91´«Ã½

CHICAGO - The Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association (AP91´«Ã½), an affiliate of the 91´«Ã½, has announced a new level of support for the Spectrum Scholarship Program, providing more than $5,000 since the launch of the Spectrum Presidential Initiative.

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.

Since announcing a donation of $2,500 in 2010, AP91´«Ã½ has continued to fundraise within its membership, hosting dinners, socials and other activities to raise money for the Spectrum Scholarship Program. AP91´«Ã½ members have been organizing and sponsoring numerous events across the country in order raise additional funds and add to AP91´«Ã½'s contribution to the Spectrum Presidential Initiative.

Florante Peter Ibanez, 2010-2011 AP91´«Ã½ president, said of the continued support, “AP91´«Ã½ is very honored to be a contributor to the 91´«Ã½ Spectrum Scholarship Program. We recognize the need to diversify our profession and can count many of our own AP91´«Ã½ leaders as past Spectrum Scholars. "

The Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association (AP91´«Ã½) was founded in 1980 by librarians of diverse Asian/Pacific ancestries committed to working together toward a common goal: to create an organization that would address the needs of Asian/Pacific American librarians and those who serve Asian/Pacific American communities. For more information about AP91´«Ã½, visit .

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 AASL-recognized School Library 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.