Lela Ellison is the 2008 recipient of the Century Scholarship presented by the Association of Specialized and Cooperative Library Agencies (ASCLA), a division of the American Library Association (ALA).

The independently funded Century Scholarship is a diversity initiative aimed at promoting the ALA's mission of improving service at the local level through the development of a representative workforce that reflects the communities served by all libraries in the new millennium. The Century Scholarship is a $2,500 monetary award given annually to a student or students pursuing a degree in library and information science.

Ellison earned a bachelor of arts in English from St. Edward's University, Austin (Texas). She is a teacher and is involved in library classification duties at the Sri Atmananda Memorial School, Austin. Ms. Ellison will attend the School of Information at the University of Texas at Austin.

"I am fascinated with the journey information takes as it flows from source to user to revelation," said Ellison. "As a future information professional, I aspire to contribute to the ongoing efforts to make information accessible and appealing to individuals and communities."

"The Century Scholarship committee was impressed by Lela Erin Ellison's strong academic background, eloquent personal statement and her strong advocacy of building collaborative relationships between information and diverse communities while keeping in mind that the user is the center of the information cycle. Through her efforts to create a school library program that reflected her students' culture, Lela has actively demonstrated her strong commitment to librarianship and to creating equal access to information for all in her library community," said Simon Healey, scholarship committee chair.

The scholarship will be presented during the ASCLA Awards Ceremony, on 10:30 a.m. to 12 p.m., June 29, during the ALA Annual Conference in Anaheim, (Calif.).

ASCLA is devoted to the development of specialized and cooperative library activities, and its members represent state library agencies, specialized library agencies, multitype library cooperatives and librarians who work outside of traditional library settings.