Tallahassee, FL – The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) announced the award of a $449,750 project grant to the School of Information Studies at Florida State University this week. The project, “Extending the Web of Our Future: Recruiting and Educating the Faculty Who Will Educate the Next Generation of Library Professionals,” is one of only 27 proposals accepted under IMLS’s new program “Recruiting and Educating Librarians for the 21st Century.” It expands the work of “Project Athena: Spinning the Web of Our Future.”

Kathleen Burnett, Jane Robbins, Judith Mulholland, and Laurie Bonnici serve as principal investigators for both grants. Both projects employ a web recruitment model to attract and educate Ph.D. students who will eventually become faculty members and provide instruction for the next generation of LIS professionals. “Extending the Web of Our Future” will also involve designing and implementing a program to help doctoral students make career-related choices.