that these volumes are being used by stealthy, self-sufficient patrons. Come to think of it, I have almost certainly directed patrons to these books on several occasions, even though I've never been called upon to search through them or interpret their contents myself.

I'm tempted to suggest that we keep just one of them, but since each has features that the other one lacks (I wouldn't want to lose the international coverage of The Grant's Register, for instance; and the introduction to "Program Planning and Proposal Writing" contained in the Annual Register of Grant Support is pretty handy, too.), I'm pulled back in the direction of voting to keep them both.

When I consider the intensely academic, ambitious, and enterprising community we serve, my mind is made up - - keep them both, I say. Final Answer.

Catherine Harper said...

These two sources are very different in their focus. The Grants Register is for students looking for ways to fund postgraduate study and/or research (hence the 378.3). While it does overlap somewhat with the Annual Register of Grant Support, the entries provide more of the kind of information likely to be of interest to students. ARGS has a wider audience, including researchers and graduate students, but also non-profit groups looking to fund their programs. It’s more along the lines of the Foundation Directory, but it includes other types of grant-making institutions besides foundations.

I agree with David that all three belong in our collection given the demographic we serve.

Jane said...

GS says: I agree with David and Catherine. While I have not actively used these books myself, I have sent patrons to them, or told people on the phone that we have them. Since the information is not easily available from a website, I can’t imagine not keeping the books in our collection. I do think they should be considered a core reference source, one that we should have even if infrequently used.

Janie L. Hermann said...

I am firmly in the camp of keep them and update them yearly. I have directed several people to them in recent memory and I think they would be missed.

JiHae said...

We need all three in print. Especially since the Foundation Directory CD-Rom is so archaic and there is no comprehensive electronic resource for grant searching.

Romina said...

I agree with all of the above comments and vote to keep them.

Kristin said...

I am joining in the unison chorus. We do need to keep them all.

Having been involved with a nonprofit that depended on grants for its survival, the Annual Register of Grant Support is a necessity, and its currency is key.

This is the epitome of an academic community, so there's no denying the audience for The Grants Register...and The Foundation Directory is, well, clearly a keeper.

Jane said...

So it's unanimous. We're going to keep both!

Jane said...

GS says: I like it. Keep it.