Florida State University supports ALA’s diversity efforts in the library profession
Contact: Gwendolyn Prellwitz
Acting Director, ALA Office for Diversity
(312) 280-5048
gprellwitz@ala.org
NEWS
For Immediate Release
November 25, 2008
CHICAGO - The Florida State University College of Information will provide matching funds for tuition to Letitia Bulic and Deidra Garcia, 2008 American Library Association (ALA) Spectrum Scholarship winners.
Bulic and Garcia are each pursuing a masters’ degree in library and information studies at Florida State, which has offered tuition remission to Spectrum recipients since 1999.
Bulic, of Ormond Beach, Fla., graduated from Guilford College in 2003 with a bachelor’s degree in Psychology. She is particularly interested in the management, organization and preservation of information resources using digital information technology.
Garcia, of Miami Beach, Fla., is a 2002 graduate of New York University, where she majored in English. Her interest in the field peaked when she recently volunteered with the Miami Beach library.
Florida State’s College of Information matching funds provide Spectrum Scholars with adequate financial assistance to pursue and finish their studies. Its effort to attract Spectrum Scholars demonstrates the importance of diversity as a value to the university.
Established in 1997, the Spectrum Scholarship Program has become one of the most important drivers of diversity in the library profession. The program recruits and awards scholarships for graduate programs in library and information studies to students from five professionally under-represented groups: American Indian/Alaska Native, Asian, Black/African American, Hispanic/Latino or Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander. To date Spectrum has provided a one-year $5,000 scholarship and more than $1,500 in professional development opportunities to 564 graduate students. Former Spectrum scholars now serve on ALA Council and numerous professional committees; head branches and departments of public and academic libraries; work in and manage law, medical and special libraries; lead efforts to explore and integrate new technologies; and find numerous ways to give back to the profession and promote librarianship at large.
The University’s support of its Spectrum recipients greatly bolsters the Spectrum Scholarship Program’s ability to attract and retain talented students under-represented in the library and information science profession. To learn more about the Florida State’s College of Information, please visit
http://ci.fsu.edu/graduate/ .To learn more about the Spectrum Scholarship Program, please visit:
www.ala.org/spectrum or contact Gwendolyn Prellwitz at (312) 280-5048,
gprellwitz@ala.org.