Lian Ruan (MS '90, PhD '11), GSLIS adjunct lecturer, has been awarded a 2013 Diversity Research Grant from the American Library Association’s Office for Diversity.
Ruan, director/head librarian of the Illinois Fire Service Institute, shares the grant with Weiling Liu, director of the Office of Libraries Technology, University of Louisville. Their project "The Role of Chinese American Librarians in Library and Information Science Diversity," will expand the understanding of the Chinese American librarian community in terms of their unique cultural experience and expound on best practices and lessons to be learned as they relate specifically to diversity efforts. This research will help refine strategies for recruiting and retaining Chinese American librarians, help further the goal of diversity and provide tangible examples for other ethnic minority librarian groups to consider.