Announcing the NNLM PSR BIPOC LIS Student Professional Development Award! [Deadline Extended]

Posted by Nora Franco on September 29th, 2020 Posted in: Funding, General, Outreach
Tags: BIPOC, LIS Students, professional development

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As part of the NNLM Student Engagement Initiative, the Network of the National Library of Medicine Pacific Southwest Region (NNLM PSR) librarians are excited to announce the first professional development award dedicated to Library and Information Science (LIS) students who identify as Black, Indigenous, and/or People of Color (BIPOC). The NNLM, made up of eight different regions across the U.S., aims to serve these populations with equal access to health information and promoting a workforce representative of them is one way to reach this goal.

This program aims to help students meet the following objectives:

• introduce the student to medical librarianship and explore areas of interest,
• prepare them to work in a health sciences library, and
• provide them with tools to navigate the complexities and issues of working as BIPOC in a primarily white institution.

The award will pair the student in an ALA-accredited program with a BIPOC librarian working in a health sciences position or providing health information. The award provides up to $2,000 for students to participate in meetings, conference sessions, conduct a research project, and other activities designed for them to learn the importance of health information outreach and services conducted by health sciences librarians. The goal of the award is to promote awareness of health sciences librarianship to LIS students who may not be familiar with the field or conducting research within it. Students will participate in the program from Fall 2020 until no later than April 30, 2021.

The PSR are also seeking BIPOC librarians to participate in the program as well. We invite people from a variety of backgrounds and different types of health science libraries to share their stories as a BIPOC, challenges, and what they love most about being medical librarians. All librarian participants will be compensated up to $300; please reach out to us at psr-nnlm@library.ucla.edu if you would like to join and/or have suggestions.

The PSR librarians created an ongoing list of references and resources, which include:

• Where are All the Librarians of Color? The Experiences of People of Color in Academia, edited by Rebecca Hankins and Miguel Juarez. Sacramento, Library Juice Press, 2015.
• Diversity and Inclusion in Libraries: A Call to Action and Strategies for Success, edited by Shannon D. Jones and Beverly Murphy. Lanham, Rowman & Littlefield, 2019.
• Microaggressions in Librarianship blog

For more information and the application form, please refer to the Funding Opportunities listing for BIPOC LIS Students Professional Development Award. Completed applications are due on Friday, October 16th at 11:59p PDT. The application deadline has been extended to Friday, October 30th at 11:59p PDT.

Interested LIS students, please email your complete application or send any questions to psr-nnlm@library.ucla.edu.