ALA Office for Diversity, University of Pittsburgh and others partner to create Spectrum doctoral fellowship

Contacts: Tracie Hall
ALA Office for Diversity


(800) 545-2433 x5020
Toni Carbo
University of Pittsburgh


School of Information Sciences
(412) 624-9310
For Immediate Release
July 19, 2006

ALA Office for Diversity, University of Pittsburgh and others


partner to create Spectrum doctoral fellowship

CHICAGO - The American Library Association (ALA) and University of Pittsburgh's School of Information Sciences are proud to announce the creation of the Spectrum Doctoral Fellowship. The new program will recruit and provide full tuition support and stipends to 10 full-time library and information science (LIS) doctoral students for all four years of study. The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) is providing nearly $1 million to fund the program.

In addition to the University of Pittsburgh, nine other library and information science programs are participating in the effort: University of Arizona, University of California at Los Angeles, University of Michigan, Rutgers University, Simmons College, Syracuse University, University of Tennessee at Knoxville, University of Texas at Austin and University of Wisconsin at Madison.

The fellowship builds on the success of the ALA Spectrum scholarship program, which began in 1997 and has since provided financial support to 415 individuals pursuing LIS master's degrees or school media certification.
Now approaching its 10-year anniversary, the program has become one of the profession's most significant diversity and recruitment efforts.

"This represents a new era for Spectrum. Our hope is that the doctoral fellowship will have the same impact on LIS education and executive-level management that the master's degree scholarship has had on the field at large," explains ALA Executive Director Keith Michael Fiels.

One of the doctoral fellowships to be awarded to an applicant interested in pursuing executive level library management will be named in honor of Elizabeth Martinez, Spectrum founder and ALA executive director from 1994-97. "I am overwhelmed and deeply honored to have a Spectrum Doctoral Fellowship named for me," Martinez said.

The Spectrum Doctoral Fellowship is open to applicants of American Indian/Alaska Native, Asian, Black/African American, Hispanic/Latino or Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander heritage and need not have received a Spectrum master's-level scholarship. Interested individuals may apply for the Spectrum Doctoral Fellowship beginning November 1. The due date for receipt of all materials is March 1, 2007. Applicants must also apply for admission to one or more of the 10 participating library and information science programs. Spectrum Doctoral Fellows are expected to be announced on or before May 15, and to begin studies by Fall 2007.

To underscore the fellowship program's emphasis on leadership, Spectrum Doctoral Fellows will attend the expense-paid E.J. Josey Doctoral Leadership Institute named for University of Pittsburgh Professor Emeritus and one of the profession's staunchest diversity advocates following their first semester. The institute will be held in conjunction with the annual meeting of the Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE).

Betty Turock, Rutgers Professor Emeritus, past ALA president and longtime champion of the Spectrum Scholarship Program, reacted to the news of IMLS's support of the doctoral fellowship by noting, "Spectrum is one of the association's greatest successes, and the Spectrum PhD is a critical and necessary part of its future. Diversity at the front of the LIS classroom and diversity in the profession are deeply intertwined. We are all grateful for IMLS's support."

Further information and application procedures for the program will be available on the ALA Office for Diversity and University of Pittsburgh's School of Information Sciences Web sites by September 15.
In the interim, please contact Spectrum Doctoral Fellowship Director, Dr. Toni Carbo, Professor, University of Pittsburgh School of Information Sciences and Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, at
tcarbo@mail.sis.pitt.edu
or Co-Director, Tracie D. Hall, Director, ALA Office for Diversity at
thall@ala.org.

For more information on the Office for Diversity and the Spectrum Program, visit:
www.ala.org/diversity. For more information on the University of Pittsburgh School of Information Sciences, visit:
www.sis.pitt.edu/. For more information on the IMLS, visit:
www.imls.gov.