Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association continues support for the Spectrum Scholarship Program

CHICAGO - The Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association (APALA), an affiliate of the American Library Association, has announced a new level of support for the Spectrum Scholarship Program, providing more than $5,000 since the launch of the Spectrum Presidential Initiative.

ALA President Molly Raphael, Immediate Past President Roberta Stevens, ALA President-Elect Maureen Sullivan and ALA Past President Dr. Betty J. Turock, chair of the initiative, continue the Spectrum Presidential Initiative as a special 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.

Since announcing a donation of $2,500 in 2010, APALA has continued to fundraise within its membership, hosting dinners, socials and other activities to raise money for the Spectrum Scholarship Program. APALA members have been organizing and sponsoring numerous events across the country in order raise additional funds and add to APALA's contribution to the Spectrum Presidential Initiative.

Florante Peter Ibanez, 2010-2011 APALA president, said of the continued support, “APALA is very honored to be a contributor to the ALA Spectrum Scholarship Program. We recognize the need to diversify our profession and can count many of our own APALA leaders as past Spectrum Scholars. "

The Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association (APALA) was founded in 1980 by librarians of diverse Asian/Pacific ancestries committed to working together toward a common goal: to create an organization that would address the needs of Asian/Pacific American librarians and those who serve Asian/Pacific American communities. For more information about APALA, visit www.apalaweb.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 700 scholarships to qualified applicants enrolled in an ALA-accredited graduate program in library and information studies or an AASL-recognized School Library 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.