Library Futures Announces 2026 Research Network Grants
With thanks to the Richard Lounsbery Foundation, we are happy to announce the recipients of our 2026 research grants. The Library Futures Research Network expands the reach of our research, advocacy, and education efforts by providing funding for researchers of all kinds to explore bold questions and new ideas about the future of libraries.
AI Model Policies Working Group
The AI Model Policies Working Group brings together five experts to provide model AI policies from a critical perspective. These policies will help guide collection development, reference, discovery, and services in public libraries.
Working Group Members:
- Dr. Andrea Baer, University of Texas-Austin
- Tara Carpenter, Lyrasis
- Nicholas Garcia, Public Knowledge
- Hayley Park, University of Maryland (and former Library Futures intern!)
- Kimberly Money Priddy, Middlesex Community College
Libraries of Puerto Rico
“Libraries of Puerto Rico” uses semi-structured interviews and library site visits to investigate the cultural and historical roles of libraries in Puerto Rico. By weaving personal narrative and participatory research, this project tells the story of how memory, childhood, and place shape the library experience in Puerto Rican communities through a digital collection of blog posts, multimedia, interactive maps, and a research paper synthesizing the project’s findings.
Project Lead:
- Ariana Vega Vargas, Independent Researcher, Intellectual Property Attorney (Puerto Rico)
Community Reads as Catalyst: A Direct Partnership Model for Libraries and Independent Publishers
“Community Reads as Catalyst” explores how independent publishers and libraries can work directly with each other to provide e-books to patrons. This April during National Poetry Month, participating libraries will trial a simultaneous-use community read license in collaboration with Seven Stories Press to bring Ink Knows No Borders: Poems of the Immigrant and Refugee Experience to their communities as an e-book. Findings from the project will be shared as a research paper.
Project Leads:
- Claire Kelley, Seven Stories Press
- Patrice Vecchione, co-editor of Ink Knows No Borders
Participating Libraries:
- North Liberty Community Library (North Liberty, Iowa)
- Saint Mary’s County Library (Leonardtown, Maryland)
Sites of Power: Information Work & Data Centers
As cultural heritage and memory work becomes increasingly digital, libraries must contend with what data centers, cloud storage, generative AI, and environmental harm mean for the work of collecting, preserving, and sharing information. “Sites of Power” investigates what data centers mean for our profession. Findings from the project will be shared as a research paper.
Project Lead:
- Kay Slater, Oak Park Public Library
On Our Terms: An OER about Library-Vendor Relationships
“On Our Terms” is an open educational resource (OER) creation project that fills gaps in library education by providing modules to help instructors, students, and practitioners become informed on ethics, access, privacy, and intellectual freedom related to vendors and their products. Content development includes data collection among library workers about the use of vendor platforms in their libraries, approaches for navigating vendor agreements, and awareness of patron data uses and AI in vendor platforms.
Project Leads:
- Dr. Barbara Alvarez, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
- Dr. Eleanor Mattern, University of Pittsburgh
