RUSA selects Spectrum Scholar for internship

Contact: Cathleen Bourdon
312-280-4395
For Immediate Release
February 18, 2005

RUSA selects Spectrum Scholar for internship

CHICAGO - The Reference and User Services Association (RUSA) has selected Amber Prentiss, a 2004 Spectrum scholar attending the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, as the 2005 RUSA Intern.

As the RUSA Intern, Prentiss will work for a year and a half with the RUSA vice-president/president-elect, Diane Zabel, Endowed Librarian for Business, Pennsylvania State University. Prentiss will receive $3,000 to support travel expenses to attend the American Library Association's Midwinter and Annual Conferences.

Prentiss has a bachelor of arts degree in English literature and creative writing from Agnes Scott College, Decatur, Ga. She currently works as a graduate assistant in the Reference Library at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Previously she was a communications assistant at the Georgia Municipal Association and a tutor at the Agnes Scott College writing center.

"I hope to enter librarianship as a reference librarian, and this internship will allow me to have a broader view of the profession," said Prentiss. "Being able to see trends in reference and user services at a national level, not only at a local institutional level, will be an invaluable experience."

RUSA selects one Spectrum scholar each year to receive the $3,000 travel grant and work with the RUSA vice-president. The ALA Spectrum Initiative provides $5,000 scholarships to students from the following underrepresented groups: African American, Asian/Pacific Islander, Hispanic/Latino and Native American. More information about the Spectrum Initiative is available at
www.ala.org/spectrum.

RUSA is a division of the American Library Association.