Public Librarian will swim Hudson River for Spectrum Scholarship Program
Contact: Miguel Figueroa
Director, ALA Office for Diversity and Spectrum
(312) 280-5295
NEWS
For Immediate Release
June 30, 2009
CHICAGO – Miriam Tuliao, assistant director of Central Collection Development Collections Strategy at the New York Public Library, announced that she will participate in the Little Red Lighthouse Swim to raise awareness and funds for the Spectrum Scholarship Program of the American Library Association (ALA).
The event, to be held Sept. 26, 2009, consists of a 5.85-mile race in New York’s Hudson River. The Spectrum Scholarship Program’s major drive is to recruit applicants and award scholarships to American Indian/Alaska Native, Asian, Black/African American, Hispanic/Latino or Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander students. Spectrum provides a one-year $5,000 scholarship and more than $1,500 in professional development opportunities to eligible students planning to attend an ALA-accredited graduate program in library and information studies or a school library media program. There have been more than 600 scholarships awarded through the Spectrum Scholarship Program to date.
The mission of the American Library Association Spectrum Scholarship Program is: “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.”
Tuliao is a United States masters swimmer who has participated in several long-distance open water events, including the Big Shoulders 5K Swim in Chicago in September 2007. Most recently, Tuliao completed the New Jersey State Triathlon in 2008 to raise awareness and funding for the Spectrum Scholarship Program.
“I will be participating in the 5.85-mile Little Red Lighthouse Swim to help raise monies for ALA's Spectrum Scholarship and bring awareness to the critical need for more ethnic and multilingual librarians within our profession,” said Tuliao. “I will swim the Hudson River in honor of five special librarians: Bonnie Farrier (supervising librarian, Andrew Heiskell Braille and Talking Book Library, New York Public Library); Jane Fisher (director, Rutherford Public Library); Cecil Hixon (former adult programming specialist, New York Public Library); Marsha Howard (coordinator, Poetry in the Branches, Poets House); and Raymond Markey (former president, Local 1930, New York Public Library Guild). Through their daily work as librarians, they have inspired me and countless library workers within New York City and beyond to embrace activist roles, foster community and commit ourselves fully to public service.”
Please join Tuliao in contributing to the Spectrum Scholarship by sending a check or pledge to: ALA Development Office, Spectrum, 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL, 60611. Please make checks payable to the ALA Spectrum, memo Tuliao Lighthouse Swim.
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.
