For immediate release | June 23, 2010

91´«Ã½ awards 2010 Diversity Research Grants

91´«Ã½

The 91´«Ã½’s Office for Diversity has announced the recipients of the Diversity Research Grants for 2010.
The grants consist of a one-time $2,000 award for original research and a $500 travel grant to attend and present at the 91´«Ã½ Annual Conference. Recipients are expected to conduct their research over the course of the year and compile the results of their research into a program for the 2011 91´«Ã½ Annual Conference in New Orleans, La.
Each year the Diversity Research Grant Advisory Committee identifies three topics for proposals submissions. This year all three grants were awarded under the same topic, “Information Services and Collections for Diverse Children and Young Adults.” Said Jury Chair Veronica L.C. Stevenson-Moudamane, “The jury’s process clearly identified these three proposals as not only the best in terms of design and methodology, but also in terms of need for funding and potential impact on the profession. While a difficult decision, the jury felt it appropriate to make all three awards in this one category.”
The first grant will be awarded to Elizabeth Friese, a doctoral candidate and graduate teaching assistant at the University of Georgia’s Department of Language and Literacy Education. Her project, "Selecting Racially Diverse Literature for Elementary School Libraries," will investigate the way school librarians in elementary schools conceptualize diversity and select racially diverse materials for their collections. Having piloted the study with two school librarians, the grant will allow her to expand the study to a broader group of elementary librarians.
The second grant will be awarded to Dr. Sandra Hughes-Hassell, associate professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s School of Information & Library Science, and Casey Rawson, a master’s candidate at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s School of Information & Library Science. Their project, “Promoting Equity in Literacy Instruction for Adolescent African American Males through the Use of Enabling Texts,” is influenced by work of Alfred W. Tatum, who argues that educators are failing to engage African-American male students with meaningful texts that could potentially make a positive difference in their lives. This project will seek to identify contemporary young adult literature which fulfills Tatum’s qualifications for enabling texts and mediating those texts with a small group of African-American adolescent males.
The third grant will be awarded to Dr. Jennifer K. Sweeney, adjunct professor at Drexel University’s College of Information Science & Technology, for her project, “Helping Teens Help Themselves: A National Survey of Library Services to Juveniles in Detention." This project will collect and compile comprehensive information on library services to juveniles in detention, an at-risk population whose information needs are both urgent and complex, to help focus resources, facilitate collaboration, and educate the community of providers.
91´«Ã½’s Office for Diversity offers thanks to the Diversity Research Grants Jury, including Veronica LC Stevenson-Moudamane (chair), Malore Brown, Ph.D., Sylvia Hall-Ellis, Ph.D., Miguel Juarez, Cheryl K. Malone, Ph.D., and Mark Winston, Ph.D., and to the Diversity Research Grants Advisory Committee, including Veronica L.C. Stevenson-Moudamane (chair), Vickie E. Beene, Nikki Busch, Sylvia D. Hall-Ellis, Ph.D., Joyce E. Jelks, Cheryl Knott Malone, Ph.D., and Raymond P. Schwartz.
The 2010 recipients will present their research at a program during the 91´«Ã½ 2011 Annual Conference in New Orleans, La. For more information on the Diversity Research Grants, please visit the Office for Diversity’s website: .

Contact:

Rubina Isaac