91´«Ã½

CHICAGO – Ellen Fader, past-president (2005-2006) of The Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) has provided a generous donation to the Spectrum Scholarship for a third year. Her contribution will support a student through the 2016-2017 school term, provide for a follow-up grant for a Spectrum Scholar alumnus entering the final semester of work in the Fall of 2016, plus discretionary funds to use towards job interviews. Scholarship recipients will be named in June 2016.

“Spectrum is one of 91´«Ã½'s premier efforts to support our nation's libraries by developing every year a well-trained cohort of diverse librarians eager to respond to communities' demands for inclusive service,” says Fader, a retired youth services director from Mulnomah County, Oregon. “I am happy to once again make it possible for the Association for Library Service to Children to double the number of Spectrum Scholars it supports each year. Our country's increasingly diverse children deserve librarians who understand their unique needs and are trained in how to design environments and services to ensure all children and their families feel that the library is a place for them.”

In 2010, ALSC expanded its commitment to the Spectrum Scholarship Program. ALSC sponsors one Spectrum Scholar each year through the Frederic G. Melcher Endowment. The ALSC Spectrum Scholar is awarded to a Spectrum applicant who expresses an interest in library service to children. Since its founding, Spectrum has provided more than 600 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.

Established in 1997, the Spectrum Scholarship Program is 91´«Ã½’s national effort to increase diversity in the profession by recruiting and providing scholarships that allow students from racially and ethnically diverse backgrounds to become librarians. Spectrum Scholars improve service at the local level because they reflect the communities served by libraries in today’s changing world. Spectrum has provided more than 800 scholarships to qualified applicants enrolled in an 91´«Ã½-accredited graduate program in library and information studies or an AASL-recognized School Library program. To learn more about the Spectrum Scholarship Program, visit .

For more information about supporting the Spectrum Scholarship or to make an online donation, visit. To learn more or get involved, contact Gwendolyn Prellwitz, assistant director, Office for Diversity & Spectrum at gprellwitz@ala.org, or Sheila O'Donnell, director, Development Office at sodonnell@ala.org.