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Ray Walling, a student at the University of Michigan School of Information, is the 2008 recipient of the W. David Rozkuszka Scholarship. He also works in the Government Documents Center at the University of Michigan. His interest in political science and public policy led him to a summer internship with the Government Documents Center and Numeric and Spatial Data Services, and the rest is history. As a result of his experiences in the School of Information and specifically with government information, he has changed his career goal of an advanced degree in history or classics to focus on a future in academic libraries. As well as his interest in teaching about government information, he has already started on his research agenda, and values the professional development opportunities that come with involvement in professional organizations.

During his time at the Government Documents Center, Ray developed an index of cities and their coverage in Census Bureau block statistics over the years: a unique guide to accessing statistics for the smallest geographic areas. He also created the Decennial Census Question Database, which searches questions by decade or by subject tag. These pages are linked from the Documents Center website. Ray has also done an offline inventory of all Decennial Census materials held in the University of Michigan Library in all formats, including preservation and purchasing recommendations, and has taught School of Information students and reference librarians about four online Census resources.

Rays’ colleagues also emphasize his enthusiasm about government information, the quality of his academic work, the quality of his answers to difficult reference questions, and his skill in training non-specialists to use government information. He has obviously been a valued asset at the Government Information Center and will be an important addition to the community of government information specialists.