Developmental grantsmanship is defined as “helping individuals to become better grant seekers by providing support and instruction for: seeing themselves as fundable, writing grants, discovering funding sources, and managing data.”  This session described how Rutgers-Newark’s John Cotton Dana Library and Office of Sponsored Research worked together to help those on-campus and those in the local community achieve the above-mentioned grants-related skills. 

Librarian Roberta (Bobbie) Tipton presented a timeline of how in “a series of fortunate events,” the mutually beneficial collaborative working relationship she had with Research & Contracts Specialist Patricia Bender expanded to include many others in the Rutgers University Libraries system – most frequently, librarian Ann Watkins.  Bobbie discussed the various joint efforts, from presentations for the Newark Mentoring Coalition, to TA Orientations, to department workshops, to speaking in graduate courses, to a workshop introducing a grants database, to one about research data management.  She and Patricia talked about their ongoing efforts to support each other, the appropriate introductions to third parties that helped both departments gain greater exposure to larger audiences.  Patricia pointed out that joint efforts between the two departments have expanded partly in response to high demand and positive feedback from attendees, but also partly due to constant users needs assessment and then creating something to fill those needs.  An extra bonus of collaborative work is that you can share what you’ve learned with the group.  This helps with the evaluation of how things went, resulting in improved planning for the future.  Ann talked more about the specific feedback from attendees and the observed results from these collaborative efforts.  Presentations were so well-received, everyone wanted more – longer presentations during TA orientation, more participation in classroom instruction, more workshops! 

The role of the library and that of the research office may be different when it comes to grants, but both see “grantsmanship as a critical need of faculty, students and staff.”  While they can offer different types of support for the grant-seeker based on their respective experiences, this is one of those instances where a strong partnership between the two departments works best – the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.