ALA awards 2003 Diversity Research Grants
Contact: Wendy Prellwitz, Office for Diversity
Communications Officer
312-280-5048
For Immediate Release
July 21, 2003
ALA awards 2003 Diversity Research Grants
The American Library Association’s (ALA) Office for Diversity is delighted to announce the recipients of the Diversity Research Grants for 2003.
The Diversity Research Grants consist of a one-time $2,000 award for original research and a $500 travel grant to attend and present at an ALA Annual Conference.
Each year the Office for Diversity and the Diversity Research Grant Jury identify three areas of scholarship where research is needed.
One proposal is chosen from within each topic for a total of three awards. Grant recipients are expected to compile the results of their research into a paper and are asked to present and publish the final product in conjunction with ALA.
The first grant will be awarded to Jody Gray, evening and weekend instruction librarian and Michelle Harrell, multicultural studies librarian at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) Libraries.
Their research project, “Promoting Information Literacy Through Coalition Building,” will examine strategies for partnering with existing UWM mentoring programs to increase the utilization of the library instruction program, including a Library Research Series (LRS) component, by students of color.
The project was submitted under this year’s Research Topic 1 – Coalition Building Across Affinity Groups.
The second grant will be awarded to Rae-Anne Montague, LEEP coordinator at the University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign GSLIS.
Her research project,
“Access for All: Working to Eliminate Cultural Biases in the Organization of Information,” is designed to serve as a catalyst to generate ongoing interest in eliminating cultural biases in the organization of information and ultimately to enable librarians to improve services.
The project was submitted under this year’s Research Topic 2 – Cultural Biases in the Organization of Information.
The third grant will be awarded to La Loria Konata, reference and policy studies liaison librarian and Tim Zou, department head, access and media services at Georgia State University Pullen Library.
Their research project, “A Study of Career Development patterns of Library Managers and Directors of Ethnic Minority in Selected ARL Member Libraries,” is designed to track the career development path of librarians of underrepresented racial and ethnic groups and to assess the overall organizational environment that has contributed to their success in their career development and barriers that have hampered their career advancement.
The project was submitted under this year’s Research Topic 3 – Furthering Diversity Initiatives in a Skeptical Environment.
The 2003 Diversity Research Grants recipients will present their research at the 2004 Annual Conference program in Orlando.
At this program, the Office for Diversity will recognize the accomplishments of a distinguished scholar actively involved in diversity research by inviting them to provide a keynote address.
If you would like to nominate an individual for this honor, please submit their name, contact information and a short description of their recent research accomplishments to Tracie D. Hall, Director of the ALA Office for Diversity at
thall@ala.org
by January 1, 2004.
For more information on the Diversity Research Grants, please visit the
Office for Diversity Web site.
