ALCON:
For widest dissemination,
“Reaching Those Who Served Grants”
Aoha,
I’m an adjunct professor at UH-Manoa and full-time professor at the U of Texas at Austin.
I received funding for a new project, “Reaching Those Who Served: Recruiting and Preparing Military Veterans for Careers in Librarianship” through a grant from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services.
Through the grant we will be able to recruit a dozen military veterans into one of three graduate programs that award master’s degrees in information studies. We are able to award scholarships for students to attend the Library and Information Science Program at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa (4 students), the School of Information at the University of Texas at Austin (4 students) or the School of Information at San Jose State University (4 students).
As noted in the attached brochure, students pursuing these degrees are seeking careers in: Archival Studies; Digital Libraries
Human-Computer Interaction & Information Architecture;
Organization and Retrieval of Knowledge and Information;
Preservation and Conservation of Physical and Digital Artifacts;
Development, Management, and Evaluation of Collections and Services;
Cult. Heritage Development; History & Mngmnt of the Cult. Record’
Information Policy, Ethics, and Advocacy; User Behavior;
Health Informatics; Information Work and Workers; Social Informatics;
or many other areas.
Could you please share this information with your students and contacts? The attached brochure provides more details. Our website is at http://www.reachingthosewhoserved.org.
I would be happy to answer any questions you or your contacts might have!
Cheers,
Dr. Loriene Roy
(Anishinabe, enrolled on the White Earth Reservation, a member of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe)
(daughter of a Korean War veteran)
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Professor, School of Information, The University of Texas at Austin
1616 Guadalupe St., Suite #5.202, Austin, TX 78701-1213
Campus Code: D8600
Phone: (512) 471-3959; Fax: (512) 471-8285; E-mail: loriene@ischool.utexas.edu
Project Director: Reaching Those Who Served: Recruiting and Preparing Military Veterans for Careers in Librarianship.
This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services through a 3-year (2017-2020) grant {RE-96-17-0018-17].
Faculty Affiliate:
UT-Austin, Center for Women’s and Gender Studies
UT-Austin, College of Education, Department of Curriculum &
Instruction
Advisory Board Member, Library of Congress Literacy Awards (http://www.read.gov/literacyawards/)
Committee of Advisors Member, Libraries Without Borders (https://www.librarieswithoutborders.org/)
2007-2008 President, American Library Association
1997-1998 President, American Indian Library Association
Here’s a little more background about the grant.
Some answers to some questions:
1. Qualifications for the grant: An applicant should be a military veteran with a bachelor’s degree.
2. Age limit: none! We welcome applications from people at all stages of their career, any age. Students can have other graduate degrees; a number of iSchool students have prior master’s degrees. Sometimes we have students with JDs or PhDs as well.
3. Limit on when they received their undergraduate degree: no limit.
4. Specific undergraduate degree: none. Our iSchool students come to us with a wide range of undergraduate degrees. All are welcome!
5. Veterans and active military: we’re interested in veterans but would certainly consider active military. The main consideration would be whether the student might be able to complete their degree within the funding period.
And, here’s some more background info. Note that we are able to work with applicants about the deadlines. Prospective students do not need to complete a separate application for the scholarship but they should let me know if they are interested. That way I can keep an eye on their application and answer questions. The standard application process includes submitting an online form, paying an application fee, taking the Graduate Record Exam (GRE) and submitting scores, writing a personal essay/statement of purpose, submitting transcripts from prior institutions, and submitting reference letters from 3 referees. All of our iSchool students follow the same process.
General background on the “Reaching Those Who Served Grants”:
We recently learned that we received funding for a new project, “Reaching Those Who Served: Recruiting and Preparing Military Veterans for Careers in Librarianship.” Through the grant we will recruit a dozen military veterans into one of three graduate programs that award master’s degrees in information studies. The project will begin on 1 July 2017 and end on 30 June 2020. We hope to recruit the students to begin their studies in fall 2017 or spring 2018.
1. The grant was one of those featured on this press release from our funding agency, the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) press release:
https://www.imls.gov/news-events/news-releases/imls-awards-97-million-librarian-training-and-excellence-field
2. The IMLS website (imls.gov) also has an abstract of our project in their “Grants Awarded” area:
“The University of Texas at Austin’s School of Information, and its partners, the Library and Information Science Program at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa (UH-Manoa) and the School of Information (iSchool) at San Jose State University (SJSU), will conduct a two-pronged project to help more U.S. veterans to become librarians. The three-year project includes 1) scholarships for 12 veterans to attend LIS masters programs; and 2) research exploring how military veterans choose careers in librarianship and information studies. The research features surveys for veterans who are librarians and admissions staff/faculty at LIS programs and interviews with admitted students. Based on the research findings, the partners will develop guidelines for recruiting veterans; a tool to assess local LIS program efforts aimed at recruiting veterans; and a directory of potential partner organizations that serve veterans. The project will illustrate how veterans successfully navigate the college admission process and which strategies are most effective for recruiting military veterans into LIS graduate programs.”
3. Our announcement of the award on the iSchool website is located here: https://www.ischool.utexas.edu/news/dr-roy-awarded-488k-help-veterans-become-librarians
Do you know of any prospective student who would be interested in studying at any of the three programs? Here at UT-Austin, our program is offered face-to-face. The program at UH-Manoa offers some courses face-to-face and their students can also complete online courses. The program at SJSU is entirely online and students can take their courses anywhere.
Cheers,
Dr. Roy