LeRoy Merritt Fund Report

Jonathan Kelley, OIF Staff Liaisons to the LeRoy C. Merritt Humanitarian Fund

The LeRoy Merritt Fund is continuing to reach out to various sectors of the library community, and is thankful to the IFRT Subcommittee, and particularly past Trustee David Cohen, for their work in these efforts. At the Merritt meeting in Toronto, the Trustees met with Tracie Hall, director of the ALA Office for Diversity. OFD is a natural avenue for getting the word out about Merritt, since discrimination is one of the two reasons that Merritt gives grants.

Ideas developed during this meeting for promoting Merritt within Diversity circles include putting a piece on Merritt in OFD's materials; having OFD equipped to make referrals (this also points to the need for Merritt to track referrals); and for the Diversity Office to help Merritt ask for money. We also discussed how the Merritt Fund might conversely help promote the Office for Diversity within Intellectual Freedom circles.

Other promotional efforts discussed include putting a piece about Merritt in OIF's Privacy Toolkit and hosting another reception at an upcoming conference.

For a full description of the fund see LeRoy C. Merritt Humanitarian Fund at http://tinyurl.com/3bcfn .