91´«Ã½

CHICAGO – Miriam Tuliao, assistant director of Central Collection Development at the New York Public Library, announced that she will participate in the United States Masters Swimming 2-Mile Cable Open Water National Championship in support of the Spectrum Presidential Initiative. The event, to be held Aug. 13, 2011, is a 2-mile cable swim at Lake Placid, N.Y.

Tuliao is a United States masters swimmer who has participated in several long-distance open water events, including the Big Shoulders 5K Swim in Chicago in September 2007. Tuliao participated in the New Jersey State Triathlon in 2008 and the 5.85-mile Little Red Lighthouse Swim in 2009, both times raising funds for the 91´«Ã½ Spectrum Scholarship Program. Last year Tuliao participated in the United States Masters Swimming 2-Mile Cable Open Water National Championship at Chris Greene Lake near Charlottesville, Va. in support of the Spectrum Presidential Initiative. Tuliao is delighted to again raise funds for the Spectrum Presidential Initiative.

91´«Ã½ President Molly Raphael, Immediate Past President Roberta Stevens, President-Elect Maureen Sullivan and 91´«Ã½ Past President Dr. Betty J. Turock, chair of the initiative, coordinate a special campaign to raise $1 million for the Spectrum Scholarship Program known as the Spectrum Presidential Initiative (SPI). Through SPI, 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. Tuliao’s fundraising efforts on behalf of Spectrum are just one example of how individuals can maximize their contribution to the Spectrum Presidential Initiative.

“I will be participating in the United States Masters Swimming 2-Mile Cable Open Water National Championship to help raise monies for 91´«Ã½’s Spectrum Scholarships and bring awareness to the critical need for more ethnic and multilingual librarians within our profession,” said Tuliao. “I will be swimming in Lake Placid, New York in memory of Mrs. Joyce Ku, former supervising librarian of the New York Public Library’s Chatham Square Branch. I deeply admired Mrs. Ku for commitment to public librarianship and her distinguished service to the Chinese and Latino communities of New York City.”

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 780 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.