St. Catherine University

Building upon an earlier IMLS-funded project, the College of St. Catherine will partner with Saint Paul Public Library and Minneapolis Public Library to further develop and refine the Urban Library Program (ULP), a model for the recruitment, education, hiring, and retention of library paraprofessionals. In its first two years ULP has fielded more than 100 applications and has admitted 33 students. The first group of eight students graduated in June 2005. This second phase of ULP will help to ensure that jobs will exist for these students when they complete the program, that barriers to library employment will be lowered or eliminated for diverse members of the Twin Cities community, and that educational opportunities will be available to all who seek them.