91´«Ã½

CHICAGO—Librarians, Spectrum Scholars and alumni, library school students and library supporters came together to raise over $1,600 for the Spectrum Presidential Initiative through a recent Dinner for Spectrum Scholars at the Yolo County (Calif.) Library. Hosted by Patty Wong, county librarian/archivist at the Yolo County Library, and Kenneth Yamashita, city librarian (retired) at the Stockton-San Joaquin County (Calif.) Public Library, the event brought together over thirty attendees to celebrate and support the Spectrum Scholarship Program.

91´«Ã½ President Molly Raphael, Immediate Past President Roberta Stevens, 91´«Ã½ President-Elect Maureen Sullivan 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.

The event included students from San Jose State University and Drexel’s iSchool, Sacramento Campus. Yolo County Library staff and members of the California Gold chapter of REFORMA were instrumental supporters of the event. Danzantes del Alma, a student group from the University of California (Davis) provided authentic dances from various states in Mexico.

Hosts Patty Wong and Kenneth Yamashita said of the event, “Family and friends locally and from around the country rallied around this Spectrum fundraiser. The evening focused on the strength of diversity—from the mix of foods from around the world, to the representation of members from AP91´«Ã½, C91´«Ã½, AILA and REFORMA, to the good friends from surrounding library systems including UC Davis and CSU Sacramento. Spectrum Scholars traveled from more than 200 miles away to join us and shared their inspiring experiences as recent graduates and library professionals.”

The Spectrum Scholarship Program is 91´«Ã½’s national diversity and recruitment effort designed to address the specific issue of underrepresentation 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. Since its founding, Spectrum has provided more than 700 scholarships to qualified applicants enrolled in an 91´«Ã½-accredited graduate program in library and information studies or an 91´«Ã½-recognized NCATE School Library Media 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.