In 1990 the American Association of Law Libraries  renamed its minority educational stipend in memory of  George A. Strait (1914-1989), an outstanding law librarian  and longtime AALL member who was awarded the  Association’s Distinguished Service Award (now Marian  Gould Gallagher Award) in 1989. Since then, the George  A. Strait Minority Scholarship has been awarded annually  to two college graduates with law library experience who  are members of a minority group as defined by current  U.S. government guidelines and who are degree candidates  in accredited library or law schools. Preference is given to  individuals with previous service to or interest in law  librarianship. To date, nine recipients of Strait Scholar-ships  from across the nation have joined the profession  and are current members of AALL. 
    West contributed $150,000 in 2001 to endow the  George A. Strait Minority Scholarship. West is a provider of  integrated information solutions to the U.S. legal market.  Its main Internet-based service, Westlaw, contains more  than 15,000 legal, financial and business news databases.  The company also publishes more than 66 million books  and over 500 CD-ROM libraries annually. 
     West’s contribution included a challenge to AALL —  to raise an additional $100,000 for the endowment. AALL  considered this an opportunity to reinforce its commitment  to upholding and cultivating a high level of professionalism  and diversity in the field of law librarianship. The Associa-tion  immediately accepted the challenge and set a  deadline of 2005 to reach its goal. 
     The income generated from the endowment will  provide a permanent funding source, allowing AALL to  award two to four Strait Scholarships per year. A portion of  the income earned each year will be returned to the  endowment’s principal to assure its long-term viability.

West’s generosity has helped fortify and encourage the recruitment and training of minorities in law librarianship. The scholarships have not only guaranteed a future generation  of talented, professional law librarians, but have also made an
extraordinary difference in the lives of the individual recipients: 

“Academic law librarianship turned out to be a dream career  for me, which I only discovered in my third year of law school.  By the time I realized that law librarianship would be much  more rewarding for me than practicing law, I had already  committed $75,000 in law school debt. Attending library  school was really contingent upon my securing a stipend. The  George A. Strait Minority Scholarship, along with a school-based  award, were the keys to my being able to attend the  School of Information and Library Science at Chapel Hill.Because of the stipend from AALL, I was able to concentrate on my  studies and on my library graduate assistantship without further  financial stress. I am very thankful to the members of AALL and to  West who made the scholarship possible. I am now an academic law  librarian at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an  active member of AALL preparing to serve on my first AALL  committee. I intend regularly to make whatever contributions I can  to help support the George A. Strait Minority Scholarship and to  encourage more diversity in our profession.”  —

Donna Nixon, 1999 recipient, Reference/Access Services Librarian,  University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 

Marvin Anderson, state law librarian at the Minnesota State Law Library  (retired September 2002), will lead the AALL campaign to meet West’s  challenge to raise an additional $100,000 for the George A. Strait  Minority Scholarship Endowment. 

“Our Executive Board has set the pace for our response to West’s  generous challenge with 100 percent donor participation. When  our contributions are combined with theirs, we will have an  impact on the development of our profession that will last for  generations,” Anderson said. “I am proud to serve as the  volunteer chair of this project, and I know that we will be able  to count on the generous support of our loyal members to make  this goal a reality.” 

Fulfilling this goal is the focus of the Association’s first major fund-raising  effort. The objectives of this project are: 

• To increase the scholarships’ funds in order to ensure that law  librarianship and the AALL membership reflect the diversity of  society and that there are an ample number of qualified minority  group librarians entering the profession each year. When the  endowment fund principal reaches $250,000, AALL will be able  to annually award two to four scholarships in the amount of  $3,500 each.
  
• To honor the memory of George A. Strait, an African-American law  librarian whose exemplary career serves as an inspiration to those  entering the field. 
• To support West’s generosity and commitment to partner with  AALL in education and outreach; in particular, to support  programs that can promote greater diversity and opportunity  for law librarians. 
• To establish a culture of giving among the Association’s membership. 

“Through scholarship, professionalism, and willingness to mentor  and share, George Strait set an example of that type of commitment  that marks an illustrious and rewarding career,” Anderson said.  “Accordingly, it is fitting and proper to associate his name with this  endowment. And, by contributing generously to the fund that  memorializes him, we are endorsing those values of scholarship  and humanity that inspired and characterized George’s work over  the years, and we are providing the financial resources to open  doors to our profession for others. I cannot think of a better way  to honor George.”