Awards, Grants, Stipends and Scholarships
YALSA offers grants and awards to members who work with or on behalf of teens. Please click on the individual grant for application information.
YALSA also sponsors one Spectrum Scholar and an Emerging Leader each year, using funds provided by the Friends of YALSA.
YALSA members are also eligible for scholarships, awards and grants from the American Library Association.
Member Grants and Awards
Collection Development Grant (formerly called the BWI/YALSA Collection Development Grant)
This annual grant is funded by Baker & Taylor and awards $1,000 for collection development to two YALSA members who represent a public library, and who work directly with young adults ages 12 to 18.
This annual grant of $1,000 is to provide seed money for small scale projects which will encourage research that responds to the YALSA Research Agenda.
Joann Sweetland Lum Memorial Grant
This annual $1000 grant aims to recognize a librarian who has a creative, innovative project that promotes literacy. Examples of literacy include, but are not limited to, digital, media, visual, computer, data, financial, civic/ethical, news, information, multicultural, and cultural.
MAE Award for Best Literature Program for Teens
The annual MAE Award is designed to honor a member of YALSA who has developed an outstanding reading or literature program for young adults. The award provides $500 to the winner and an additional $500 to the winner's library or library agency. The award is made possible through the Margaret A. Edwards Trust.
Service to Young Adults Outstanding Achievement Award
This award of $2,000, sponsored generously by Marney Welmers, recognizes the national contributions of a YALSA member who has demonstrated unique and sustained devotion in two or more of the following areas to young adult services: promoting services for and with young adults, conducting and publishing research about young adult services, mentoring other professionals in the field, or for notable efforts in the work of the Young Adult Library Services Association. Successful nominees have a demonstrated track record of work that has had a significant and lasting impact on the profession or YALSA. The purpose of the cash award will be to enable the recipient to further his or her good work in the field of young adult librarianship.
Scholarships, Stipends, and Fellowships
Funding for YALSA's sponsorship of the Spectrum Scholars and Emerging Leaders programs come from the Friends of YALSA. Funding for the Young Adult Literature Symposium Stipends come from the William C. Morris Endowment.
Regina U. Minudri Young Adult Scholarship
The scholarship is to be given once a year to a Masters degree candidate in Library Science who intends to work professionally with young adults in public libraries. The purpose is to provide financial assistance and encouragement to developing young adult librarians. This scholarship runs annually from September 1st - March 1st. The scholarship amount is $3,000.
The two stipends of $1,000 each are funded by Baker & Taylor and are awarded to library staff who work for or directly with young adults in a public or school library or library agency to enable them to attend the Annual Conference for the first time.
Dorothy Broderick Student Conference Scholarship - Funded by YALSA's Leadership Endowment. Funds travel to the Annual Conference for one graduate student for up to $1,000.
Each year, YALSA sponsors two Spectrum Scholars. Established in 1997, the Spectrum Scholarship Program is ALA's national diversity and recruitment effort designed to address the specific issue of under-representation of racially and ethnically diverse librarians within the profession while serving as a model for ways to bring attention to larger diversity issues in the future. YALSA sponsors two Spectrum Scholars with an interest in serving youth ages 12-18 in a library setting. Applications are accepted October to March each year. Listen to an interview with Linda Braun, YALSA past president, and Hoan-Vu Do, YALSA's 2010-2011 Spectrum Scholar at YouTube. You can view a list of current and past Spectrum Scholars who were sponsored by YALSA on this page.
ALA's Emerging Leaders program enables newer library staff from across the country to participate in problem-solving work groups; network with peers; gain an inside look into ALA structure, and have an opportunity to serve the profession in a leadership capacity. It puts them on the fast track to ALA and professional leadership. YALSA sponsors one Emerging Leader annually. A list of current and past YALSA-sponsored Emerging Leaders is available on this page. Application opens mid-June. Apply by August 31.
Each year YALSA identifies one member to serve as the official YALSA Liaison to ALA groups that seek Division representation. Apply by April 1 to receive a stipend to defray the cost of travel to ALA conferences.
