The Council on Library and Information Resources will join with Dartmouth College Library to develop a Scholarly Communication Institute with a new grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

The Scholarly Communication Institute will bring together pioneers and innovators in scholarly communication for a one-week residential experience that will allow them to discuss, plan, and organize institutional and discipline-based strategies for advancing innovation in scholarly communication. The institute will foster this cadre of leaders as mentors to the next generation of individuals who will work at the forefront of the transformation of scholarly communication in a digital environment. At least three annual institutes will be held, all on the Dartmouth campus in Hanover, N.H. The first is scheduled for the summer of 2003. "We are grateful to the Mellon Foundation for supporting the developments of this institute, which will provide a rare gift of time for leaders in the field to join their peers in deep thinking and discussion about visions and strategies for the future," said CLIR President Deanna Marcum. "We are very pleased to be cooperating with Dartmouth on this project."

"We have learned a great deal from the experiments to date. We look forward to giving those who have led these experiments a chance to consider what must be done next for the academy to benefit fully from the tremendous potential of digital libraries," said Dartmouth Librarian Richard Lucier.

The institute will be limited to 20 individuals annually from the scholarly, library, publishing, and technology communities. Individuals must be nominated by their institutions or by peers from other institutions who recognized their work. The nominator must submit evidence of the pioneering qualities of the work accomplished by the nominees. Detailed application information will appear on CLIR's website in July.

The Council on Library and Information Resources is an independent, nonprofit organization that works to expand access to information, however recorded and preserved, as a public good. In partnership with other organizations, CLIR helps create services that expand the concept of "library" and supports the providers and preservers of information.

Chartered in 1769, Dartmouth College is a private, liberal arts institution in Hanover, N.H. It is an undergraduate residential college that also offers numerous graduate and professional programs. Dartmouth has long been a leader in the application of digital technology to scholarship and learning.