Outstanding Achievement of the spectrum Scholarship program

The American Library Association (ALA) Executive Board formally recognized the outstanding achievements of the Spectrum Scholarship Program on the occasion of its 10th anniversary. The Board voted to "commend all members, contributors and staff whose efforts have contributed to the program’s success, celebrate the continuing impact of Spectrum and commit to building on its past and present success.

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 critically needed ethnic librarians within the profession while serving as a model for ways to bring attention to larger diversity issues in the future.

Spectrum's major drive is to recruit applicants and award scholarships to American Indian/Alaska Native, Asian, Black/African American, Hispanic/Latino or Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander students. Spectrum provides a one-year $5,000 scholarship and over $1,500 in professional development opportunities to eligible students planning to attend an ALA-accredited graduate program in library and information studies or an ALA-recognized NCATE School Library Media program.

To date, the American Library Association has awarded over 415 Spectrum Scholarships. Spectrum Scholars have been in attendance at over 48 library schools. They reside, study and work all across North America in a wide array of library positions in every type of library, ranging from the manager of special projects, rare books and special collections for the Princeton University Library to a librarian in a Bureau of Indian Affairs school on the Navajo Reservation in New Mexico.

Additional information, including information on how to apply for a Spectrum Scholarship, can be found at www.ala.org/ala/diversity/spectrum/spectrum.htm .