Colorado at Boulder, who has been a consistent advocate for developing a strategy that would help put more minority librarians into the hiring pipeline for research libraries. A year later, in 1999, the ARL Board was approached by Jones and Nancy Baker, University Librarian at University of Iowa and then the Chair of the ARL Diversity Committee, with a proposal to establish a minority recruitment program entitled the Initiative to Recruit a Diverse Workforce. The Board approved a motion to establish a “significant fund” to underwrite the annual award of at least 15 stipends to minority students pursuing their MLIS degrees. The momentum continued to grow during the next year, with a major catalyst being the public pledge of $5,000 for this fund made during an ARL Membership Meeting by Carla Stoffle, Dean of Libraries at University of Arizona. Following Stoffle’s lead, several other ARL library directors made pledges in support of this fund, including Nancy Cline on behalf of the Harvard College Library, Ken Frazier for the University of Wisconsin–Madison Libraries, Karin Trainer of Princeton University Library, and Scott Bennett of the Yale University Library. By 2000, 52 ARL member libraries had committed a total of over $500,000 to support the effort. The first awards were made to four MLIS students, the inaugural Diversity Scholars of ARL’s fledgling minority recruitment initiative in 2000. The IRDW continued to gain support and recognition as time progressed. In 2003, directed by the new Program Officer for Diversity, Jerome Offord Jr., ARL received its first major grant from IMLS in support of the IRDW. Two cohorts of scholars were recruited between 2003 and 2007. The IMLS funding also provided support to host the first annual ARL Leadership Symposium (also called “Institutes”) during the ALA Midwinter Meeting in Boston in January 2005. During the symposium, Diversity Scholars attended presentations on topics ranging from residency programs to job search strategies or doctoral programs in LIS education. The scholars also participated in networking events attended by ARL library directors and human resource personnel, as well as other leaders in the academic and research library community. A key strategic partnership for the IRDW was also established in 2005 with the Purdue University Libraries. James Mullins, the Dean of the Purdue Libraries, initiated talks with ARL to establish an opportunity for Diversity Scholars to visit the West Lafayette campus and experience, first hand, the operations of a major research library. These “research library visits” continue today and are a critical component of the IRDW, providing an in- RLI 270 3 Celebrating 10 Years of ARL’s Initiative to Recruit a Diverse Workforce ( C O N T I N U E D ) JUNE 2010 RESEARCH LIBRARY ISSUES: A BIMONTHLY REPORT FROM ARL, CNI, AND SPARC