Contact: Valerie Edmonds
Program Coordinator
312-280-4269

For Immediate Release
May 11, 2006

LITA announces scholarship winners for 2006

CHICAGO - The Library and Information Technology Association (LITA), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), sponsors scholarships jointly with three other organizations: Informata.com, LSSI and OCLC, Inc. The scholarships are for master's level study, with an emphasis on library technology and/or automation, at a library school accredited by ALA.

This year's winner of the LITA/Christian Larew Memorial scholarship ($3,000) sponsored by Informata.com, is Eric Whitfield, who is attending Dominican University. The LITA/LSSI Minority Scholarship ($2,500) winner is Van Bich Thi Tran , who is enrolled at Queens College Graduate School of Library and Information Studies.

Marcos Rodriguez is the winner of the LITA/OCLC Minority Scholarship ($3,000). Rodriguez will pursue his studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill .

Criteria for the scholarships include previous academic excellence, evidence of leadership potential, and a commitment to a career in library automation and information technology. Two of the scholarships, the LITA/LSSI Minority Scholarship and LITA/OCLC Minority Scholarship, also require U.S citizenship and membership in one of four minority groups: American Indian or Alaskan Native, Asian or Pacific Islander, African-American, or Hispanic.

The scholarship winners will be honored at the LITA Awards Reception on Sunday, June 25, 2006 at the Sheraton New Orleans, Grand Ballroom A/B, beginning at 3 p.m.

LITA, with over 4,000 members, has been serving the needs of the library and information technology community since 1966. Its mission is to educate, serve, and reach out to that community through its programs, publications and other activities.