In co-sponsorship with American Library Association (ALA),EBSCO Information Services (EBSCO) has awarded five librarians a $1,500 scholarship to attend the 2014 ALA Midwinter Meeting, Jan. 24-28 in Philadelphia. As part of the application process, librarians were asked to write an essay of the topic of “What will your library be like in five years?”
The EBSCO ALA Midwinter Scholarship is an annual award consisting of $1,500 for actual reimbursed expenses designed to allow librarians to attend the ALA Midwinter Meeting. The scholarship recipients will be honored by EBSCO and ALA representatives during the conference at a breakfast on Sunday, Jan. 26.
The scholarship winners are:
- Jennifer Grubb, Library Media Specialist, Vine Middle Magnet School, Knoxville, Tenn.
- Ben Himmelfarb, Library Clerk, Albany Public Library, Albany, N.Y.
- Carlyn Hudson, Circulation Supervisor, Somerset County Library System, Iselin, N.J.
- Pauline Nicholas, Head of Section, Loans and Reference, University of the West Indies, Kingston, Jamaica
- Annie Pho, Academic Resident Librarian, University of Illinois at Chicago.
All of the librarians predicted that their libraries would be transformed and make significant strides over the next five years. Jennifer Grubb, a first-year librarian at Vine Middle Magnet School in Knoxville, Tenn. wrote, “Our library will be a space that encourages and supports recreational reading as well as research and project based learning through our STEAM magnet program.” The work is already showing results. Last year, half of the seventh-grade students at the school never checked out a book, and in the first month of the 2013-2014 school year, every one of them has checked out a book.
Applications were judged by an ALA-designated jury: jury chairman Julius C. Jefferson Jr.; Anders Dahlgren, Elizabeth Nelson; Dorothy Persson; and Annie Zeidman-Karpinski with Susan DiMattia serving as the ALA Award chair.
EBSCO is dedicated to supporting the professional development of librarians around the world and has a long tradition of co-sponsoring scholarships to ALA conferences, providing funds for conference registration, travel, and expenses.
