Sarah Shuai Martin selected as the 2025 Mary V. Gaver Scholarship recipient

Sarah Martin

The American Library Association (ALA) is pleased to announce the selection of Sarah Shuai Martin of Chicago, Illinois, as the 2025 recipient of the Mary V. Gaver Scholarship.

The $3,000 scholarship was established to honor the memory of a past ALA president and Rutgers University professor, who made many contributions to library youth services. The scholarship is awarded to a person pursuing a master's degree in library and information studies, with a specialty in youth services.

Currently, Martin works as a youth library associate at the Chicago Public Library. Martin says she feels "privileged to experience the rare opportunity to work with teen librarians who have opened her eyes to the plethora of technological resources that libraries can provide." Martin also commented that her "favorite aspects of work are the opportunities to reach out and relate to a person simply as another person finding common threads."

Relating to others of diverse cultures and backgrounds is important to Martin. Teaching abroad in rural South Korea helped her to see the value of connecting with others. Martin confided that her "deepest satisfaction was gained through reciprocated connections with her students, colleagues, and fellow expatriates from around the world. Whether discussing the latest pop music, a heart-wrenching drama finale, favorite foods, or a deeply human experience, the insights sprung from the vastly differing perspectives of others had a humbly affect."

Being relatively new to the library profession, Martin says she "hopes to refine her strengths and sharpen the tools needed to tackle community engagement." She is "excited to learn how to utilize library and information sciences to connect to people beyond the library floor and to expand her understanding of wider demographics' relationships with information systems." Martin commented that she wants to be "informed, experienced, and actively supportive of the efforts of different communities to better understand others and work together across generations, classes, cultures, and languages."

Martin is an MSLIS student at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Updated on
Backto the news archive

Related News

Huang named a 2025–2026 Linowes Fellow

Associate Professor Yun Huang has been named a 2025–2026 Linowes Fellow by the Cline Center for Advanced Social Research at the University of Illinois. She is also the recipient of a 2024–2025 fellowship, which "provides exceptionally promising tenure-stream faculty with opportunities for innovation and discovery using the Cline Center's data holdings and/or analytic tools."

Yun Huang

Chin receives NSF CAREER award

Assistant Professor Jessie Chin has received a National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER award to support lifelong learning and foster information literacy. This prestigious award is given in support of early-career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education and to lead advances in the mission of their department or organization. Chin’s project, “Search as a Mechanism for Learning,” will be supported by a five-year, $629,451 grant from the NSF.

Jessie Chin

Hassan selected for IAPP Westin Scholar Award

PhD student Muhammad Hassan has been selected as an IAPP Westin Scholar Award honoree. The annual awards were created by the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP) to support students who are identified as future leaders in the field of privacy and data protection. 

Muhammad Hassan

iSchool to present research at the Digital Humanities 2025 conference

iSchool faculty, staff, and students will present their research at DH2025, the annual conference of the Alliance of Digital Humanities Organizations (ADHO), which will take place on July 14–18 in Lisbon, Portugal. The digital humanities (DH) conference is the largest event of the international DH community and unites scholars from across the globe. 

2025 ISAA Annual Awards announced

iSchool Alumni Association (ISAA) is pleased to announce the recipients of its annual awards, which were presented at an alumni reception during the 2025 ALA Annual Conference and Exhibition.