Avery Deane Olmstead named ASCLA Century Scholarship recipient

Contact: Eileen Hardy

Marketing Specialist

312-280-4398

ehardy@ala.org

For Immediate Release

May 9, 2006

Avery Deane Olmstead named ASCLA Century Scholarship recipient

CHICAGO - Avery Deane Olmstead IV is the 2006 recipient of the Century Scholarship presented by the Association of Specialized and Cooperative Library Agencies (ASCLA), a division of the American Library Association (ALA). Olmstead is a student at the College of Library Information Science at the University of South Carolina, Columbia.

The Century Scholarship is a $2,500 monetary award given annually to a student or students pursuing a degree in library and information science. The independently funded Century Scholarship is a diversity initiative aimed at promoting the ALA's mission of improving service at the local level through the development of a representative workforce that reflects the communities served by all libraries in the new millennium.

"The committee was unanimous in its opinion that Avery 'is that perfect candidate,' a student with a disability for whom the Century Scholarship was conceived to assist in the completion of coursework for a master's in Library Information Science and in becoming a library professional," said Simon J. M. Healey, Century Scholarship Jury Committee chair.
"Avery is an inspiring, intelligent, talented person who is interested in raising disability awareness and is equally enthusiastic about the library world and in bringing the two aspects together."

Olmstead earned a bachelor of science in Rehabilitation Services from the University of Maine at Farmington and a MHRT/Community Certificate from the University of Southern Maine.
He served as an AmeriCorps Volunteer with the "Born to Read" program at the Maine Humanities Council and with "Project GOALS" at the Bangor Public Library and Old Town Public Library.
He has performed as an actor with the National Theatre Workshop of the Handicapped, Inc., based in Crosby, Maine.