91´«Ã½

CHICAGO - The Library Instruction Round Table (LIRT) of the 91´«Ã½ (91´«Ã½) has announced its support of the Spectrum Scholarship Program with a contribution to the Spectrum Presidential Initiative of $6,500. In recognition of this gift, the 91´«Ã½ Spectrum Scholarship Program will name one LIRT Spectrum Scholar in 2011.

91´«Ã½ President Roberta Stevens, Immediate Past President Dr. Camila Alire, 91´«Ã½ President-Elect Molly Raphael and 91´«Ã½ 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, 91´«Ã½ 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. LIRT’s contribution will allow 91´«Ã½ to continue to support Master’s-level Spectrum Scholarships.

Kawanna Bright, LIRT president (2009-2011), said of the gift, “LIRT recognizes the importance of a diverse library workforce and is excited to sponsor a Spectrum Scholar. Due to the successful management of our resources by the past LIRT leadership, we find ourselves in a position to fund a full scholarship. In this way, we are not only able to support an important presidential initiative, but we can assist a student that shares LIRT’s interests in information literacy and lifelong learning.”

LIRT was founded in 1977. Its purpose is to advocate library instruction and information literacy as a part of lifelong learning. LIRT supports librarians engaged in library instruction and information literacy in all types of libraries.

Established in 1997, the Spectrum Scholarship Program is 91´«Ã½’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 91´«Ã½-accredited graduate program in library and information studies or an AASL approved school library education program. To learn more about the Spectrum Scholarship Program, visit .

For more information about the Spectrum Presidential Initiative or to make an online donation, visit . 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.