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University's Librarian-in-Residence Program
expanding via Mellon grant

A grant of $220,000 from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation will allow Yale to expand its Librarian-in-Residence Program, which brings talented minority librarians to New Haven for a two-year term. The new four-year grant will allow the library to add a second resident to the program, which started in 1995. The two residents will work at Yale concurrently.

"Yale has yet another reason to be enormously grateful for the generous support of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation," said President Richard C. Levin, in announcing the grant. "Through this grant, the trustees of the Mellon Foundation support Yale's commitment to affirmative action and help us achieve our goal of maintaining a diversified work force. We are proud to be part of a program aimed at diversifying this country's next generation of academic librarians and thereby enabling an environment capable of sustaining intellectual discovery."

University Librarian Scott Bennett noted that he was "delighted" at the Mellon Foundation support for "this worthwhile initiative." He added: "Data published in 1997 by the Association of Research Libraries indicates 11.28 percent minority representation in the professional ranks of its member libraries. While Yale's program alone will not profoundly affect this statistic, it is an important signal to the national research library community and to individual minority librarians that staff diversity is critical and must be pursued vigorously."

Librarians-in-residence serve a two-year postgraduate appointment in the campus library system, explains Diane Y. Turner, director of Library Human Resources. Whenever possible, specific assignments reflect the resident's interests and aspirations as well as the library's need to support program innovation. Residents also receive travel support and participate in administrative assignments, library committees, specialized training and professional activities. "The message is clear in the library community," said Turner. "Yale is committed to increasing minority representation in the profession and to offering minority librarians the opportunity to develop their skills in one of the finest academic libraries in the nation."

For the past nine months Yale's second librarian-in-residence has been Ethelene Whitmire, who is a doctoral candidate in higher education at the University of Michigan. As her first assignment, Whitmire is working with the associate university librarian responsible for reader services to assess, evaluate and identify areas for improvement in the various reference and instructional services offered in the Sterling Memorial and Cross Campus Libraries. Since October, she has also been working in the Kline Science Library as a reference librarian.

Yale's first librarian-in-residence, Raquel V. Cogell, has gone on to a reference librarian position at the Emory University Library. "Her experience is a wonderful example of what the Librarian-in-Residence program is all about," said Bennett. "An intelligent and talented minority librarian was drawn to the program. She experienced new challenges within her chosen profession, learned from her colleagues here and offered librarians already at Yale a fresh perspective and keen insight. At the end of her residency, Raquel went on to an important position at another research library, but one in an area of librarianship very different from what she had imagined for herself before her time at Yale. With the generous support of the Mellon Foundation, we will have twice as many opportunities to create similar experiences for other minority librarians, ultimately having a positive, long-term effect on minority representation in librarianship."

Recruitment for the resident position funded through the Mellon grant will begin shortly.


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