Librarian Swims Again for Spectrum

CHICAGO – Miriam Tuliao, assistant director of Central Collection Development Collections Strategy at the New York Public Library, announced that she will participate in the United States Masters Swimming 2-mile Cable Open Water National Championship in support of the Spectrum Presidential Initiative. The event, to be held July 10, 2010, is a 2-mile cable swim at Chris Greene Lake near Charlottesville, Va.

Tuliao is a United States masters swimmer who has participated in several long-distance open water events, including the Big Shoulders 5K Swim in Chicago in September 2007. Tuliao participated in the New Jersey State Triathlon in 2008 and the 5.85-mile Little Red Lighthouse in 2009, both times raising funds for the ALA Spectrum Scholarship Program. This year Tuliao is delighted to raise funds to support the Spectrum Presidential Initiative.

ALA President Dr. Camila Alire, Immediate Past President Jim Rettig, President-Elect Roberta Stevens and ALA Past President Dr. Betty J. Turock, chair of the initiative, have announced the Spectrum Presidential Initiative, a special one-year campaign to raise $1 million for the Spectrum Scholarship Program. Through this initiative, ALA aims to meet the critical needs of supporting master’s-level scholarships, providing two $25,000 Doctoral scholarships, increasing the Spectrum Endowment to ensure the program’s future and developing special programs for recruitment and career development. Tuliao’s fundraising efforts on behalf of Spectrum are just one example of how individuals can maximize their contribution to the Spectrum Presidential Initiative.

“I will be participating in the United States Masters Swimming 2-mile Cable Open Water National Championship to help raise monies for ALA's Spectrum Scholarship and bring awareness to the critical need for more ethnic and multilingual librarians within our profession,” said Tuliao. “I will be swimming in Chris Greene Lake in Charlottesville, Va. in honor of two extraordinary library veterans, Mary K. Conwell and Susan Kent, both former directors of the Branch Libraries, The New York Public Library. During each of their tenures, they inspired many of us to think big for our library and our city. And they both emphasized the importance of leading with vision, compassion and profound respect for community.”

The Spectrum Scholarship Program is ALA’s national diversity and recruitment effort designed to address the specific issue of underrepresentation of critically needed ethnic librarians within the profession while serving as a model for ways to bring attention to larger diversity issues in the future. Since its founding, Spectrum has provided over 680 scholarships to qualified applicants enrolled in an ALA-accredited graduate program in library and information studies or an ALA-recognized NCATE School Library Media program. To learn more about the Spectrum Scholarship Program, visit www.ala.org/spectrum.

Please join Tuliao in supporting the Spectrum Presidential Initiative by sending a check or pledge to: ALA Development Office, Spectrum, 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL, 60611. Please make checks payable to the ALA Spectrum, memo Tuliao 2010 Swim. For more information about the Spectrum Presidential Initiative or to make an online donation, visit http://spectrum.ala.org. To learn more, get involved, or to make a pledge to the Spectrum Presidential Initiative, contact Miguel A. Figueroa, Director, Office for Diversity & Spectrum at mfigueroa@ala.org, or Kim Olsen-Clark, Director, Development Office at kolsen-clark@ala.org.