CHICAGO - The New Members Round Table (NMRT) of the American Library Association (ALA) has announced its support of the Spectrum Scholarship Program through a gift of $1,000 to 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. 

Linda Crook, NMRT president 2011-2012, said of the gift, “The New Members Round Table is proud to be able to make this contribution to the Spectrum Scholarship Program. Recruiting and supporting new and diverse librarians is key to the future of librarianship. This year, the NMRT Board will be exploring other ways NMRT can support this important initiative.”

The New Members Round Table (NMRT) helps those who have been association members less than ten years become actively involved in the association and the profession. The goals are fourfold: (1) to structure formal opportunities for involvement and/or training for professional association committee experiences on the national, state and local levels; (2) to provide a wide variety of programs to assist, encourage and educate those new to the association and the profession; (3) to offer a variety of leadership training and opportunities to help those approaching the end of their NMRT eligibility make the transition to future positions in the association and the profession, and; (4) to develop and implement ongoing programs for library school students which encourage professional involvement and networking.  For more information, visit www.ala.org/nmrt.   

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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