2011 Spectrum Scholarship and Spectrum Presidential Initiative supported by YALSA

Contact: Miguel Figueroa


Office for Diversity & Spectrum


312-280-5295


mfigueroa@ala.org

NEWS


For Immediate Release,


February 23, 2010

CHICAGO —The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) continues its commitment to diversity in the library profession by announcing its support of the American Library Association’s (ALA) Spectrum Scholarship Program and this year’s special Spectrum Presidential Initiative. In 2011, YALSA will fund one Spectrum Scholarship for an individual interested in pursuing young adult services as a career. This is the third straight year that YALSA has sponsored a Spectrum Scholar. The Spectrum Scholarship consists of $5,000 for tuition reimbursement and $1,500 towards the scholar’s participation in the Spectrum Leadership Institute at the ALA Annual Conference.

At the 2009 ALA Annual Conference, ALA President Dr. Camila Alire, Immediate Past President Jim Rettig, President-Elect Roberta Stevens and ALA Past President Dr. Betty J. Turock, chair of the initiative, announced the Spectrum Presidential Initiative, a special one-year campaign to raise $1 million for the Spectrum Scholarship Program. Through this initiative, ALA aims to meet the critical needs of supporting Master’s-level scholarships, providing two $25,000 Doctoral scholarships, increasing the Spectrum Endowment to ensure the program’s future and developing special programs for recruitment and career development. YALSA’s contribution will allow ALA to continue to support Master’s-level Spectrum Scholarships.

Linda Braun, YALSA President, said of the gift, “YALSA is pleased to once again support an ALA Spectrum Scholar in order to guarantee that the future of our profession and association reflects the changing population of our nation. YALSA funding is provided through the Friends of YALSA initiative and we thank our members for making Spectrum support possible.”

For more than 50 years, YALSA has been the world leader in selecting books, videos and audio books for teens. For more information about YALSA or for lists of recommended reading, viewing, and listening, go to
www.ala.org/yalsa/booklists, or contact the YALSA office by phone, (800) 545-2433, ext. 4390, or e-mail,
yalsa@ala.org.

The Spectrum Scholarship Program is ALA's national diversity and recruitment effort designed to address the specific issue of underrepresentation of critically needed ethnic librarians within the profession while serving as a model for ways to bring attention to larger diversity issues in the future. Since its founding, Spectrum has provided more than 600 scholarships to qualified applicants enrolled in an ALA-accredited graduate program in library and information studies or an ALA-recognized NCATE School Library Media program. To learn more about the Spectrum Scholarship Program,
www.ala.org/spectrum.

For more information about the Spectrum Presidential Initiative or to make an online donation, visit
http://spectrum.ala.org.To learn more, get involved, or to make a pledge to the Spectrum Presidential Initiative, contact Miguel A. Figueroa, Director, Office for Diversity & Spectrum at
mfigueroa@ala.org, or Kim Olsen-Clark, Director, Development Office at
kolsen-clark@ala.org.