Each year, the association awards four scholarships to graduate students –two $2,000 scholarships for full-time students and two $1,000 scholarships for part-time students.
This year, Alison Messier of Wakefield, a full-time library and information studies student at URI, will receive a $2,000 scholarship. The Northampton, Mass. native, currently completing a professional field experience at the Naval War College in Newport, will be a graduate assistant in the library program for the upcoming 2008-2009 academic year. After graduation next May, she plans to pursue a career in academic libraries, possibly technical services or reference, preferably in the Boston area.
Marilyn Hines, a part-time library and information studies student at URI, won a $1,000 scholarship. She is currently employed at the Coventry Public Library as a paraprofessional, providing reference services and working at circulation. She expects to graduate next May and become certified as a school library media specialist. She is interested in 1) developing programs and curricula to help bridge gender-related technology gaps that too often begin in middle school and 2) building collections that allow every child to find him/herself on the library shelf. She lives in Greene, R.I. with her spouse and three children.
URI’s Graduate School of Library and Information Studies masters program is fully accredited by the American Library Association. Its school library media specialist certification is also accredited by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education. The school graduated its first class of about 20 students in 1965. When it celebrated the 40th anniversary of this milestone in the spring of 2005, the school had graduated almost 3,000 students who have become leading librarians and information specialists throughout the nation.
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Alison Messier , Marilyn Hines