This post is about the decision to end the Institute for Research Design in Librarianship (IRDL) program and the impact of the Trump administration’s dismantling of the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), the funding agency that had supported the program with three Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian grants over the last ten years.
I decided to end the administration of IRDL when the third IMLS grant was complete in late August 2025. Having met the main program goal of developing a successful model of research continuing education for librarians and archivists in a higher education setting, it seemed that the natural next steps would be to write about and share publicly what we learned while developing the model so that it might be replicated or improved upon.
I emailed the IRDL Scholars and Mentors in February to let them know we would be winding down the program at the end of the summer. I was planning a wider announcement to our grant partners and the public after the last of the 2025 IRDL Scholars’ Speaker Series sessions was complete.
I was keeping an eye on what was happening with the IMLS and was dismayed to see their staff put on leave, including the person with whom I had been in contact for several years about the IRDL grant. On April 9 I received a notice from the IMLS that the grant was terminated, as of April 8. The termination notice said that “your grant is unfortunately no longer consistent with the agency’s priorities and no longer serves the interest of the United States and the IMLS Program.”
Seven days later I received another notice, requiring me to send a narrative and financial report. As I wrote the narrative component and constructed the list of accomplishments from the latest three years of the program and the numbers of people we were able to invite into our growing community, I reflected on how even a small program like ours could reach such a wide group of practitioners.
The grant was in a no-cost extension fourth year, so that I could expend the entirety of the funds. The termination did not have a dramatic effect on the budget; there are some outstanding expenses that I will pay from a personal research fund. The main negative effect from the termination has been a personal demoralization. It stings to have thoughtfully crafted a program only to have it so carelessly dismissed. I know the work was a success, that the people welcomed into the IRDL community have been positively impacted, and the people who helped along the way built a stronger profession because of the effort.
Some of the people who helped are the staff of our partner on the grant, SCELC, which gave room to allow us to experiment with designing and administering years of Research Days programming; Sage Publishing, which sponsored the program by supplying four textbooks per Scholar, each year, for nine years; the librarians and archivists who were members of the Advisory Boards and acted as Mentors; and staff in LMU’s Office for Research and Sponsored Projects for support in administering the program and keeping track of the budget for ten years.
I post here a modified version of the narrative report I submitted so that you, too, may appreciate its impact.
RE-250170-OLS-21 Termination Follow-up
Summary of progress
In Years 1 through 4 we completed all expected activities. The main areas of focus for this grant were: the main continuing education component of designing, administering, and assessing the research training workshop and follow-up year of support and mentoring, while the Scholars completed research projects of their own design, at their home institutions; facilitating and hosting the IRDL Scholars’ Speaker Series; designing continuing education forums for extended learning, in the form of conferences and workshops.
Continuing education training program
We administered three ten-day research training workshops (in 2022, 2023, and 2024) for 85 Scholars and have then supported the trainees during their year-long process of completing their research projects. We worked with our contracted partner, San Jose State University Research Foundation, an instructor, and curriculum consultants, to redesign the curriculum for delivery in an online environment. We hired a workshop evaluator to attend each day of the workshop to observe and report on the impact of the redesign, suggesting improvements and notes from their observations.
We continued our successful mentoring program, facilitating the connection between each Scholar and a professional librarian/archivist, for a year-long research-focused relationship, with guided prompts for feedback each month. Sixty-four mentors were part of the program over the years covered by this grant, with some electing to participate as mentors in more than one year.
We track the progress of the Scholars’ completed research projects and post them at https://library.lmu.edu/irdl/irdlcohorts/workscompleted/.
IRDL Scholars’ Speaker Series
Each year we convened a working group of IRDL Scholars to design and host a publicly available, free to attend, series of scholarly presentations, via Zoom. The 2022, 2023, and 2025 IRDL Scholars’ Speaker Series were delivered, with the recordings of the thirteen sessions available at https://library.lmu.edu/irdl/speakerseries/.
Continuing education forums for extended learning
The 2022 and 2024 IRDL Online Research Conferences were completed on schedule, archived at https://digitalcommons.lmu.edu/irdlconference/. The conferences were designed and administered by a working group of IRDL Scholars and a representative member of our partner group, SCELC. Our goal for the IRDL Online Research Conference was to create a space to share work that is in progress as well as completed research, with an emphasis given to supporting librarians wherever they are in their research endeavors. Attendees could expect a low-pressure environment in which to explore, learn from peers, and hone their research skills. Demonstrating the wide reach of the endeavor, four-hundred thirty-five people registered for the 2022 conference, from 42 different states, and Canada. A representative comment from the feedback survey of participants: “Overall this conference was a very supportive and inspiring experience, and I can’t wait to apply everything I learned to my own work. Thank you for organizing it!” In planning the 2024 conference we again sought to provide a diversity of topics and research methods represented, since the feedback about the “depth and breadth of the research presented” seemed to positively impact the participants. And, responding to the personality of the conference, a participant commented that, “I liked how the vibes were kept warm and fun while simultaneously providing a heap ton of good info.”
In 2023, in place of the Research Conference, we explored another mechanism of online, research-related learning, by hosting a Data Carpentries social sciences workshop (https://library.lmu.edu/irdl/events/data-carpentries/). Three-hundred forty-three people registered for the 3-day learning experience, which was free to attend, open to the public, and delivered via Zoom. The workshop was facilitated by expert Data Carpentries members, with a group of IRDL Scholars acting as helpers throughout the experience.
Resulting publications during this grant term:
Albarillo, F., Kennedy, M. R., & Brancolini, K. R. (2024). “Assessment of the Institute for Research Design in Librarianship, Phase 2: Impact on the Research Productivity and Careers of Academic Librarians.” Evidence Based Library and Information Practice 19(1): 4-34. DOI: https://doi.org/10.18438/eblip30461
Brancolini, K.R., & Kennedy, M. R. (2024). “A Model Research Methods Training Program: Implications for the Curriculum,” in K. K. Matusiak, K. M. Bright, and D. Schachter (Eds.) Bridging Research and Library Practice: Global Perspectives on Education and Training (pp. 121-133). Boston: De Gruyter Saur. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110772593-011
Albarillo, F., Kennedy, M. R., & Brancolini, K. R. (2022). “Assessment of the Institute for Research Design in Librarianship (IRDL): Impact on the Research Productivity and Careers of Academic Librarians.” Evidence Based Library and Information Practice 17(4): 3-35. DOI: https://doi.org/10.18438/eblip30094
Jason, D.P., III, Kennedy, M. R., & Brancolini, K. R. (2021). “Mentoring Academic Librarians for Research Success,” in L. J. Rod-Welch and B.E. Weeg (Eds.) Academic Library Mentoring: Fostering Growth and Renewal (pp. 241-262). Chicago, Illinois: Association of College and Research Libraries.
