A Memphis librarian and incoming SIS student has been awarded the first-ever spectrum scholarship in Tennessee.
A senior adult services librarian at the Raleigh branch of Memphis/Shelby County Public Library and Information Center is the recipient of the first ALA Spectrum Scholarship to be awarded to a Tennessean. Doris G. Dixon is also one of three local recipients of Memphis’ in-house Urban Libraries Council/Institute of Museum and Libraries Studies scholarship.
The Spectrum Initiative is the American Library Association’s national diversity and recruitment effort designed to address under representation of critically needed African American, American Indian, Asian, and Native Hawaiian librarians within the profession while serving as a model for ways to bring attention to larger diversity issues.
Earning a master’s degree in history from the University of Michigan in 1999 seems to have only stoked Dixon’s academic pursuits. She will begin the University of Tennessee’s School of Information Sciences’ program this fall with an agenda: She wants to develop innovative approaches to library services with a focus on African-American studies.
While working in the History Department of the Memphis library, Dixon was assigned to compose a finding aide to long unexamined microfilm records from the Memphis office of the Freedmen’s Bureau, which was an agency that supervised relief and educational activities to help former slaves transition into free society after the Civil War. She also coordinated an indexing project of the collection that provides greater access to African-American genealogists and other researchers.
Doris’s vision is clear: “I would like to hone my knowledge and information retrieval skills to help people better access the variety of resources related to African-American history and culture.”
Although Doris has a strong focus, her larger goals include helping to make information tools easier to use for both users and reference librarians.
ALA’s Spectrum Initiative’s major drive is to recruit applicants and award scholarships to minority students for graduate programs in library and information science. The ALA Spectrum Scholarship provides $5,000 scholarships to eligible recipients each year.
Visit "ALA's Spectrum Initiative":http://www.ala.org/ala/diversity/spectrum/spectruminitiative.htm for information on applying for this scholarship.
