Introducing myself and LAMP

Hello, and thanks for checking out my blog on my involvement with LAMP. For those of you unfamiliar with LAMP (Library and Information Science Access Midwest Program), it is a program promoting and supporting diversity in the field of library and information studies (LIS). LAMP provides financial support to students from diverse backgrounds to enable them to attend a master's degree program in LIS from participating Midwestern universities. LAMP also connects students with mentors working in the field and provides networking support. I suggest checking out the website to learn more (http://www.lisaccess.org/).

I, myself, just started my involvement with LAMP last month. I am not a LAMP scholar, but rather a Project Assistant working to help administer and promote LAMP's objectives at UW-Madison. I am currently a second year student at UW-Madison in the School of Library and Information Studies. I hope one day to work in an academic library when a graduate and help to facilitate cross-cultural communication. Working with LAMP will be a good step in this direction.

My hope for this blog is for it to serve a few roles. First, I would like for it to be a way to help others understand the LAMP program better and how it works. In many ways I am still learning about my position as I go, so you can learn with me. I also hope that this blog can be used by people who might be interested in applying for a LAMP scholarship to learn more about the program and the scholars taking part in it. Along these lines, this blog will probably even be useful to people interested in generally knowing more about the library program at UW-Madison. But also one of the objectives of this blog will be to promote awareness of the existing diversity in libraries and the related issues to think about. I will be working to put together events that highlight topics relating to diversity, and hopefully they will get people talking about the issues (your ideas and suggestions on this count are more than welcome). And lastly, this blog will serve to help me to clarify my ideas about how to go about addressing the needs LAMP is focused on. Sometimes writing about something is a good way to see the progress you have made and where you might want to go.

Issues that I have been looking into lately for LAMP include:

• Funding: LAMP is at the end of a grant cycle and will be applying for a renewal. While I am not directly involved in this process, it will be interesting to see how it plays out, especially in a time of tightening budgets. I have also started to look for some other ways we can augment the funds we already have. One of the best goals I could achieve during my time with LAMP would be to expand the financial resources the Madison library program can direct at increasing diversity.
  
• Promotion: I am looking for local media that might be interested in highlighting the program or diversity issues in libraries.
• Events: This includes events for existing LAMP scholars, events to promote a dialog on diversity and libraries, and events to help promote the program to prospective LAMP applicants. There is a summer institute some months down the road, but there will likely be some other smaller events along the way, including one with the ISIP program for undergraduates, also at UW-Madison.

As these things form you should be able to read about them here. Often there are a number of false starts with projects, so you may find me starting out with something and then changing things as I evaluate their effectiveness. I definitely encourage readers of this blog to post their comments and suggestions. Hearing from you will help me to decide how to go forward. So please don't be shy (I'm fine with criticism, but feel free to be nice ;), like I said I'm learning here. Maybe, if I get my act together, I will even be able to talk others into contributing posts as well.