Winner of the first ALA Research Grant announced

Contact: Mary Jo Lynch


312-280-4272

ALA News Release


For Immediate Release


April 2001

Winner of the first ALA Research Grant announced

The first ALA Research Grant ($25,000) has been awarded to Dr. Virginia A. Walter, associate professor in the department of information studies, graduate school of education and information studies, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). The winning proposal was entitled, "Models for Homework Center Outcomes."

Walter will work with Dr. Cynthia L. Mediavilla, associate director of strategic planning and special projects in the department of information studies, UCLA. Together they will develop evaluation models that can be used by any public library that wants to determine the effectiveness of their homework centers as measured by the positive impact on the teenagers using them.

There are two types of models. Model A will be relevant to homework centers in which teens participate as the homework assistance providers. Model B will be relevant to homework centers in which teens are the recipients of the homework assistance. The research will build on Mediavilla's study of successful homework centers nationwide. Mediavilla's study is described in "Creating the Full-Service Homework Center in Your Library" available from ALA Editions.

The ALA Research Grant was initiated in response to a recommendation by the April 1999 Committee on Professional Education (COPE) that ALA should fund research important to the profession. Proposals were invited on two questions formulated by the ALA Committee on Research and Statistics (CORS):

  • In what ways do the services of libraries have a positive impact on the lives of users?
  • What is/should be the role of librarians in adding value to electronic information?

Seven proposals were received and evaluated by a jury consisting of the current chair of CORS, the past chair of CORS and the director of the ALA Office for Research and Statistics.

"The jury was very pleased to give the grant to Virginia Walter and Cindy Mediavilla," Jury Chair Kenneth Shearer said. "Their proposal was an excellent response to the first CORS question, and the topic is closely related to the growing national concern about after-school activities for youth."

The research will begin in April 2001, and will be completed in August 2002. A summary report of the grant will be posted on the Web as soon as the work is finished and a publishable article will be available within six months.

Criteria and guidelines for the ALA Research Grant are available on the
website.