Creating and Marketing a Free Web-Based Listing of Grant, Scholarship and
Other Funding Types: ScanGrants as a Case Study
Hope Leman, MLIS
Research Information Technologist
Center for Health Research and Quality
Samaritan Health Services
815 NW 9th Street Suite 203A
Corvallis, OR 97330
(541) 768-5712
hleman@samhealth.org
This session will discuss the creation of the free Web-based service,
ScanGrants, a listing of grants, scholarships and other funding types in the
health sciences. It will cover issues of copyright and marketing to libraries.
ScanGrants is a Web-based listing of grant, scholarship and other funding
types in the health sciences. ScanGrants is an example of how librarians can
employ free Web 2.0 tools such as those of FeedBurner and Google
Analytics to create free services for clients. It will also cover the process of
marketing a free service via articles about it in library periodicals (e.g.,
Computers in Libraries, the Journal of Electronic Resources in Medical
Libraries) and via intensive blogging and the cultivation of relationships
with bloggers in the field of search and e-Medicine and presentations about
the service at professional library conferences and related gatherings (e.g.,
Medicine 2.0). Other matters to be covered: copyright matters vis-à-vis the
aggregation and repackaging of material from the sites of funders; the
relationships formed between librarians who create such resources and those
who agree to add those services to their own electronic offerings; and the
importance of creating non-library, relationships in the Open Science, search
and Web 2.0 realms. Finally, it will discuss how librarians who create such
services learn, in the process, the ins and outs of professional publication
and public speaking and garnering grant money for further development of
the service.
I)
II)
III)
What is ScanGrants
Genesis of it
Players involved: small medical library, new Center for Health
Research and Quality, professional Web designer
IV)
Brief discussion of the custom content management created and
used and staff time needed for the operation of ScanGrants
V)
Discussion of reliance on professional networks (in local public
library and in the medical library community) for counsel on
copyright matters
VI) How to blog and seek assistance from notable bloggers for the
promotion of the new service
VII) Importance of professional publications vis-à-vis enveloping the
new service with credibility (e.g., review in the Journal of the
Medical Library Association)
VIII) Importance of presentations about service at professional
conferences
IX) Status of acceptance of ScanGrants by academic, public and
special libraries and advice for those embarking on similar projects
Publications:
Leman, H. (2010) Promoting and Tracking the Use of Hospital Library Web
Services by Outside Entities. Medical Reference Services Quarterly, 29 (2),
175-182.
Leman, H. (2008). ScanGrants: A Case Study of the Creation of a Free
Online Database of Current Grants, Scholarships, and Other Sources of
Funding in the Health Sciences. Journal of Electronic Resources in Medical
Libraries, 5(4), 313-324.
Leman, H. (2008). ScanGrants: A New Service for Libraries, A New Role
for Librarians. Computers in Libraries, 28(8), 20-24.
Leman, H. (2010). That’s So ResearchRaven (and ScanGrants): Tales From
the Web Services Frontier. Online, 34(4), 18-22.
Review of ScanGrants in 2009 by Martha E. Hardy, MLIS in the Electronic
Resource Reviews section of the Journal of the American Medical Library
Association (97) (3), 234-235.
Entities using ScanGrants
Alameda County Library Fremont, California
Albin O. Kuhn Library & Gallery University of Maryland, Baltimore
County Baltimore Maryland
Alcohol and Drug Abuse Institute, University of Washington
Alverno College Library Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Antioch University Seattle Grants Office
Beth Israel Medical Center Department of Radiology New York, NY
Caltech Library Services, California Institute of Technology
College of Saint Benedict/Saint John's University Collegeville, Minnesota
Claude Moore Health Sciences Library University of Virginia
Department of Pediatrics Vanderbilt University
Department of Psychiatry University of Massachusetts Medical School
Worcester Campus
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
Gelman Library System George Washington University
Health Sciences Library University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Jennifer Ann Wilson Dental Library and Learning Center Health Sciences
Libraries University of Southern California
Loma Linda University Adventist Health Sciences Center
Louisiana State University Health Science Center-Shreveport Medical
Library
Madigan Medical Library, Madigan Army Medical Center Tacoma.
Washington
Medical College of Georgia Robert B. Greenblatt, M.D. Library
Medical College of Wisconsin Libraries
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center Library
Michigan State University Libraries
Monash University Victoria Australia
MU Libraries, University of Missouri
National Network of Libraries of Medicine National Network Office
National Library of Medicine Bethesda, Maryland
National Rehabilitation Information Center
Norris Medical Library University of Southern California
Office of Research Information Services University of Washington
Office of Research Services University of Windsor Windsor, Ontario
Canada
Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research Washington University in St.
Louis
Pratt Library Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center
Sladen Library, Henry Ford Health System
Sonoma County Library Santa Rosa, California
Stewart Library Weber State University Ogden, Utah
Tucker Medical Library National Jewish Health Denver Colorado
University Libraries, Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio
University Library, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, Scotland, United
Kingdom
University of Alabama at Birmingham Lister Hill Library
University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey
University of Michigan Medical School Office of Research
University of Nebraska Medical Center
University of Pittsburgh Office of Research
University of South Alabama Health Systems Grants Administration and
Development Office
University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center Research Medical Library
University of Washington Department of Biostatistics
University of Wisconsin, Madison
Weill Cornell Medical College Samuel J. Wood Library & C.V. Starr
Biomedical Information Center