SOLIS Professional Conference Scholarships

By: Jessica Davis

The University of South Florida Student Organizations of Library and Information Science (SOLIS) is accepting applications for the First Annual Professional Conference Scholarships!

Applications will be accepted from March 7th, 2011 – March 21st, 2011 for the following professional conference organizations:

• American Library Association (ALA, http://www.ala.org/)

• Special Library Association (SLA, www.sla.org)

• Florida Library Association (FLA, http://www.flalib.org/)

Students are limited to one national and one state Professional Conference Scholarship award over the course of their USF School of information graduate program studies.

Awards: One scholarship will be available per year for each annual conference. The scholarship award amounts are based on the annual conference:

• ALA and SLA: $1500

• FLA: $200

Funding for the USF SOLIS Professional Conference Scholarships is generously provided by the USF School of Information.

Requirements: Scholarship applicants are required to:

·   be members of SOLIS.

·   include proof of membership in the professional organization for the conference they are attending.

·   be a student at the time of the conference. This is determined based on the date of the student’s graduation ceremony.

·   Winning applicants must write a blog article and lead a brown bag or after-dark lecture discussing their conference experience.

Application Process:

Applications will be collected via SurveyMonkey. Please visit http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/GDJV8D8 to apply.

The survey will function as the official application for all three conference scholarships. Applicants may return to previous questions and modify responses until the survey is submitted or exited. For each scholarship, the applicant who meets all scholarship requirements and has accumulated the most points for participation and service activities will receive the scholarship award. Please note that scholarship points are retroactive, beginning August 2010. Any activities before August 2010 will NOT be considered for this award. The applications will be reviewed on March 23rd, 2011. Students may be asked to verify information submitted in their applications. The results will be posted on the SOLIS Blackboard announcements, website, and blog. Award winners will also be contacted via e-mail by the scholarship committee.

For questions regarding SOLIS membership, contact us at slisstudentorgs@usf.edu. Questions regarding the Professional Conference Scholarships should be directed to the Scholarship Committee Chair at jrdavis2@mail.usf.edu. Thank you!

 

Filed under: ALA, Conferences, FLA, Professional Organizations, Scholarships

Scholarship Committee Report – Fall 2010

The Scholarship Committee is pleased to have received such a positive response to the call for scholarship applications for the fall 2010 USF SI Student Organizations Scholarships for Professional Association Membership. With these scholarships, the student organizations hope to encourage learning, networking, and professional development. We hope to offer these scholarships on an annual or bi-annual basis. If you did not receive a scholarship, please watch for future scholarship application periods. The frequency of the scholarship offerings will depend on the student organizations annual budget. If you have a fund raising idea or would like to volunteer your time at, or raise donations for, our bi-annual book sale, please find the fund raising discussion thread on Blackboard and watch for e-mail updates from the book sale committee. You may also contact the Book Sale Committee Chair Kate Gage at kgage@mail.usf.edu .

There are two issues which became apparent after the close of the application period that the scholarship committee is committed to correcting for future scholarship offerings:

1) The application period was too short. Quite a few students sent requests for information about the scholarships after the application deadline. Future application periods will be larger to allow for questions and busy schedules.

2) Students were not fully aware of the scholarship requirements. To be considered for the award, the applicant was required to be a member of the student organizations, in addition to being a USF student pursing an MLIS. Unfortunately, the scholarship committee was forced to disqualify otherwise stellar candidates. In the future, information about the scholarship requirements will be more prominently displayed in all communications relating to the scholarship. If you are not a member of the student organizations, please send an e-mail to slisstudentorgs@usf.edu to request information.

A Brown Bag meeting is being planned for the spring 2011 semester about library science scholarship opportunities. If you are unable to attend a Brown Bag in person or via Illuminate at the time of the meeting, you can access recorded Brown Bags for free at: http://itunes.apple.com/itunes-u/usf-school-library-information/id384534238. Please check the student organizations website and Facebook page for information about this and other opportunities and activities.

Fall 2010 Award Winners:

ALA East Coast Scholarship: Rebecca Guillen

SLA East Coast Scholarship: Ursula Ziegler

ALA West Coast Scholarship: Susan Marhevko

ASIS&T West Coast Scholarship: Sara Nelson

FAME West Coast Scholarship: Alicia Long

FLA West Coast Scholarship: Katherine Gage

SLA West Coast Scholarship: Denise “Vickie” Toranzo Zacker

Congratulations! Award winners will be contacted with details within the next week. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact the Scholarship Committee Chair Jessica Davis at jrdavis2@mail.usf.edu.

Filed under: Professional Organizations, Scholarships