In house we have subscribed to Knight-Ridder OnDisc (and find it useful).  I
have a relatively small office, myself, a full-time assistant, a part time
graduate assistant and a part-time secretary and sometimes a student
assistant (if funds are available).  In house/office we mostly use the AASCU
OFP GRANTSEARCH (revised version) and find it very useful and easy to use.
both OnDisc and GRANTSEARCH are user-friendly, use key words and do good
searches (if you find the right word combination, of course).  We also
subscribe (just this past fall) through a consortium of Georgia schools to
IRIS and this is available for the entire campus to use.  Up to this point
the use has been sporadic at best.  We are planning a series of one-hour
workshops for faculty to get them to start using IRIS.  Hope this makes a
difference in the 'hit' rate.  The combination seems to provide our office
and the campus, generally, with a fairly comprehensive set of resources for
funding opportunities.

I am VERY INTERESTED in what other offices are using and what they consider
effective.

Mary Helen Watson

At 08:44 AM 1/7/97 -0400, Research Administration Discussion Group sent a
message saying:
*We have subscribed to Knight-Ridder OnDisc (the database that Oryx Press
*uses in its printed guides to funding).  That has been helpful in
*identifying smaller funders, many of whom are private.  We also subscribed
*to the Taft Prospectors Choice on CDROM.  I don't think it was worth the
*money at all since it doesn't use key words.  All you can select is type of
*institution, general category of support (e.g., education, higher
*education), and geographic location.  So the same list of potentials comes
*up on just about every search.  I understand the Foundation Center is coming
*out with an electronic database of some sort.  We plan to look at that as a
*possible replacement for Taft--but only if it uses a real detailed key word
*search.
*
*
*At 04:22 PM 1/6/97 -0600, you wrote:
*>We are currently evaluating corporate and private foundation data bases
*>as a means to locate information on potential sponsors.  I am interested in
*>any recommendations from you as to which ones you found particularly
*>useful.  Thank you.
*>
*>Carl Fox
*>Director, Office of Research & Program Development
*>University of North Dakota
*>Grand Forks, ND
*>
*
*
*
*Barbara H. Gray                         Telephone:  803-953-5673
*Director of Sponsored Programs          FAX:        803-953-6577
*College of Charleston                   e-mail:     xxxxxx@cofc.edu
*66 George Street
*Charleston, South Carolina  29424
*
*
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Mary H. Watson, Ph.D                                Phone: 912-333-7837
Director, Grants and Contracts                       Fax:  912-245-3853
Valdosta State University                            Co-Owner, Grants-L
Valdosta   GA   31698                                 Owner,  VSUTITLE4

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