











































Other People’s Money


Listen and Learn sessions  277

Other People’s Money
Kris Veldheer, Director of the Paul Bechtold Library, Catholic Theological Union
Gillian Harrison Cain, Director of Member Programs, Atla

ABSTRACT Drawing on their experiences (one as a library director, the 
other as a grant administrator), the authors offer insights on the value of 
grant writing to fund special projects or activities that would be otherwise 
beyond a library’s institutional budget.   

Have you ever wanted to do a project or wondered how you could 
pay for some sort of continuing education? Does your library budget 
never seem to stretch as far as you need it to? Over the past decade, 
the authors have both collaborated as well as worked individually 
to tackle the issue of finding or funding specific projects related to 
Atla libraries. Mainly, Kris Veldheer’s role has been as a department 
head and library director looking to fund specific projects like ar-
chives digitization, rare book evaluations and continuing education 
for library staff. In her role with Atla, Gillian Harrison Cain adminis-
ters grants for Atla libraries interested in doing special projects and 
programs. Together, these individuals offered both sides of the issue 
of using other people’s money.

The first thing to think through is, what do you want to do but 
don’t have the money or resources for it? Think broadly here, be-
cause this could be anything from taking a class to improve your 
management skills, to tackling your first digitization project, to a 
collaborative effort to write an open educational resource with a 
faculty member. Some people keep a running list of these unfunded 
projects, while others choose to look for grants or funding opportu-
nities only when they need someone else to pay for something. To 
give you some examples to start your thinking, Kris has received an 
IMLS grant (Institute of Museum and Library Services) to digitize a 
local history collection from the archives of the Graduate Theologi-
cal Union in Berkeley, California. The grant included two years of 
completely funded training and education plus additional funds to 
buy digitization equipment. More than just this single project, the 
IMLS grant paved the way for future digitization projects as well as 



278  atLa 2023 ProCeedinGs

provided equipment such as a voice recorder to capture oral his-
tories and a flatbed scanner to digitize personal papers and other 
artifacts. But this is just about archives or special collections. There 
are many other ways to get things done around your library using 
money from someone else.

One aspect of the work of Member Programs that Gillian oversees 
at Atla is to administer grants for Atla institutions, groups, and in-
dividuals. Some of these grants include consultation grants, library 
impact grants, regional grants, and a digitization grant program. 
There are also diversity scholarships, global librarians’ grants, reg-
istration grants as well as travel grants for attending Atla Annual. 
It is well worth the time to explore the member benefits section of 
the Atla website to see if one of the existing grants or scholarships 
might fit what you are trying to do. Similarly, if there is something 
you are interested in doing and don’t see a scholarship or grant listed 
to cover it, Member Programs is open to being contacted to see if they 
can help you accomplish your goals. Gillian and Kris have worked 
together through consultation grants to help Kris rewrite a collection 
development policy, evaluate an archive, and analyze a rare book 
collection. Also, some of the grants can be applied to more than one 
Atla institution if there are two libraries who have similar needs. For 
example, on two occasions, Kris has teamed up with other local Atla 
libraries to share the costs of bringing in experts partially funded 
through Atla consultation grants. All these grants and scholarships 
come down to the earlier suggestion to think about what you or your 
library wants to do but doesn’t have the money to make it happen.

Another way to think about using other people’s money is to take 
advantage of training and educational opportunities. On the Atla 
website, there are several professional development resources in-
cluding continuing education programs and an archive of education-
al and informational webinars presented by Atla staff and members. 
These can be another way to get free or low-cost training that is tar-
geted to a specific issue you need to know more about. Along simi-
lar lines, do you or your library belong to a state or regional group 
that offers continuing education? The Bechtold Library at Catholic 
Theological Union (where Kris is the library director) is a member of 
the Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois (CAR-
LI). CARLI offers both self-paced learning, online classes, in-person 
workshops, and larger programs such as OER and data management 
training. Kris has been part of CARLI Counts, a curriculum developed 



Listen and Learn sessions  279

by CARLI to teach librarians how to collect and use data to tell the 
library’s story. First, in developing and doing a project of her own, 
Kris worked on data collection for electronic resources which were 
then turned into graphics for faculty meetings to explain database 
usage. Now she is still a part of CARLI Counts through mentoring 
other librarians in developing their own data projects. Kris is also 
taking a basic cataloging class taught through another local Illinois 
based library system to brush up on her cataloging skills. 

Looking for and using other people’s money leads to many in-
teresting opportunities. Some people with more experience getting 
grants or even writing grant applications can mentor others with 
less experience. If you are comfortable using your school’s develop-
ment office, there might be other opportunities to work with them on 
grant writing or exploring donor opportunities. Not all development 
officers are library-oriented, so depending on what you are trying to 
achieve, sometimes the better choice is trying for a grant or scholar-
ship on your own. There are also grant writing workshops available 
to help sharpen your skills and equip you with possible language to 
help you write a better application. In the end, the most important 
resource you will have for getting other people’s money is your list 
of ideas and projects for your library that are beyond your budget. 
There is money out there to support your ideas, but you may need 
to think creatively to find it.


