Greater Boston Convention and Visitors Bureau makes donation to Spectrum Presidential Initiative

Contact: Miguel A. Figueroa


Office for Diversity


312-280-5295


mfigueroa@ala.org

NEWS


For Immediate Release,


January 16, 2010

BOSTON – The Greater Boston Convention and Visitors Bureau (GBCVB) gave a special welcome to the American Library Association and its members by presenting a donation of $500 in support of the Spectrum Presidential Initiative to Keith Michael Fiels, ALA Executive Director.

“It has been pleasure to work with GBCVB as we planned ALA’s Midwinter Meeting in Boston,” said Keith Fiels. “We are so pleased that they wanted to part of the Spectrum Presidential Initiative and greatly appreciate this wonderful gift which will provide financial assistance to new generations of culturally diverse librarians.”

At the 2009 ALA Annual Conference, ALA President Camila Alire, Immediate Past President Jim Rettig, and President Elect Roberta Stevens announced a special year-long initiative to raise $1 million for the Spectrum Scholarship Program. The $1 million will allow ALA to double the number of Spectrum Scholarships awarded over the next few years, provide two Spectrum Doctoral Fellowships, and build the Spectrum Endowment to ensure this important program’s future. Dr. Betty Turock serves as chair of the Initiative.

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, visit
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.