Chris Turner, a current eScience Fellow and first year graduate student in the iSchool, has been awarded a 2011 scholarship in the amount of $4000 from Alaska Library Association.
These annual scholarships come from the Alaska Library Association member donations and are given to worthy Alaska residents working towards a Masters Degree in Library and Information Studies.
“Future librarians and data professionals in Alaska will need to plan for and respond to the same data-centric information issues that we are learning about in the eSLib program,” Turner said. “It will be my experiences in the eScience Librarianship fellowship program that prepare me to help lead the future of the profession in Alaska.”
A former resident of Fulton, New York, Turner moved to Anchorage, Alaska in 2003. A move, he said was “in pursuit of adventure.” He graduated with a B.S. in Mathematics in 2007 and spent a year travelling before deciding to attend graduate school in library science or mathematics.
“I’d always loved libraries, and had worked for the Alaska Medical Library through my undergrad, but I was worried that I would miss the playful problem solving and deep thinking that mathematics required,” Turner said. “When I learned about the eScience Librarianship program, I was excited to find a program that offered a vision of librarianship as a technical intermediary between scientist and data manager.”
Turner plans to put the money toward earning his MLIS degree and supplementing the stipend he receives as one of eight eScience Fellows from across the country in the joint Institute and Museum of Library Services and iSchool program.