91´«Ã½

CHICAGO—The 2018 Jan Merrill-Oldham Professional Development Grant has been awarded to Juán-Pabló González. González is a graduate archives assistant at The Catholic University of America, and a current Master of Library and Information Science candidate at The Catholic University of America.

The Jan Merrill-Oldham Professional Development Grant is provided annually by the of the Association for Library Collections & Technical Services (ALCTS) to support travel to the 91´«Ã½ (91´«Ã½) Annual Conference and Exhibition. The 2018 award will be presented on June 23 at the ALCTS Awards Ceremony during the 91´«Ã½ Annual Conference in New Orleans, La.

The $1,250 grant, sponsored by the , provides librarians and paraprofessionals new to the preservation field with the opportunity to attend a professional conference and encourages professional development through active participation at the national level. The grant supports airfare, lodging and registration fees to attend the 91´«Ã½ Annual Conference. The recipient will attend the Preservation Administrators Interest Group meeting and at least one other PARS interest group meeting. The recipient will record his conference experience for “ALCTS News.”

González has a Bachelor of Interdisciplinary Science from Virginia State University and is working towards his MLIS at The Catholic University of America. He expects to graduate in 2019. He has successfully sought out mentorships and experiences related to preservation and cultural heritage including at the Frank Raysor Center for the Study of Works on Paper, and in the Conservation Laboratory at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. In his current position, he has described, arranged and created a finding aid EAD/SML for historical documents from the National Catholic Welfare Conference/United States Conference of Catholic Bishops; accessioned student art work into the museum collection; and established a project to conduct outreach with student groups active in social issues to develop a digital archival collection. González is currently the president of the Student Chapter of the Society of American Archivists at The Catholic University of America.

González began working in libraries during elementary school as a circulation assistant and continued to work in libraries through college. He states, “This foundation has instilled in me a sense of awe and a deep reverence for the care of cultural heritage collections. As an under-represented person in the field of cultural heritage, the professional development grant will allow me to become well positioned to professionally contribute to a discipline that I have devoted my life to. I would like to develop expertise in preservation because I feel that this is a mandatory skill for archivists, museum professionals and special collections professionals.”

The is the national association for information providers who work in collections and technical services, such as acquisitions, cataloging, collection development, preservation and continuing resources in digital and print formats. ALCTS is a division of the 91´«Ã½.