First, I should point out that these scholarships are not offered by Code4Lib, so the only one that can speak upon their motives is Brown University. I should also mention, although I am involved with Code4Lib, since Code4Lib is not an organization in any traditional sense, no one, including myself can speak for it. That said, I applaud Brown University for offering these scholarships. This is especially so considering these tight economic times. While the majority of librarians overall are female, that has not been the case in the more technology-oriented areas (and some other areas). I am not sure what the percentage of minorities in librarianship is as a whole, but I can tell you that at all the library conferences I’ve been too (technology focused or not) the percentage appears rather low. The more that female and minority participation we can attract to this area of librarianship, the better in my opinion. I am pleased that the number of female and minorities attendees appears to have increased each year since the conference started. I believe one of the major reasons for this has been the scholarships that Jeremy Frumkin originated when he was at Oregon State University. Kudos to OSU for starting this tradition and to Brown University for continuing it!