CHICAGO - The Association for Library Collections & Technical Services (ALCTS) has announced its support of the Spectrum Scholarship Program through a gift of $1,000 to the Spectrum Presidential Initiative.  

ALA President Roberta Stevens, Immediate Past President Dr. Camila Alire, ALA President-Elect Molly Raphael 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.  ALCTS’s contributions will allow ALA to continue to support master’s-level Spectrum Scholarships.

Cynthia M. Whitacre, ALCTS president, 2010-11, said of the gift, “ALCTS is excited and eager to support new individuals entering the profession of librarianship. ALCTS Board members value diversity in our libraries, and we are pleased to support the goals of the Spectrum Presidential Initiative.” 

ALCTS enjoys a rich, 50-year history of service to its members and continues to improve the products and services it offers its members. Comprised of nearly 5,000 members from across the United States and 42 countries from around the globe, ALCTS is the premier resource for information specialists in collection development, preservation and technical services. The organization is a leader in the development of principles, standards and best practices for creating, collecting, organizing, delivering and preserving information resources in all forms. To learn more about ALCTS, please visit www.ala.org/alcts. 

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.  Spectrum Scholars improve service at the local level through the development of a representative workforce that reflects the communities served by all libraries.  Spectrum has provided more than 680 scholarships to qualified applicants enrolled in an ALA-accredited graduate program in library and information studies or an NCATE-AASL reviewed and approved school library education 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. 

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