Dr. Jespersen was Head of Digital Initiatives and Technical Services at the James P. Adams Library at Rhode Island College. As the first information professional in charge of giving access to archival materials at RIC he led the way in developing metadata and Web access to the Library’s Special Collections and faculty publications. He established a team to digitize materials and populate a database that enabled searching. His training as an architectural historian at Brown University and his passion for architecture made the early projects involving the transformation of Providence and documentation of cityscapes around the world particularly satisfying for him.

This scholarship for GSLIS students aims to support a student with a background in the humanities, particularly art or art history, who wants to pursue a library and information science degree with a focus on studying visual information and making visual materials digitally available. There are a great many libraries and cultural institutions with archival materials that could be digitized so that public access would be more widespread. This scholarship is for a student who would like to contribute to the preservation and dissemination of this kind of information.

Giving to the Fund

A holding fund has been set up to receive contributions in memory of Dr. Jespersen. The gifts in his memory will be used to award scholarships to students in studying visual information and making visual materials digitally available for access. Our goal is to try and raise enough funds to establish an endowment of $25,000 in five years, so a scholarship can be awarded each year. If we are not able to reach this commitment level, then we will award what scholarship dollars are received in Dr. Jespersen’s memory. You can pledge to donate to the Dr. J. Kresten Jespersen Scholarship over 5-year period.

Checks should be made payable to: URI Foundation
Memo area: GT98: Dr. J. Kresten Jespersen Memorial Fund

Donations need to be sent to:

Dr. Michael J. Smith
President
University of Rhode Island Foundation
79 Upper College Road
Kingston, RI 02881

Thank you for your support!