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CHICAGO - The Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) is pleased to announce the launch of the new . The ACRL Board of Directors has allocated $10,000 in fiscal year 2018 to offer travel scholarships of up to $2,000 each for librarians presenting on their work demonstrating the impact of academic libraries in the broader landscape of higher education.

“Academic librarians excel when communicating the impact of our library services, programs, and spaces, within our own community,” says Value of Academic Libraries Committee Chair Alan Carbery. “The Value of Academic Libraries Travel Scholarships initiative encourages librarians to move the conversation outward and to articulate the value of academic libraries to wider stakeholder groups. This is a fantastic opportunity for academic librarians to showcase their research to a wider audience.”

ACRL invites practicing librarians and information professionals to apply for funding to present their work at higher education conferences or disciplinary conferences where they will reach audiences outside the library field. The presentations may be based on practice-based work or formal research projects. Applications are due by December 8, 2017. Future rounds of scholarships are expected to be announced in summer 2018.

This program is one of several developed by ACRL’s Value of Academic Libraries Committee to support librarians in their efforts to communicate to our partners in higher education including administrators, scholars, and teachers working in all disciplines. These travel scholarships support the community in taking up a recommendation from the "Academic Library Impact: Improving Practice and Essential Areas to Research" (prepared by OCLC Research and released in September 2017 for or ) that academic librarians effectively communicate their contributions both up to institutional stakeholders and out to other departments.

Complete details on the Value of Academic Libraries Travel Scholarships, including how to apply, are .

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The Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL) is the higher education association for librarians. Representing more than 10,500 academic and research librarians and interested individuals, ACRL (a division of the 91´«Ã½) develops programs, products and services to help academic and research librarians learn, innovate and lead within the academic community. Founded in 1940, ACRL is committed to advancing learning and transforming scholarship. ACRL is on the web at , Facebook at and Twitter at .