Teaching Naked

Intriguing thoughts on how digital learning environments should be reshaping the way instruction is delivered in traditional classrooms.

ARL Career Enhancement Program Call for Applications

The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) is now accepting applications for the ARL Career Enhancement Program (formerly announced as the ARL Minority Fellowship Program). LIS graduate students from underrepresented groups, who have successfully completed a minimum of 12 credits hours (or will complete 12 hours by the scheduled internship) from an ALA accredited MLIS program, are encouraged to apply for this enriching program experience.

Deadline September 30

Follow this link for more information:
https://app.e2ma.net/app/view:CampaignPublic/id:11423.2276616929/rid:294e25e7967783b9a237b3f0e17780f2

University of Tennessee Diversity Resident Program

The University of Tennessee Libraries’ Diversity Librarian Resident Program is seeking candidates for a two-year residency that begins fall 2009. UT Libraries will select two librarians for a new cohort group in this successful career growth program active since 2003. The purpose of the program is to attract recent library school graduates from underrepresented groups to a challenging and rewarding career in academic librarianship.


For more information: http://www.lib.utk.edu/employ/faculty/diversitylibrarian.html

2009 Diversity Research grants

ALA’s Office for Diversity has announced the recipients of the Diversity Research Grants for 2009. The grants consist of a one-time $2,000 annual award for original research and a $500 travel grant to attend and present at the ALA Annual Conference. The grants will go to Clayton Copeland (University of South Carolina), Diana Tedone (UCLA), and Stephanie Maatta Smith (University of South Florida).

Read more about it here.

Initiative to Recruit a Diverse Workforce

The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) Diversity Programs are accepting applications for the Initiative to Recruit a Diverse Workforce, a program designed to recruit LIS graduate students from traditionally underrepresented ethnic and racial backgrounds into careers in research libraries. The Initiative includes a stipend up to $10,000, leadership and career development training, and a formal mentorship program.

Promoting Diversity in the Digital Curation Disciplines

A recent IMLS grant of interest:

University of Arizona - Tucson, AZ
Award Amount: 910846; Matching Amount: 201889
Category: Continuing Education

Contact: Dr. Peter Botticelli
Professor of Practice
520-621-3565; pkb@email.arizona.edu

Project Title: "Promoting Diversity in the Digital Curation Disciplines"
Since 2007, the University of Arizona’s School of Information Resources and Library Science (SIRLS) has offered the online “DigIn” graduate certificate program to train library professionals to create, collect, and manage digital information. Though the DigIn program has recruited diverse participants in its first two years, recruiting data show that many applicants from small, rural, or specialized organizations, as well as members of culturally or ethnically underserved groups, are disproportionately unable to self-fund their own professional development. With IMLS funding and in partnership with the Georgia Institute of Technology, the Sedona Conference, and the Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records, SIRLS will recruit and provide scholarships to 80–90 new students to earn the DigIn certificate. Recruitment efforts will target geographically, culturally, and ethnically diverse students, with the goal of diversifying the workforce of digital information management experts.

Archives shedding light on slavery

I just finished Adam Hochschild's excellent book Bury the Chains yesterday. It is the story of how abolitionists built the movement that ended the slave trade in Great Britain and eventually brought slavery to an end within the empire. In many ways it is a great print culture story about how the systematic collection and distribution of information was able to convince the British people to pressure their government to end the abuses of slavery. This was at a time when common people where every poorly represented as well, yet hundreds of thousands contributed their signatures to some of the largest petition drives the empire ever saw.

What made this book all the more interesting was a story I came across in the Financial Times yesterday while waiting in the Frankfurt Airport. "Rothschild and Freshfields Founders Linked to Slavery," was about how archival documents have begun to uncover how pervasive slavery was within the British economy. Nathan Mayer Rothschild was, until now, perceived as a total opponent of slavery who was an important figure in making the abolition of slavery happen by assisting the British government in buying out slaveholders. It turns out that one of the people who received bailout money was Rothschild himself. He received title to slaves that were used as collateral in one of his bank dealings.