Conable Conference Scholarship

Gordon M. Conable Conference Scholarship

2025 Scholarship Applications Now Closed

The Freedom to Read Foundation (FTRF) offers an annual scholarship for library school students and new professionals to attend ALA's Annual Conference. The goal of the Gordon M. Conable Conference Scholarship is to advance two principles that Gordon held dear: intellectual freedom and mentoring.

The Conable Scholarship provides for conference registration, transportation, housing (six nights), and a $300 stipend for meals and other expenses.

The recipient will also receive a one-year membership to the Freedom to Read Foundation (FTRF). In return, the recipient will be expected to attend various Freedom to Read Foundation and other intellectual freedom meetings and programs at the conference, consult with a mentor, and present a report about their experiences and thoughts. Application deadline April 14, 2025.

The scholarship is available to students currently enrolled in an ALA-accredited library and information studies degree program or an AASL-recognized master’s programs in school librarianship and new professionals (those who are three or fewer years removed from receiving an LIS degree).

Note: If the recipient is already registered for ALA’s Annual Conference, they will have their conference fee refunded.

This year the conference will be held in Philadelphia, PA. The scholarship winner will be expected to attend the Freedom to Read Foundation meeting on June 26 and stay through the afternoon of Monday, June 30 for the full ALA Annual Conference.

The application requires a resume including education, work history, and volunteer.

Contact the Freedom to Read Foundation at ftrf@ftrf.org with any questions.

2025 Conable Scholars

Martin Solorio is the Electronic Resources Specialist at University of California, Berkeley Library and a recent graduate of San Jose State University’s MLIS program. Upon learning of the award, Solorio said, “Receiving the Conable Scholarship is a tremendous honor. Gordon M. Conable’s legacy reminds me that the fight for intellectual freedom often happens in the everyday: in the systems we build, the choices we make, and the silences we interrupt.” As a data analyst and systems specialist, Solorio is committed to interrupting those silences and designing equitable systems that reflect the lived experiences of users.

Cassandra Taylor is the Branch Manager of Smyrna Public Library in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Taylor has dedicated her work as an academic and public librarian to ensuring equitable access and protecting the right to read. That commitment extends to volunteer activities with intellectual freedom and related committees at the Tennessee Library Association and ALA. Taylor earned her Master of Library Science from Middle Tennessee State University and is currently pursuing a Master of Information Science at the University of Tennessee–Knoxville.

2024 Conable Scholars

Etana Laing is an MLIS student at the University of Maryland-College Park and a library associate at Bowie State University. She also has a book club for Black women and people with lived experience of misogynoir called Revolutionary Reads.

Upon receiving news of the scholarship, she said “The rising number of book challenges and bans in the United States reflects the times we are living in, where our rights are being stripped away before our eyes, DEI initiatives are walked back, anti-LGBTQIA+ and Islamophobic rhetoric is on the rise, and the list continues. Intellectual freedom is a critical tool to fight these issues and is the root of my passion for this work,” said Laing.

Tif Sutherland is the Reference Supervisor at Calvert Library in Maryland and President of the Maryland Library Association. They are committed to advocating for library support and training library supporters, leadership focused on soft skills, developing customer service-focused library workers, and delivering community and data-driven services, with a strong focus on advancing equity, diversity, and inclusion within the library landscape.

Sutherland shared the following, “Intellectual freedom is the foundation of an engaged and informed community. My staunch dedication to this principle has been strengthened during my time as the President of the Maryland Library Association. I've seen library workers so dedicated to their vital positions as resources and support for their communities balance their roles with external forces bent on making the work they do more challenging. Diverse perspectives and stories provide information and ideas that encourage literacy, learning, idea-sharing, and democracy.”

2023 Conable Scholars

Pamela Verfaillie is the library associate at Valdez High School in Valdez, Alaska. She is past-president of the Alaska Association of School Librarians, and is currently studying to earn her MLIS at the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee. She has an undergraduate degree in political science from Bates College (ME) and a certificate in Information and Library Science from the University of Maine at Augusta. Her interest in intellectual freedom stems from watching friends and colleagues facing coordinated efforts to remove books from school libraries and seeing school districts set aside existing policies when confronted by these tactics. Mrs. Verfaillie believes that librarians and other educators need to work together to effectively support each other, educate school and city administrations regarding appropriate policies and procedures, prevent censorship, and ensure that the views of one individual or group does not restrict other patrons' freedom to read.

Paloma Barraza (she/her/hers) is completing her master’s degree in Library and Information Science from the University of Arizona iSchool with a focus in academic libraries. She works as a Library Technician at the University of Northern Colorado Libraries as the course reserve specialist and works for High Plains Library District as a bilingual Substitute Librarian. Paloma also has a master’s degree in Art History from the University of New Mexico, where she specialized in colonial and pre-contact art of the Americas. After she graduates she hopes to become a specialized librarian in an academic setting. This is her first time attending the conference, and she hopes to meet academic librarians and others who are working with Latin American collections as well as accessibility for patrons.

2021 Conable Scholar

Marisol Moreno Ortiz - "As an early career librarian, privacy advocate, and person that loves information, I believe that one never stops learning to better support others in their effort to protect their privacy and intellectual freedom. After being accepted and attending the Library Freedom Institute I realized that my journey with privacy was just beginning. I also realized that privacy, if jeopardized, affects many different aspects of a person’s life, including intellectual freedom in both online and physical library spaces. This led me to apply for the Gordon M. Conable Conference Scholarship to learn from the Freedom to Read Foundation and its members about how to be a strong advocate and protector of intellectual freedom."

2020 Conable Scholar

Lorena Lopez Rivera is a bilingual librarian with the Santa Cruz Public Libraries (SCPL) in Santa Cruz, CA. She received her MLIS from San José State University and her B.A. in History from the University of California, Santa Cruz. One of her primary interests in intellectual freedom is centered around censorship and access to information for both incarcerated adults and youth. Her experiences in SCPL’s County Corrections Facilities outreach team, which makes library visits to adult and youth corrections facilities in Santa Cruz County, has broadened her understanding and brought her face-to-face with freedom to read issues and has made her want to become a stronger advocate for the intellectual freedom of the youth in her community and incarcerated youth.

2019 Conable Scholar

Amanda Vazquez is the library director of the Orange City Public Library in Orange City, Iowa. Her first-hand experience with freedom to read issues includes handling censorship and book challenges over LGBT materials in her library. Her commitment to intellectual freedom advocacy and ongoing education, as well as her passion for engaging in national conversations about free speech, deeply impressed the committee.

2018 Conable Scholar

Dovi Mae Patino is a first-year, first-generation MLIS student at the University of Washington Information School. As a Filipina-American, she aspires to be a public librarian committed to ensuring equitable access to information and resources in underrepresented communities. As this year’s Conable Scholar, she also places tremendous value in professional development and mentorship opportunities, which are not always accessible to people of color.

“Dovi was an outstanding applicant. The committee was impressed with her commitment to intellectual freedom and diversity,” said Conable Scholarship Committee chair Katie Chamberlain Kritios. “Her graduate school and work experience demonstrate her commitment to the FRTF’s mission of intellectual freedom and information access and the ALA’s core values of equity, diversity, and inclusion.”

Past Scholars

2017 Katie Davis
2016 Katie Chamberlain Kritikos
2015 Amy Steinbauer and Gretchen LeCheminant
2014 John "Mack" Freeman
2013 Amanda Meeks
2012 Steven Booth
2011 Audrey Barbakoff
2010 Aubrey Madler
2009 Amanda Sharpe
2008 Jason McGill

Who was Gordon M. Conable?

Gordon Conable was a California librarian and intellectual freedom champion who served several terms as president of the Freedom to Read Foundation. His unexpected death in 2005 inspired his wife and the FTRF board to create the Conable Fund, which provides funding for the Conable Scholarship.

Gordon was executive vice president for public libraries at Library Systems and Services (LSSI) in Riverside, CA. He was responsible for management and performance of LSSI's public library contracts, including the 30-branch Riverside County, CA system. He also served as director of the Monroe County (MI) Library System from 1988-1998; during his tenure there, he withstood an intense controversy over Madonna's book Sex. Before that he was associate director of the Fort Vancouver Regional Library in Washington. For his efforts, Conable was a recipient of the Freedom to Read Foundation Roll of Honor Award and the John Phillip Immroth Memorial Award for "intellectual freedom fighters." In 1994 he was the first librarian recognized as Michigan's Public Administrator of the Year.

Donate to the Conable Fund

You can donate to the Gordon M. Conable Memorial Fund here. Additionally, you can donate by calling (312) 280-4226 or sending an email to ftrf@ftrf.org. You also can send a check, payable to Freedom to Read Foundation, to 225 N. Michigan Ave., Suite 1300 Chicago, IL 60601. Please put "Conable Fund" in the memo section of your check.