ALA awards 2013 Diversity Research Grants

For Immediate Release
Tue, 10/15/2013

Contact:

Michelle Harrell Washington

Director

Office for Diversity

800-545-2433 x5295

mwashington@ala.org

CHICAGO - The American Library Association’s Office for Diversity has announced the recipients of the Diversity Research Grants for 2013.

The grants consist of a one-time $2,500 award for original research.  Recipients will conduct their research over the course of the year, are expected to compile the results of their research into a paper and will be asked to present and publish the final product in conjunction with the American Library Association.

The first grant is awarded to Dr. Sung Un Kim, assistant professor, Department of Library and Information Science, Catholic University of America, for the project, “Exploring Library Programs to Support English Language Learner (ELL) Students’ Academic Success in Urban High Schools.” This research will help to continue to raise awareness of the critical teaching role of school librarians, identify promising practices and areas of need for librarians to support the academic growth of ELL students and designing curricula to teach school librarians about ELL education.

The next grant award goes to Dr. Lian Ruan, director/head Librarian, Illinois Fire Service Institute, University of Illinois, and Weiling Liu, director, Office of Libraries Technology, University of Louisville.   Their project “The Role of Chinese American Librarians in Library and Information Science Diversity,” will expand the understanding of the Chinese American librarian community in terms of their unique cultural experience and expound on best practices and lessons to be learned as they relate specifically to diversity efforts. This research will help refine strategies for recruiting and retaining Chinese American librarians, help further the goal of diversity and provide tangible examples for other ethnic minority librarian groups to consider.

The third recipient for 2013 is Dr. JungWon Yoon, associate professor, School of Information, University of South Florida, for the project “Role of Information in Social Inclusion for International Students,” which investigates international students’ information seeking behaviors in both their campus and everyday lives and informs libraries with guidelines for promoting the social inclusion of international students.

ALA’s Office for Diversity offers thanks to the Diversity Research Grants Advisory Committee for their work in selecting the 2013 Diversity Research Grant Recipients: Dr. Nicole A. Cooke (chair), Agnes K. Bradshaw, Nicole A. Branch, Elizabeth Jean Brumfield, Denyvetta Davis, LaVerne Gray, Michael Gutierrez, Cheryl Knott, Adriana McCleer and R. Niccole Westbrook.

For more information on the Diversity Research Grants, please visit the Office for Diversity’s website: http://www.ala.org/diversity.