University of Southern Mississippi Receives IMLS Grant

The University of Southern Mississippi (USM) recently received a grant from the Institute for Museum and Library Studies (IMLS) to recruit ten minority students for its fully accredited, online, master of library science program. Students who are chosen for the grant will receive full tuition waiver, $400.00 per semester for the purchase of books, a laptop computer, and $9,000.00 per year as a stipend. They also will attend special programming and training from the Mississippi Library Commission (MLC), and will attend the American Library Association annual meeting in 2011. The students must take nine hours of classes each semester and work five hours per week at either USM’s Cook Library in Hattiesburg or the MLC in Jackson.

The Minority Scholarship Initiative, funded by the Laura Bush 21st Century Library Program, is designed to train and mentor students who might not otherwise be able to attend a full-time master’s program in library science. Students will emerge from the program ready to take leadership positions in the field and to advocate for minority librarianship. They must agree to work for at least two years in a Mississippi library after earning their degree.

If you, or someone you know, is interested in applying or learning more about the scholarship, please contact USM’s School of Library and Information Science. All students must be admitted to the program and the graduate school, and all materials for admission (including GRE scores) must be received by March 15, 2010, for an admit date of August 2010.

Submitted by
Jenny Bossaller
assistant professor of library and information science
University of Southern Mississippi

Entry Filed under: News
Posted on: November 30th, 2009

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