Click here for descriptions of other funds that have been established to support SILS. Can't find the fund you're looking for? Contact us for help.
Eleanor and Frederick Kilgour Faculty Development Fund
The fund was established to support faculty needs by helping acquire innovative teaching materials and equipment, promoting research in new fields, encouraging the development of new courses and providing travel funds for professional conferences.
In 1967, Frederick G. Kilgour founded the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC), the first and largest online library network in the world, and served as its president until 1980. Kilgour became a Distinguished Research Professor at SILS in 1990, teaching seminars in applications of technology for libraries.
Evelyn J. Bishop Scholarship Fund
Through a bequest, Evelyn J. Bishop created this scholarship fund to support a student admitted to the master's degree program at SILS. Bishop lived in Smithfield, NC, and worked at the Johnston County Public Library.
Note to current and prospective students: SILS awards scholarships, assistantships, and fellowships based on the strength of admission applications and progress made within a program after admission. No separate application is required to be considered for this award.
Frances Carroll McColl Term Professorship
This fund provides a SILS professor with a salary supplement and funds for research and travel for a two-year term. Hugh McColl, Jr. established the McColl Professorship in memory of his mother, Frances Carroll McColl, and sister, Frances McColl Covington. Hugh McColl said he was inspired by the school's needs and his mother's love of literature. “My mother taught everyone in the family to love books, and we have prospered from having access to them and, perhaps more important, knowing where to turn to find the information we need.”
Gambee Memorial Library Fund
The fund supports the SILS Library. Budd Gambee was a SILS faculty member from 1963 to 1983. He was one of the School's first multimedia professors. Upon his retirement, the alumni association awarded him Honorary Membership, which stated in part, "During his 20 years on the faculty, he has been noted for his carefully prepared lectures, his insistence upon high standards, his work with students in promoting the non-print media, and for his numerous contributions to the literature of library history."
The Helen Neighbours Diggs Endowment for Collections Support in the School of Information and Library Science
The Helen Neighbours Diggs Endowment for Collections Support in the School of Information and Library Science fund is used to support the acquisition of materials in the SILS Library, preservation of SILS library materials or areas of greatest need in the SILS Library.
Helen Neighbours Diggs is an alumna of the School, having earned her MSLS in 1983. She previously received her BA in English and a minor in chemistry from UNC-Chapel Hill in 1949. She spent her career as an outstanding educator and librarian.
Jerry D. Campbell Dean's Fund
The Jerry D. Campbell Dean’s Fund provides flexible funding for the SILS dean to support emerging initiatives, special opportunities, and other priority needs. Disbursement is at the discretion of the SILS dean. The fund was established with a generous gift from Jerry Campbell (MSLS '72), the president of Claremont Lincoln University. His career also includes senior leadership positions at the University of Southern California and Duke University.
Kathleen McNiece Moore Fellowship in Children's Library Services
This fellowship was established in memory of Kathleen McNiece Moore (MSLS '70) by her family "to perpetuate her concern for books, her love of children and her interest in the art of storytelling." The fund supports a fellowship for a student admitted to the graduate program at the School of Information and Library Science who has exhibited an interest in working with children and is firmly committed to the field of children's library services. Preference is given to a student who has worked with children, especially in the storyteller's art.
Note to current and prospective students: SILS awards scholarships, assistantships, and fellowships based on the strength of admission applications and progress made within a program after admission. No separate application is required to be considered for this award.
Lester Asheim Scholarship Fund
The fund was established upon the occasion of Professor Lester Asheim's retirement to support scholarship awards to SILS students distinguished by ability, as indicated by a sound scholastic record, demonstrable financial need and potential for making a positive professional contribution to the advancement of library and information services and research. First consideration is given to applicants pursuing a doctoral degree.
Asheim came to UNC in 1975 as the first William Rand Kenan Jr. Professor after a distinguished career as Dean of Chicago's Library School (1952-1961) and of the International Relations Office of the ALA (1962-1966). One of his most renowned articles is his argument for collection development titled “Not Censorship But Selection.”
Note to current and prospective students: SILS awards scholarships, assistantships, and fellowships based on the strength of admission applications and progress made within a program after admission. No separate application is required to be considered for this award.
Lisa Burmeister Computer & Information Science Fellowship
Established in 1983, this fund supports a fellowship for a second-year graduate student at SILS. First consideration is given to students concentrating in information science. Lisa Burmeister, one of SILS' first information science students, died suddenly in 1985, and the fund was renamed to honor her memory.
Note to current and prospective students: SILS awards scholarships, assistantships, and fellowships based on the strength of admission applications and progress made within a program after admission. No separate application is required to be considered for this award.
Louis Round Wilson Fellowship
Established by the Dean S. Edmonds Foundation, this fund awards an annual fellowship to a student admitted to the doctoral program at SILS in memory of Dr. Wilson, the founder of the School. The recipient is named the Louis Round Wilson Fellow.
In honoring Dr. Wilson's memory, we remember his enduring words from 1929:
“As part of the program of social welfare now being worked out at Chapel Hill, a library school is needed, where librarians, like lawyers and doctors and teachers, may secure expert professional training. With its magnificent new building as a laboratory for the school, such an institution would not only be in harmony with the program on which the University has embarked, it would offer opportunity through the sending out of trained librarians for the South to tap the vast reservoir of human knowledge.”
Note to current and prospective students: SILS awards scholarships, assistantships, and fellowships based on the strength of admission applications and progress made within a program after admission. No separate application is required to be considered for this award.
Lucile Kelling Henderson Memorial Lecture Fund
This fund, established in the memory of Lucile Kelling Henderson, enables the School to “attract outstanding professionals and scholars...to interact with students, faculty and alumni” by supporting an annual lecture.
Henderson was a SILS faculty member (1932-1960) and second dean of the School (1954-1960). A superior teacher, advisor, and administrator, she led the school through its transition in the '50s from a bachelor of arts program to a fifth-year master's program.
Margaret Ellen Kalp Memorial Fellowship
The fund supports fellowships for SILS students. Master's students will be distinguished by evidence of professional promise and high scholastic achievement. First consideration will be given to students who indicate an interest in work with young people and children. A fellowship for doctoral study may be awarded to a student with a superior record, significant professional contributions, and experience working with children and young people.
Margaret Ellen Kalp was acting dean of SILS from 1964 to 1967 and assistant dean from 1973 to 1976. Noted for her deep commitment to the School, Kalp showed equal dedication to the library profession through her work with numerous professional organizations and on numerous committees.
Note to current and prospective students: SILS awards scholarships, assistantships, and fellowships based on the strength of admission applications and progress made within a program after admission. No separate application is required to be considered for this award.
Michael Hooker Graduate Fellowship in Applied Networking
The fund supports a fellowship for SILS graduate students studying the development and management of networked information systems and Internet networking technology. This fellowship was established in 2000 in memory of the late Chancellor Michael Hooker. In January of 1999, Hooker was interested in support for students who would become the intellectual capital of Cisco Systems and contribute to the growth of the networking industry, especially in North Carolina. Selby Wellman, the former Cisco Systems executive, and former SILS Dean Joanne Marshall met to discuss ways to realize Chancellor Hooker’s vision. Although Hooker passed away later that same year, Cisco Systems and SILS were able to formalize the partnership in his honor by establishing an endowed graduate fellowship.
Note to current and prospective students: SILS awards scholarships, assistantships, and fellowships based on the strength of admission applications and progress made within a program after admission. No separate application is required to be considered for this award.
SILS Health Informatics Fund
Health Informatics is a sub-domain of the broader field of Biomedical and Health Informatics (BMHI) that is concerned with the optimal use of information, often aided by the use of technology, to improve individual health, health care, public health, and biomedical research. This fund supports health informatics projects and programs at SILS, including the Carolina Health Informatics Program (CHIP).
Susan Grey Akers Scholarship Fund
The Alumni Association established the fund upon Dean Susan Grey Akers' retirement to provide a fellowship that assists deserving students admitted to the MSLS degree program and distinguished by evidence of professional promise, character, leadership and high scholastic achievement.
Akers was the first dean of SILS from 1932 to 1954, and she was the first female dean at UNC-Chapel Hill. Akers spearheaded the foundation of the library school at North Carolina Central University. She was noted for her work, Simple Library Cataloging. Akers maintained an interest in the School, its faculty and its students until her death in 1984 at the age of 95.
Note to current and prospective students: SILS awards scholarships, assistantships, and fellowships based on the strength of admission applications and progress made within a program after admission. No separate application is required to be considered for this award.
Susan Steinfirst/Gene Story Scholarship
This scholarship was established in 2010 by Gene Story to award graduate support for School of Information and Library Science students specializing in the area of children's literature. Admitted students are eligible for the scholarship by meeting the criteria identified for this fund which includes academic merit and financial need.
Note to current and prospective students: SILS awards scholarships, assistantships, and fellowships based on the strength of admission applications and progress made within a program after admission. No separate application is required to be considered for this award.
WiderNet@UNC (292977)
Today’s digital sharing and discovery of information may seem ubiquitous, but these practices remain out of reach for two-thirds of the world’s population. WiderNet@UNC is the School of Information and Library Science (SILS) support for the WiderNet Project, the brainchild of faculty member Cliff Missen. WiderNet produces the eGranary Digital Library, also known as the “internet in a box,” an off-line repository of more than 32 million digital resources that is installed in remote locations in Africa, the Caribbean and southwest Asia. WiderNet trains on-site partners to maintain the eGranaries, ensuring the longevity of the technology and expanding the skills and knowledge of local community members. WiderNet@UNC is the foundation for all of this important work, providing funding for students and faculty who envision and improve the digital library. Our students benefit from the invaluable experiences gained through working with WiderNet@UNC and from the firsthand insights offered in Missen’s Bridging the Digital Divide courses.
