Scholarships and fellowships

Scholarships

Persons seeking RBS scholarships submit applications each fall without reference to any particular RBS course that they wish to take, and scholarships are awarded without reference to admission to any particular course. Those awarded scholarships will have credit, good for two years, that they can then use to pay for any course to which they are thereafter admitted. Participation in the scholarship program implies acceptance of the scholarship Terms and Conditions.

In making its awards, the RBS Scholarship Committee will give special consideration to applicants toward the beginning of their professional careers, or who represent under-served communities (or whose institutions do so). The Committee is especially interested in supporting first-time attendees. For more details about the scholarship program, see the Frequently Asked Questions page.

RBS began offering scholarships in 2001 with resources provided by the school's James Davis Scholarship Fund; see below for more about the late James Davis, who was UCLA's Rare Books Librarian and a long-time RBS staff member. In June 2005, the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), a federal agency, made a substantial grant to RBS to underwrite about 150 full-tuition scholarships, to be given out approximately 50 per year for each the following three years. In 2009. RBS established the Directors Scholarship Fund in honor of founding director Terry Belanger.

The RBS scholarship fund has received support from William Reese Company, the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, the Book Club of California, Atlas Systems, the Council on Library and Information Resources, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, and annual support from the Friends of Rare Book School.

Note: The deadline for the 2009 scholarship cycle has passed; the next application cycle will occur in August 2010, with a 1 September 2010 application deadline. Applications will be posted on this webpage in early August 2010. The RBS Scholarship Committee announced the 2009 RBS scholarship awardees on 6 October 2009.

The current Scholarship Committee comprises:

Melissa Mead (Digital and Visual Resources Librarian, University of Rochester) chair, through 2009; Vic Zoschak (Tavistock Books, Alameda, CA) through 2009; Libby Chenault (Librarian, Rare Book Collection, University of North Carolina) through 2010; and Ryan L. Roth (Program Director, RBS) through 2011.

Fellowships

Rare Book School's fellowship program began with the E. Ph. Goldschmidt Fellowship, followed in 1999 by the Reese Company and San Garde Fellowships, and in 2001 by the Ian Willison Fellowship.

To read more about the RBS Fellowship Program, visit the Fellowships section of our website.