Be a Volunteer Reviewer for the LYRASIS 2020 Catalyst Fund Applications

The LYRASIS Catalyst Fund is an award program to fund new ideas and innovative projects by LYRASIS members. The 2020 application process will close February 20, 2020. The Catalyst Fund is a membership benefit administered by the LYRASIS Leaders Circle to expand opportunities to share expertise and collaborate on innovations with potential for community-wide impact. LYRASIS is looking for volunteers willing to review, assess and comment on collaborative, innovative, and cutting edge proposals. 

We are now recruiting librarians, archivists and museum professionals with experience  in diverse areas, such as accessibility, assessment, collections management, community outreach and programming, facilities, metadata, open content, open source software, preservation, professional training, and technology. Individuals from LYRASIS member and non-member organizations may volunteer. To avoid any conflict of interest, however, volunteers will not be allowed to review if their own institution submits an application. 

Since 2017 The LYRASIS Catalyst Fund has fostered innovation leading to new services and programs among members and knowledge communities by surfacing innovative ideas and initiatives that have the potential to impact institutions both large and small. The Catalyst Fund grants provide support for organizations to engage in low risk development and testing. This year, five programs were awarded seed funding: Columbus Metropolitan Library, “My Upload: Engaging Library Users in Digital Collections”; King County Library System (WA), “Conversational Artificial Intelligence: Bringing the Library to Your Living Room”; Florida International University, “AI for Archives: Using Facial Recognition to Enhance Metadata”; Atlanta University Center, Robert W. Woodruff Library, “Using Linked Open Data for Georgia’s Natural, Cultural and Historic Organizations’ Disaster Response”, and; University of Michigan, “Open Data Toolkit Based on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Access Principles”. To see more about these, and previous projects visit here.