Florida State University School of Information master’s student David Atkins was recently awarded a scholarship and select graduate assistantship to Virginia Tech’s Master of Arts in History program beginning next fall.

Atkins, a Virginia resident, is set to graduate from Florida State’s Master of Science in Library & Information Studies online program this spring.  Because of his interest to work in library archives or special collections, Atkins chose to further his education with a M.A. in History.

As a master’s student at Virginia Tech, Atkins will serve as a graduate assistant for the Carol M. Newman Library’s Special Collections.  Special Collections includes manuscript collections, rare books and the University Archives, as well as state, local and historical maps and photographs.

Atkins also earned additional scholarship monies from the Frank L. Curtis Fund because of his interest in Virginia history.

“Academically, Florida State’s MLIS program definitely helped me get into the Virginia Tech M.A. program,” Atkins said.  “Having the MLIS definitely helped me get the assistantship and gave me the ability to prepare to work in Special Collections at Virginia Tech.”

Originally interested in becoming a reference librarian, Atkins decided to pursue working with library archives after taking classes such as Museum Informatics, Digital Libraries and Information Architecture at Florida State.