CALA Conference Travel Grant (2015-2016)

Submitted by cala-webmaster on Thu, 12/10/2015 - 14:07

CALA Conference Travel Grant

The CALA Conference Travel Grant is established to support CALA members in their efforts to play an active role at professional conferences for their professional or career development. The grant is issued annually and coincides with the fiscal period (from July to June each year) of CALA’s operation. For each funding period, up to four awards of equal amounts of $500 will be given to qualified candidates to defray their expenses for traveling to conferences.

Applicant Eligibility:

  • The applicant must be a CALA member in good standing for three consecutive years, including the year of application.
  • The applicant must have an assigned duty at the conference to be attended, e.g., to present a paper, to chair a committee, or to serve as an officer to convene a meeting.
  • All grant activities must be within the funding period of the year (July 1, 2015 - June 30, 2016).
  • The applicant must have not received the CALA travel grant in the past three years.

Supported Conferences:

All professional conferences associated with Library and Information Science are supported by the CALA grant. However, priority will be given to those conferences that CALA sponsors or cosponsors or plays an active role of endorsing. Examples of the conference include, but are not limited to:

  • CALA sponsored/cosponsored international, national, or regional conferences, meetings, and forums.
  • ALA conferences and meetings (including all those of its divisions, roundtables, and standing committees)
  • IFLA conferences and meetings
  • Other conferences that advance and promote the profession of Library and Information Science.

Application Requirements:

A complete application, including the required documents, should be emailed to Zheng (Jessica) Lu (zjlu@usfca.edu) and Guoying Liu (gliu@uwindsor.ca), Co-Chairs of the CALA Conference Travel Grant Committee.

All applications must be submitted and received by the deadline of March 31, 2016.

Required application materials include:

  • A completed CALA Conference Travel Grant Application Form
  • A statement outlining the needs and benefits of the grant (no more than 500 words).
  • Supporting documentation that denotes the applicant's assigned professional or administrative responsibility at the conference, e.g., a copy of conference invitation letter, abstract of presentation or paper, recommendation letter from supervisor or peers.
  • Updated CV.

Application Review Criteria:

Applications will be reviewed and evaluated by the CALA Travel Grant Committee based on the following criteria:

  • Applicant’s professional experience and accomplishments
  • Applicant’s service and contribution to CALA, including the number of years being a CALA member
  • CALA’s organization priorities and project development
  • The association/relationship of the selected conference (or its sponsors) with CALA or the role of CALA in the conference
  • The benefits and/or impact of the conference to the applicant individually and to CALA as an organization
  • Other merits of consideration.

Grant recipients will be notified no later than April 30, 2016

Grant Recipient Requirements:

Each grant recipient must submit a one-page report of his/her experience to the CALA Travel Grant Committee, within the two months following the conference s/he attended.  The submitted reports will be posted on the CALA website and published in the CALA Newsletter.

In case the grant recipient has cancelled his/her travel plan, the full amount of the fund ($500) must be returned to CALA with a written explanation within two months of the cancellation.

The CALA Executive Committee and the Conference Travel Grant Committee reserve the right to withhold the travel grant award subject to the financial position of CALA, or if there are no qualified candidates in the pool during a given year.