To honor the memory and extend the legacy of longtime staff member Julia Blixrud, the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) established in 2015 the Julia C. Blixrud Scholarship, which supports the attendance of one master of library and information science (MLIS) student or recent graduate at the Fall Forum, held in Washington, DC, each year. This scholarship is supported by generous donations to the Julia C. Blixrud Memorial Fund.
The 2017 recipient of the Julia C. Blixrud Scholarship is Giao Luong Baker, strategic digital initiatives librarian at the University of Southern California (USC). She facilitates partnerships with researchers, libraries, and archives to develop digital collections for the USC Libraries, which dovetails with this year’s ARL and CNI Fall Forum theme of “Libraries and the Research Enterprise.” Prior to her current position, Baker worked for over a decade as a staff member managing digitization projects for inclusion in the USC Digital Library, an online resource dedicated to furthering research, teaching, and learning.
Baker is completing her final coursework in the University of North Texas master of science in library science program. She serves on the board of the Los Angeles City Historical Society, and was a 2016–2017 American Library Association (ALA) Spectrum scholar and the recipient of the 2016 LITA/OCLC Minority Scholarship in Library and Information Technology. Her professional and research interests include developing infrastructure to cultivate cross-departmental collaborations, exploring first-generation college student experiences, and increasing diversity in digital collections.
In her scholarship application essay, Baker said, “My hope for attending the upcoming ARL conference is to engage in these conversations about the library’s role in the research enterprise among ARL members, to learn about their experiences in activating staff agency. I am particularly curious about mentorships, professional development, and leadership programs.”
“Giao’s digital library expertise, her commitment to the libraries as strategic partners in research and teaching, and her record of advocacy for libraries and librarians make her an asset to USC and the broader community of researchers, scholars, and students,” said Catherine Quinlan, dean and holder of the Valerie and Ronald Sugar dean’s chair of the USC Libraries.
More Information
To learn more about the scholarship and how you can contribute to the memorial fund, visit the Julia C. Blixrud Memorial Fund, Lecture, and Scholarship webpage or e-mail JCBfund@arl.org.
About the Association of Research Libraries
The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) is a nonprofit organization of 123 research libraries in the US and Canada. ARL’s mission is to influence the changing environment of scholarly communication and the public policies that affect research libraries and the diverse communities they serve. ARL pursues this mission by advancing the goals of its member research libraries, providing leadership in public and information policy to the scholarly and higher education communities, fostering the exchange of ideas and expertise, facilitating the emergence of new roles for research libraries, and shaping a future environment that leverages its interests with those of allied organizations. ARL is on the web at ARL.org.
