December 4, 2020— The HBCU Library Alliance and CLIR seek proposals for assistance in a study to identify common barriers and shared visions for creating access to historic collections held by libraries at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). The recently funded study will inform strategic planning to build the capacity of HBCU Library Alliance member organizations to survey, describe, and digitize hidden library and archival collections so they become easily discoverable and accessible to HBCU campus community members, alumni, and researchers.

Research and assessment professionals or small teams with experience in conducting qualitative research about higher education are invited to submit proposals for the following positions:

1. Focus Group Facilitator: Conduct a series of focus groups with HBCU library directors and deans in order to articulate common values, priorities, and needs for describing and managing special and archival collections for the HBCU Library Alliance community. Read more.
2. Interviewer: Conduct a series of about 25 in-depth virtual interviews about special collections and archival holdings, technical capacity, and researcher needs with a select group of library staff and faculty based at HBCUs. Read more.

Interested professionals should contact Sandra Phoenix, executive director of the HBCU Library Alliance, and Christa Williford, CLIR’s senior director of research and assessment, at hbculibrary@clir.org, for further details and instructions on how to prepare a proposal for consideration. We welcome candidates who can bring diverse professional and life experiences to the project, including those from minority racial, ethnic, or religious backgrounds, immigrants, veterans, those with disabilities, and people with any sexual orientation or gender identity. The selected professional will begin work in early 2021 and continue on an occasional, part-time basis through October 2021.