$21 Million to Recruit New Librarians
and Help Offset Shortage
 |
Rick Forsman |
The federal Institute of Museum and Library Services announced $21,087,684
in grants to 37 universities, libraries, and library organizations across
the country in order to recruit and educate a new generation of librarians.
The grants are designed to help offset a current shortage of school library
media specialists, library school faculty, and librarians working in underserved
communities, as well a looming shortage of library directors and other senior
librarians who are expected to retire in the next 20 years.
The University of Colorado Denver’s Denison
Memorial Library is part of a project called “Librarians for the 21st
Century,” which received $639,764 in funding.
This outreach effort,
spearheaded by Johns Hopkins University's William H. Welch Medical Library,
will collaborate with the medical libraries of Georgetown University, Howard
University, University of Colorado, University of Tennessee Memphis, Houston
Academy of Medicine, Washington University, and Yale University.
“The federal government has provided new funding to ensure an adequate
supply of health information professionals and to enhance diversity in the field,” said
Rick Forsman, director of Denison Memorial Library. “We are excited
to contribute to a national focus on the future of information and knowledge
management.”
The grant will be used to bring together medical librarians, informaticians,
and diversity counselors in order to increase the number of underrepresented
minorities entering the health information professions. The program will
implement and promote intervention strategies tailored to high school students
entered in health careers programs.
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