Montana State Library, Natural Resource Information System

The Montana State Library, in partnership with the Idaho Commission for Libraries, the South Dakota State Library, and the Wyoming State Library, will recruit and provide IMLS-funded scholarships to educate 50 librarians and school library media specialists to work in that region's rural communities. Students studying for a master's degree in library science will attend the University of North Texas's distance education program, and school library media students will attend either Montana State University or Black Hills State University in South Dakota. The project will emphasize recruiting from the region's largest minority groups, Hispanics and Native Americans, to increase representation of these groups among the region's professional library staffs.