Awarded since December 2011, the SALALM Scholarship was established to encourage professional and leadership development in Latin American, Caribbean, and Iberian studies academic librarianship.

Established to encourage professional and leadership development in Latin American, Caribbean and Iberian Studies librarianship, the one-time $750 cash award recognizes the academic work of promising master’s candidates enrolled in an ALA accredited (or equivalent) library, information or archival studies program. Recipients are invited to attend the 67th SALALM annual conference. This year’s conference will be held online from May 2-6, 2022, and is hosted by Biblioteca Luis Ángel Arango (Banco de la República), Biblioteca Nacional de Colombia, and Instituto Caro y Cuervo. Deadline for all application materials: March 31, 2022.

Since its founding in 1956, the Seminar on the Acquisition of Latin American Library Materials, SALALM, has provided the only national and international forum focused on Latin American studies research librarianship, library collections, and services. The SALALM Conference Attendance Scholarship will   include a one-year membership in the organization.

Who Should Apply:
Applicants able to demonstrate a strong interest in Latin America, the Caribbean, or their diaspora, or Iberia, and who have career aspirations involving service to academic users seeking information about or researching topics involving the Latin American, Caribbean, or Iberian regions are encouraged to apply.

Interest may be demonstrated through previous work, internships, undergraduate or graduate-level study, involvement through volunteer programs with governmental, non-governmental, or private sector organizations, and research and publication on topics relevant to the area. Competency in one of the area’s major languages is highly important.

Eligibility:
Applicants must be master’s degree candidates in ALA-accredited programs in library science, information science, or archival studies (with equivalent accreditation where applicable) in the United States or Canada. Applicants must have successfully completed at least one quarter or semester of study, and recipients must be enrolled students at the time the award is made. Anyone having received this scholarship in previous years or a travel grant from SALALM is not eligible to apply.

Selection Criteria:

• Knowledge of Latin America, the Caribbean, and/or Iberia
• Commitment to a career in academic libraries and information science or a related field
• Record of academic achievement
• Competency in one or more of the area’s languages

Application Materials:

• Completed application form
• Personal statement (maximum of 500-800 words)
• Current résumé (not to exceed 2 pages)
• Unofficial transcripts for all college and university study
• Letter of reference

Timeline:

Deadline	Award announcement
March 31, 2022	Week of April 11, 2022

Conflict of Interest:

The committee will make every effort to avoid any conflicts of interest. Committee members will recuse themselves from the evaluation of any applicant known to them personally.

Guidelines:

Personal statement (500-800 words maximum): In the personal statement please tell the committee about your documented commitment and interest in the Latin American, Caribbean, and/or Iberian region. Describe why you would like to attend the conference and how it would fit in with your career goals. Commitment in related areas, such as human rights, transnationalism, migration, ecology or natural resources, indigenous peoples, politics, etc., is also of interest to the committee. Describe your academic, work, or volunteer experiences and expertise in the region. Documented commitment may take the form of work, research on, or volunteering in the region, or with Latino/a populations; this could be in NGOs, libraries, government service, legal aid, sports, education, after-school programs, etc. PDF files only. Please use the following file naming convention: LASTNAME.firstname_ps

Letter of reference: One letter of reference is required as part of your application. The letter should be from someone able to speak to your abilities, achievements, and perhaps personal qualities. Your reference may be provided by a professor, employer or supervisor, professional colleague, or similar individual involved with Latin America or the Caribbean, or with U.S. Latino/a populations or Iberian studies. Please ask your reference to upload his or her letter at: https://form.jotform.com/210244987020147

Note: an application is considered complete only when a letter of reference is received by the committee on or before the deadline. PDF files only. Please use the following file naming convention: LASTNAME.firstname_rec

Unofficial transcripts: Please upload an unofficial transcript of your academic record in the library, information, or archival studies program in which you are currently enrolled, as well as for each institution from which you have received an academic degree. PDF files only. Please use the following file naming convention: LASTNAME.firstname_transcripts

Document checklist: Before submitting your application, please make sure to gather the following documents:

• Personal statement (500-800 words maximum, PDFs only; please use the following naming convention for the file: LASTNAME.firstname_ps)
• Current résumé (2 page maximum, PDFs only; please use the following naming convention for the file: LASTNAME.firstname_resume)
• Unofficial transcripts for each academic degree and transcript of current graduate study (PDFs only; please use the following naming convention for the file: LASTNAME.firstname_transcripts)

Deadline for all application materials: March 31, 2022.

Application materials should be submitted here: https://form.jotform.com/220036613845148 

NOTE: YOU WILL NOT RECEIVE AN EMAIL CONFIRMATION. YOUR CONFIRMATION WILL BE DISPLAYED ON THE PAGE WHEN YOU HAVE SUBMITTED THE REQUIRED MATERIALS. For any questions please contact Amanda Moreno (a.moreno8@umiami.edu) and Ryan Lynch (d.lynch@austin.utexas.edu).

SALALM Scholars