Information School student Dovi Mae Patino has been selected as the recipient of the 2018 Gordon M. Conable Conference Scholarship. The scholarship, given by the Freedom to Read Foundation (FTRF), will cover Patino’s expenses to attend the American Library Association’s 2018 Annual Conference in New Orleans.

Patino is a first-year, first-generation student in the iSchool’s Master of Library and Information Science program. As a Filipina-American, she aspires to be a public librarian committed to ensuring equitable access to information and resources in underrepresented communities.

During ALA Annual, Patino will attend the FTRF meeting, meetings of other ALA intellectual freedom groups, and intellectual freedom programs.  She will also consult with mentors and present a report about her experiences and thoughts following the conference.

“Dovi was an outstanding applicant. The committee was impressed with her commitment to intellectual freedom and diversity,” said Conable Scholarship Committee chair Katie Chamberlain Kritios. “Her graduate school and work experience demonstrate her commitment to the FRTF’s mission of intellectual freedom and information access and the ALA’s core values of equity, diversity, and inclusion.”

The Conable Scholarship was created to advance the principles of intellectual freedom and mentorship. Gordon Conable was a librarian and intellectual freedom champion in Michigan and California who served several terms as president of the Freedom to Read Foundation.