Simply consulting a few books and articles and a few colleagues will prove woefully inadequate in the increasingly competitive environment for grants. Fortunately, there are several basic, standard print and electronic library information resources that can very significantly aid grant seeking efforts for international study and research. These can guide one to contacts with specialized expertise and to research materials in libraries, research centers, organizations, museums, and archives in the U.S. and throughout the world. This work is useful for identifying institutions in one country across a spectrum of disciplines. For example, a grant candidate wanting to do research on the history of the Dominican Republic can identify learned societies, research institutes, museums, and universities relevant to a project in that country.
Some entries have notes on contents of collections.
Candidates can check with local institutions about both the uniqueness and originality of proposed research and for contacts with colleagues with whom they might collaborate. It also has a geographical index by country. For example, someone wishing to do research in Spanish history can find special collections in the U.S., Spain, and other countries. Allowing worldwide searching by research topic, DSL is especially useful for those confronting a close grant deadline and having very limited time for consulting resources. This work has no subject index but organizes its entries of special library collections by subject.