[3] CLIR is supported primarily by annual dues from its over 180 sponsoring institutions and 190 DLF members,[4] and by foundation grants and individual donations.
[5] Through its work, CLIR aims to cultivate cross-disciplinary intellectual leadership, create professional development opportunities, and promote best practices for the preservation, organization, and accessibility of information.
[11] CLIR Postdoctoral Fellows[12] work on projects that forge and strengthen connections among library collections, educational technologies, and current research.
The program offers recent PhD graduates the chance to help develop research tools, resources, and services while exploring new career opportunities.
Host institutions benefit from fellows' field-specific expertise by gaining insights into their collections' potential uses and users, scholarly information behaviors, and current teaching and learning practices within particular disciplines.
CLIR offers about 15 fellowships[13] annually to support original-source doctoral dissertation research in the humanities or related social sciences.
CLIR resulted from the merger of the Commission on Preservation and Access (CPA) and the Council on Library Resources (CLR) in 1997.
[26] Haas served as interim chair of the newly formed Commission, until the appointment of Patricia Battin as its first president in August 1987.
In 1994, the group called for a planning strategy for the development of digital libraries and began to organize themselves to continue local efforts while also sharing their findings.