The RBS Directors’ Scholarship is an award given to approximately 20 first-time RBS students each year. RBS invites applications from those whose work is centered in the book, its materials, and history. Scholarship recipients are awarded full tuition for an RBS course.
Each year, RBS receives more than 100 applications for this scholarship from highly qualified applicants. Individuals for whom tuition funding is a financial hardship are especially encouraged to apply. Special consideration will be given to individuals who represent under-served communities (or whose institutions do so).
Application Process
Applications will be accepted directly by RBS. To apply, please submit an RBS scholarship application by the 1 November deadline.
To begin the application process, please log into your myRBS account (or create a new myRBS account). On the home screen, scroll to “Scholarships and Fellowship Applications” and select the “click here” link.
Participation in the scholarship program implies acceptance of the scholarship/fellowship Terms and Conditions. If you have questions about the scholarship application process, please email rbs_scholarships@virginia.edu.
Scholarship recipients will be announced in January or February. Scholarship recipients must claim their award within two years (e.g., scholarships awarded in January 2026 must be claimed by 31 December 2027).
Origin of the Directors’ Scholarship Fund
When about to make a retirement gift in early 2009, RBS Founding Director Terry Belanger suggested that it take the form of contributions to an RBS Directors’ Scholarship Fund, established in order to help get the school—and its various student constituencies—through the next couple of years, which were bound to be challenging financially. The money in the Fund would be spent out in scholarship awards, rather than added to the RBS endowment. Contributions would thus be immediately useful, and Terry’s successor, Michael F. Suarez, S.J., would be able to focus on other matters before turning to the fundraising that would inevitably be part of the job.
At the end of April 2009, letters soliciting contributions to the Fund went out: to the Friends of RBS; to present and former RBS faculty and staff members; to RBS attendees; to members of scholarly and professional organizations like the Rare Books & Manuscripts Section of the Association of College & Research Libraries; and to scholarly societies like the American Printing History Association, the Bibliographical Society of America, and the Society for the History of Authorship, Reading & Publishing. Among the letter writers were John Bidwell (Astor Curator of Printed Books and Bindings, Morgan Library & Museum); William T. Buice III (Chair, RBS Board of Directors); Lynda Corey Claassen (Director, Mandeville Special Collections Library, University of California, San Diego); Ellen S. Dunlap (President, American Antiquarian Society); Joan Friedman (Treasurer, RBS Board of Directors); Robin Halwas (Robin Halwas Ltd, London); Melissa S. Mead (Digital and Visual Resources Librarian, Rush Rhees Library, University of Rochester); Paul Needham (Scheide Curator, Firestone Library, Princeton University), Kenneth W. Rendell (Kenneth W. Rendell Gallery, South Natick, MA); Richard Noble (Rare Book Cataloger, John Hay Library, Brown University); Alice Schreyer (Assistant Director for Special Collections & Preservation, and Director, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library); Hans Tausig (Past Chair, RBS Board of Directors); Andie Tucher (Associate Professor, Graduate School of Journalism, Columbia University), and Karin Wittenborg (University Librarian, UVA).
By the end of June 2009, more than 500 donors had contributed more than $110,000 to the Directors’ Scholarship Fund.