As back-to-school dialog sneaks into all corners of life, do you find yourself reminiscing about the fun of it all? Fresh pens, pencils, folders, and backpack. New teachers and classmates. And, of course, library time. The Louise Seaman Bechtel Fellowship offers the opportunity to feel all that joy again with an added bonus – awardees study the topic of their choosing and their final work will not be graded.
The Louise Seaman Bechtel Fellowship provides a grant up to $7,500 to a qualified children’s librarian to spend up to four weeks reading and studying at the Baldwin Library of Historical Children’s Literature of the George A. Smathers Libraries, University of Florida, Gainesville. The Baldwin Library contains a special collection of 130,000 volumes of children’s literature published mostly before 1950. The fellowship is endowed in memory of Louise Seaman Bechtel and Ruth M. Baldwin.
If you’re finding yourself curious to learn more, you should dive into:
- the Baldwin Library of Historical Children’s Literature
- past Bechtel Fellowship winners
- ALSC blog post: “Before Highlights, There Was Wide Awake” by Aryssa Damron, 2024 Bechtel Fellow
For those interested, the Louise Seaman Bechtel Fellowship for 2026 is now open. Applications and all materials are due by October 15, 2025.
Jenny Rosenoff is the current co-chair of the Professional Recognition and Scholarships Committee and wrote this piece on behalf of the committee.