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Five Students Named Spectrum Scholars

November 7, 2008

Five GSLIS students, Harriett Green, Deana L. Greenfield, Hannah Kyung Lee, Laksamee Putnam, and Roy Saldaña, Jr., have been named 2008-2009 Spectrum Scholars by the American Library Association.

Established in 1997, the scholarship program was created to promote diversity among graduate-level library school students. Each Scholar receives $5000 from the ALA as well as over $1500 toward professional development opportunities. In addition, GSLIS gives each Spectrum Scholar a tuition waiver. Illinois recipients of the Spectrum Scholarship are also awarded a grant from The Sylvia Murphy Williams Fund, part of the Illinois Library Association.

Harriett Green is a first-year student in the master's program and is the William R. Gordon Scholar. She calls the Spectrum Scholarship an "invaluable source of support" to her. Green is pursuing academic librarianship, and her interests include "reference and instruction, acquisitions, or being a subject specialist in the humanities. I chose to attend GSLIS because it is the top school for library and information science, and moreover, it offered many opportunities to pursue my varied interests in books and librarianship, information technology, and the promotion of information literacy in underserved communities," she said. Green currently works as a graduate assistant in the central reference department of the UI Main Library.

Deana L. Greenfield is a master's student. She is pursuing her degree at GSLIS "because I respect how the program strives to remain at the forefront of new innovations in the theory and application of library and information science. With my background in English Literature and the materiality of language, I wish to focus my studies on questions of language in information classification and retrieval. What are effective ways to classify the literature of diverse populations and diasporic communities without compromising identity? If identity is accepted on a fluid plane how does that affect the field of information science? These are some of the overarching questions that I wish to explore in tandem to learning practical methods of information classification in the digital age."

Master's student Hannah Kyung Lee has "always been interested in information services—in access to information, literacy and policy issues, social justice, and the intersection between identity, culture, language, and power. After receiving my degree, I would like to work in a diverse library setting (I am still making my way through which field of librarianship I would like to focus on)—and I feel quite grateful for receiving the Spectrum Scholarship, which will aid me in pursuing this endeavor."

Laksamee Anne Putnam is a master's student who came to GSLIS to pursue the bioinformatics program. She said, "My undergraduate degree was in environmental, population and organismal biology from the University of Colorado. With my biology background I want to enter into a career that involves bringing science information under a more unified digital front so more people can access and utilize the research going on all over the world. I feel honored to be chosen as a Spectrum scholar, especially after hearing from the rest of my cohorts and realizing this diverse group of people has accomplished so much."

Roy Saldaña, Jr. is a master's student who is working with the Community Informatics Initiative to recruit students to the program. He said he "hopes to work in a public library setting, human service agency, or advocacy center creating services and building resources for populations in need."

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