UCLA Library hopes to give fellowships

By Marcelle Richards
Daily Bruin Staff

For the first time at UCLA, the library system may make
fellowships available to graduate students if it succeeds in
raising $500,000.

The fellowship program is purely in its planning stages,
according to Dawn Setzer, library media liaison.

But details as to who may apply, and on what terms, will be
determined within the coming month by a committee composed of
special collections library heads and the assistant university
librarian, she said.

Upon its completion, the fellowships will help visiting graduate
students who otherwise would not have access to UCLA’s
special collections.

The fellowships will be given out in amounts of up to $2,000 for
up to three months, said Laila Rashid, library development
director.

“We have people call all the time, every week, and ask if
there are fellowships that could help them financially,”
Rashid said. “It was started by the need. We knew we had a
niche we weren’t serving so this is one way to improve
access.”

Rashid has been working with faculty and community members to
raise funds for the fellowship. The most recent success was a
contribution in lieu of the special collections’ 50th
anniversary, celebrated on March 29.

“Building our collections, especially in areas in which we
are particularly strong, is essential ““ as is providing
access to those materials,” said University Librarian Gloria
Werner at the event. “Through technology and outreach, we can
deliver these invaluable primary resources to a worldwide scholarly
community.”

Thanks to long-time friend of the library, Sylvia Thayer, the
$500,000 goal has been met halfway with her recent donation of
$100,000, which Thayer added to a previous balance she and her late
husband, James gave. The funds have been dubbed the James and
Sylvia Thayer special collections research fellowship.

The Thayer Fellowship will be divided to serve graduate students
specializing in any field encompassed by any of the UCLA
library’s special collections.

Anonymous donations have been a slim, but needed sector of the
donation pool, according to Rashid.

“We have a lot of anonymous benefactors because they
believe in it,” Rashid said. “They are doing it from
their heart and just don’t want the recognition.”

Because UCLA has one of the top five university libraries in the
country, Rashid said the fellowships will attract even more
scholars to campus.

“First you need the kind of collections that people come
all over the world to see ““ which we have,” she said.
“But to compare us to older libraries like Harvard is like
apples and oranges.”

These older libraries, she said, have had the time to acquire a
solid donor base and generations of contributions to make
fellowships possible.

A local example is the William Andrews Clark Library, which is
the only library affiliated with UCLA that has fellowships in
place.

The library’s offerings include 17th and 18th century
literatures, and the largest Oscar Wilde collection in the world.
It is supported by funds from its namesake.