Two University of Washington Master of Library and Information Science students were selected as Association of Research Libraries Diversity Scholars. iSchool students Joan Hua and Nam Jin Yoon, along with the other 13 in the cohort, will participate in the 2018–2020 Initiative to Recruit a Diverse Workforce.
ARL Diversity Scholars receive a stipend, mentoring, leadership and professional development, and career placement assistance. They will also have the ability to apply for four academic library internships through a partnership with EBSCO Information Services.
Access to mentoring is of particular interest to Yoon, who hopes to become an academic librarian. The Toronto native is entering the Law Librarianship program this fall after coming to the UW from Boston where he has been working as an attorney.
Hua has completed one year of MLIS coursework through UW’s online MLIS program. She lives in Washington, D.C. and works full time at American University Library, where she creates instructional multimedia content and works with faculty on implementing instructional design best practices. Her professional interests include metadata, information architecture, digital scholarship, and critical librarianship.
The ARL Initiative to Recruit a Diverse Workforce (IRDW) was established in 2000 to attract students from historically underrepresented groups to careers in academic and research libraries and archives. Funded largely by ARL member libraries, the IRDW stemmed from research conducted by the American Library Association demonstrating that the professional library workforce isn’t reflective of the communities it serves. Since launching, more than 200 diverse students have been supported through the ARL Diversity Scholars program, the vast majority of whom are currently employed – many in significant roles and leadership positions – within the library and information science profession.
For a full list of 2018-2020 Diversity Scholars and more information, read the ARL press release.