A Gay and Melancholy Sound by Merle Miller, published April 3, as the first of Nancy Pearl's Book Lust Rediscoveries Series, is already generating scholarship funds for iSchool master of library and information science (MLIS) students.

The Book Lust Rediscoveries Series is a project between Pearl and Amazon.com to publish at least a dozen previously out-of-print books. Pearl has chosen and written an introduction for each book, all originally published between 1960 and 2000. Each reprint will also include discussion questions and a list of recommendations for further reading. All will be available in paperback, audiobook and Kindle format.

Nancy and her husband Joseph Pearl established an endowment in 2011 "to honor the traditional function of librarians as guides for people of all ages to the joys found in the world of books and reading." Pearl is on the MLIS advisory board and also lectures for the iSchool.

Pearl is contributing a portion of the royalties from the Book Lust Rediscoveries Series to the endowment, which will award scholarships to incoming MLIS students who wish to pursue a career in public librarianship.