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By Jeff Harrison
July 24, 2001

A half-million dollar federal grant will enable the University of Arizona Library to train more new librarians from the state's American Indian and Hispanic communities, two groups increasingly mired on the "have-nots" side of the information-dependent "Digital Divide."

The UA School of Information Resources and Library Science (SIRLS) will use a two-year, $492,708 award from the United States Institute of Museum and Library Science (IMLS) to begin implementing its "Knowledge River" project. The goal ultimately is to turn the tide on minority recruitment in library and information science degree programs.

Hispanics and American Indians are the most underrepresented groups in these professions, say Patricia Tarin, director of the Knowledge River Institute, and Brooke Sheldon, director of SIRLS. According to the American Library Association, Hispanics comprise 1.8 percent of academic librarians and 2.9 percent of public librarians. American Indians make up less than 0.6 percent and 0.3 percent, respectively.

The figures for enrollment at library science schools nationally, say Tarin and Sheldon, are even worse and virtually unchanged over the last 20 years.

That does not bode well as Hispanics are the largest minority group in Arizona and projected to become the largest in the country by 2010. American Indians in Arizona are nearly five percent of the state's population and about 10 percent of all Indians in the U.S., and include the two largest Indian nations in the country: the Navajo and Tohono O'odham.

"We are very excited about this opportunity because it provides the resources for us to enrich and develop further our interdisciplinary curriculum, and to initiate research projects that will attract students who want to help solve the information problems of the Digital Divide," Sheldon said.

The UA offers a master's degree through SIRLS. UA and graduates of other library schools work not only at libraries but also find their way into corporations where information management is deemed important. Sheldon said SIRLS has been a pioneer in offering web-based instruction to students in distant locations, as well as on-campus courses.

SIRLS developed the Knowledge River concept in partnership with the UA Library and working with a number of campus units, including American Indian studies, the Mexican American Studies and Research Center, the Arizona State Museum, plus the Tucson-Pima Public Library.

Tarin and Sheldon have defined the goals of Knowledge River as:

• A beacon for scholars, educators and practitioners, and public and private entities to join with American Indian and Hispanic communities in addressing their information needs
• setting a standard for timely interdisciplinary library education for American Indians and Hispanics, authentically representing their cultural and linguistic perspectives
• creating an agenda for research and public discourse that advances the interest of American Indians and Hispanics in the Information Age
• reaching out with opportunities to inform and educate community members and working practitioners on ways to address the issues of American Indians and Hispanics with library and information solutions

The SIRLS grant is one part of the Institute of Museum and Library Services' program of awarding $2 million to universities and colleges to recruit and educate students in library and information science through training awards, especially in digital technologies.

"The technology revolution has created an information bedlam, and consequently, a dire need for professionally trained information specialists," said Beverly Sheppard, acting director of the IMLS. "The librarians we recruit, educate and train with these grants will harness the present chaos of the Information Age and transform it into an unprecedented Age of Knowledge," she said.