How We Do It
About the Mellon Foundation
Mellon Foundation Funds Librarian Recruiting Program Coordinated by Oberlin College
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded a new grant in the amount of $500, 000 to continue and expand a cooperative program designed to recruit undergraduates from diverse backgrounds into the library profession.
The initiative has involved the libraries of Johnson C. Smith University, Oberlin, Occidental, Saint
Augustine’s, Swarthmore and Wellesley colleges, and the Robert W. Woodruff Library of the Atlanta University Center. The project builds on two earlier grants from the Foundation awarded in June 2003 and December 2004 under the project title “Recruiting to the Library Profession.”
The program will continue to promote librarianship as a potential career choice for large numbers of undergraduates. The intensive internship opportunities, graduate library school scholarships, and programming about important issues in librarianship remain essential features of the program.
Leadership development will be an integral part of the program. Studies show that a wave of librarians will soon retire from management and leadership positions within the profession, so there is a very strong need to recruit talented individuals who are interested in pursuing leadership positions in libraries. The grant will continue to focus on recruiting students from the four federally-defined minority groups (African Americans, Asian Americans, Latinos, and Native Americans), since they remain significantly underrepresented within librarianship.
The grant project will again be directed by Ray English, Director of Libraries at Oberlin. The project coordinator will be Tonya Briggs.
Media contact: Marla Thompson, Marla.Thompson@oberlin.edu 440-775-5042
