As part of its Mellon Fellowship program, the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) offers a fellowship award to support original source dissertation research in the humanities or related social sciences at the Preservation Research and Testing Division of the Preservation Directorate at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC. The fellowship is offered as part of CLIR's long-established Mellon Fellowship program and is generously funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

The Library of Congress has an array of new technologies and tools that can reveal hidden information on original sources and permit a more rigorous approach to scholarly questions concerning influence, provenance, intent, and object construction. CLIR seeks proposals from applicants whose dissertation projects would benefit from using these tools to examine the unique historical objects - books, maps, manuscripts, photographs, sound recordings, drawings, etc. - available at the Library of Congress.

The fellow will work on-site with the professional staff in the Preservation Research and Testing Division (PRTD). A mentor from the Division will work closely with the fellow, as well as the fellow's dissertation advisor(s) and other professors at the fellow's home institution, to ensure the fellow receives the training and support necessary to successfully complete the full year of research. PRTD staff will act as a liaison with special collection curators to ensure the fellow has access to a range of expertise and knowledge that supports their area of study. No prior technical experience or scientific background is required to apply for this fellowship.

To be eligible, an applicant will—

• be enrolled in a doctoral program in a graduate school in the United States (master's thesis research is not eligible) throughout the duration of the fellowship;
• complete all doctoral requirements except the dissertation and be ready to start research as early as June 1 and no later than September 1, 2018, with approval of the dissertation proposal no later than March 31, 2018;
• plan to do dissertation research primarily in original source material in the holdings of archives, libraries, historical societies, museums, related repositories, or a combination; and
• plan to write the dissertation and receive the Ph.D. degree in a field of the humanities or in a related element of the social sciences (candidates for the Ed.D, J.D., or D.D. degrees are not eligible);
• plan to do dissertation research with original source material at the Library of Congress for a period of 9-12 months.