IASSIST American Library Association Spectrum Scholar

IASSIST supported the American Library Association (ALA) Spectrum Scholarship program in 2022-2023 as part of its commitment to attracting and retaining diverse candidates to the profession. “The Spectrum Scholarship Program actively recruits and provides scholarships to American Indian/Alaska Native, Asian, Black/African American, Hispanic/Latino, Middle Eastern and North African, and/or Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander students to assist them with obtaining a graduate degree and leadership positions within the profession and ALA.”

IASSIST was proud to sponsor Zhaneille Green as the 2022 Spectrum | IASSIST Scholar. Zhaneille Green graduated in May 2023 with a Master of Science in Library and Information Science from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She is now the E-Access Librarian at Duke University.

Zhaneille stated “I attended the Annual ALA Spectrum Conference for the first time this June. Being selected as a 2022 Spectrum |IASSIST Scholar allowed me to attend. I looked forward to attending sessions, meeting new library people, and walking through the expo. I looked forward to attending the Spectrum Leadership Institute the most. It is an integral portion of being an ALA scholar. I met members of my cohort and past Spectrum Scholars who shared their experiences and valued expertise within the profession.”

“I also interacted with librarians from varying specialties through the Spectrum event and the wider conference. The Spectrum Leadership Institute and the Annual ALA Conference were more rewarding than I could have imagined. After leaving the conference, I started a new job and held the shiny marker of ‘an early career librarian’. The conversations I had and the sessions I attended gave me fresh insight into what I hope to achieve in the profession in the future.”