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Spectrum Scholarship

Award Amount
$5,000
Award Amount
Application deadline
March 31, 2025
Application deadline
Awarded By:

American Library Association

Number of Awards & Eligibility: varies
In order to qualify, students must meet the following criteria:
  1. This award is for international and U.S. students.
  2. Must be a minority student in an underrepresented group: American Indian/Alaska Native, Asian, Black/African American, Hispanic/Latino or Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander.
  3. Must be a U.S. or Canadian citizen or permanent resident.
  4. Must major in library and information science or school library media.
  5. Must be enrolled in an accredited program and begin school no later than Sept. 1 or the fall semester immediately following the award. Please note: The student cannot have completed more than a third of his/her credit requirements toward the MLIS or school library media degree at the time of the award (June 1).
  6. Must attend an ALA-accredited school or an ALA-recognized NCATE program. A list of the eligible schools is available at www.ala.org/accreditedprograms/directory/search.
  7. Must enroll part time or full time.

In order to qualify, students must meet the following criteria:

Description: U.S. and Canadian citizens or permanent residents who are pursuing a graduate degree in library and information science at an ALA-accredited school are eligible for this award. Students must be minorities.

Application requirements for the Spectrum Scholarship are:

  • Application form
  • Personal statement
  • Official Transcript
  • References (3)
Additional Information: Established in 1997, the Spectrum Scholarship Program is ALA's national diversity and recruitment effort designed to address the specific issue of under-representation 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. Recipients will be contacted by phone after June 1. All other applicants will be notified by mail after July 1.

Award Amount: $5,000 annually, non-renewable. Awards are paid in two installments directly to the recipient. Recipients also receive a number of non-scholarship benefits; detailed information on these benefits is available at www.ala.org/offices/diversity/spectrum/scholarshipinformation.  The total dollars awarded for this scholarship is $5,000.

About American Library Association:
Contact Information: Lillian Lewis ,Scholarship Staff Liaison c/o Human Resource Development and Recruitment (HRDR)
Address: ALA Scholarship Clearinghouse 50 E. Huron St. Chicago, Illinois 60611

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