University of Minnesota receives funding for development of EthicShare, an online research and collaboration site

Project provides model for virtual communities of scholars

Contacts: Marlo Welshons, University Libraries, (612) 625-9148, welshons@umn.edu
Ryan Mathre, University News Service, (612) 625-0552, mathre@umn.edu

MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (11/17/2009) A new research and collaboration Web site for scholars working in the field of ethics has received a 14-month, $264,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, aimed at capitalizing on the site's emerging success.

EthicShare (www.ethicshare.org), a partnership of the University of Minnesota Libraries, Center for Bioethics and Department of Computer Science and Engineering, aggregates relevant resources and provides an easy, accessible way for ethics scholars to share and collaborate with each other.

During the project's planning process, scholars identified the shortcomings of existing services. "Ethics scholars often find discovery of resources challenging because materials and resources in our fields are dispersed in multiple, diverse databases," said Jeffrey Kahn, director of the Center for Bioethics and project co-principal investigator. "Gathering relevant resources into one repository is a tremendous asset to scholars who can then use EthicShare's social features to connect with others interested in the same issues."

The grant, the third from Mellon, will support further development of the bibliographic database and enhanced collaborative features. Additional support for the project has been provided by the Council on Library and Information Resources and the National Science Foundation.