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GSLIS Faculty Newsletter |
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Fall 2007 |
Volume 1, Number 1 |
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In This Issue
Confucius Institute
Meet Dr. Suellen Adams
Drs. Caldwell, Gilton & McCarthy, Hot Off the Presses!
Catching Up with Prism Students & Alum
Professional Development Events
Fun Stuff on the Web
Want a book? Take a book. Have a book? Give a book!
Because laughter really is the best medicine!
Cite sources as you research
Where technology and librarianship meet
And Now a Word from Our Sponsors Go ahead, click it!
More Fun Stuff
Get the latest info about what’s happening in the GSLIS program!
All the cool kids are doing it…are you?
Learn how everything works! Really!
Library fun for the little ones!
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Letter from the Director
Dear Friends, Colleagues, and Fellow Alumni: Some things have changed at your school since our last newsletter. We were sad to lose Dr. Irina Lynden, who accepted a position as deputy director of the Russian National Library in St. Petersburg, but glad to welcome Dr. Suellen Adams to our faculty. This September we also said farewell to Jennifer Legare, who handled our admissions and student affairs for many years. Mrs. Legare will be missed, but University College is closer than St. Petersburg, and we are fortunate to have added Mrs. Janice M. Hromi to our staff on November 26. Some things haven’t changed. We still offer an ALA-accredited MLIS; our next scheduled review by the Committee on Accreditation is in 2010. We still have marvelous students—242 of them were signed up for courses this fall—and a firm commitment to teaching. Faculty have been busy in many directions, as you can see from individual entries; highlights of 2007 included the publication of Dr. Gilton’s Multicultural and Ethnic Children’s Literature in the United States (Scarecrow) and the debut of Dr. Ma’s Global Education for Library and Information Professionals (GELIP) program. Our pride in our students and alumni hasn’t changed, and we know that your commitment to uniting people and information hasn’t changed. The way you do that ranges from the tried-and-true (story hours and good old-fashioned reference work) to cutting-edge projects we never taught you (creating digital libraries, putting your homework centers on MySpace, and spearheading a drive to build the first green library in RI). Bravo! And special thanks to those of you who have supported our current students’ education by making presentations in our classes, hosting professional field experiences, and mentoring prospective librarians at every level.
With sincere gratitude for your support and participation,
E. Gale Eaton, Director
Confucius Institute Established at URI
URI President Robert L. Carothers and Xu Lin, director of the Chinese National Office for Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language, signed the agreement in January. Plans call for an initial five-year agreement to be extended an additional five years. “For many Americans, the real China remains a mystery. As China grows and prospers, it will become the United States’ chief competitor for resources. The reality is that what we don’t know can hurt us, especially in this complex relationship. To make that relationship work, we need to appreciate and understand each other, learning how to work together for our mutual benefit. The Confucius Institute will help us achieve that goal” says Carothers. “China is not only an awakening giant, it is a walking giant,” agrees Yan Ma, a professor in URI’s Graduate School of Library and Information Studies and director of the new institute. Ma is the leading force in the Institute’s establishment. “News articles and scholars have documented China as a commercial giant and predict it will be the next superpower. URI’s Confucius Institute will help students become global citizens by offering programs that prepare them to speak Mandarin Chinese and understand the Chinese culture.” Ma, also director of URI’s Global Education for Librarians and Information Professionals, launched a program to educate librarians and information professionals in the Chinese language and culture. It is the first such program in North America to train information professionals to provide services related to China and Chinese studies. There is an ever-increasing demand for these skills. “I would like to acknowledge that all these exciting and historic Chinese programs on campus are under the leadership, support and commitment of President Carothers and M. Beverly Swan, provost and vice president of academic affairs with the enthusiastic and strong support from Winifred Brownell, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, John Grandin, executive director of the International Engineering Program, and Mark Higgins, dean of the College of Business Administration,” says Ma.
Grad Student Kenyon & Prof. Adams Run Maury 5k
Say “Hello” to Dr. Suellen Adams by Dr. Suellen Adams
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Bits & Pieces
A new website devoted to writing and photography. Edited by class of 1993 graduate Kathryn Kulpa
Grad Assistant Yuan Li Yuan has volunteered to be the Graduate Student Association (GSA) senator for GSLIS. Thank you, Yuan!
Adjunct Faculty Member Elaine Martin is also President of the Association of Academic Health Sciences Library Directors.
GSLIS graduate Holly Hendricks has begun a doctoral program in history at Northeastern University. Congrats!
And the Fun Doesn’t Stop!
In for a little self-exploration?
Because we all have to get to work somehow, right?
Sweet fun on the Internet!
When you’ve had too much caffeine and you need a break.
Cool Blogs & Websites!
Exploring what it means to be a ‘cool librarian’
Resources and discussions for the “tech-librarians-by-default” among us!
She’s bold! She’s sassy! She’s helpful!
Putting the rarin’ in librarian since 1999!
Learn a Little, Laugh a Little
A classic Sesame Street skit
Life should be so simple
Stay up-to-date on what’s out there!
For high-quality web resources, look no further!
This space is blank.
What a shame!
It could be used for something wonderful…
…like talking about an amazing book you’ve read or a cool website you’ve found.
But alas, this space just sits here.
Empty.
Silent.
How sad.
Okay this is leading somewhere.
Keep scrolling…
Keep going…
Almost there…
Tell Us!
Do you know an amazing student or faculty member GSLIS should know about?
Is there an upcoming event you’d like us to report on?
Let us know! Contact Us! Dr. Naomi Caldwell
Christina Wolfskehl, GA ChristinaWolfskehl@yahoo.com
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Dr. McCarthy Keeps the Presses Rolling!As if she wasn’t busy enough teaching our students how to become amazing librarians and media specialists, Dr. Cheryl McCarthy has been expanding her Curriculum Vitae! Research Work In Progress (ongoing Fall 2007): “Assessing Information Literacy Instruction: A Collaborative Pilot Project at the University of Rhode Island” (With Prof. Karen Stein and Melanie Rand).
· “Progress in School Library Media Programs: Where Have We Been? Where Are We Now? And Where Are We Going?” Advances in Librarianship Vol. 30: (November 2006): 279-306. · “Interactive Video Technology: A Tool for Distance Teaching and Learning.” Journal of Library & Information Services in Distance Learning. 1, 4 (Jan. 05) Book Contributor: · “Appendix D: Information Literacy Instruction K-16: Selected Bibliographic Resources,” and “Appendix E: Information Literacy Instruction K-16: Selected Web Resources,” in The Blue Book on Information Age Inquiry, Instruction, and Literacy by Daniel Callison and Leslie Preddy, Libraries Unlimited, 2006: 609-623. Invited Formal Presentations: · “Campus Book Discussion of Ding Ling’s I Myself Am Woman for University of Rhode Island Diversity Week (with Professors Guanglan Jin, Yan Ma, Karen Stein and LSC 520 students) September 26, 2007. · “Campus Book Discussion of Jhumpa Lahiri’s books, The Namesake and Interpreter of Maladies for University of Rhode Island Diversity Week (with LSC 520 students as facilitators and with special guests Prof. and Mrs. Amar Lahiri) September 27, 2006. · “One Book, One Campus Program: Book Discussion of The Kite Runner” for University of Rhode Island Diversity Week (with Michael Havener and LSC 520 Students as facilitators) September 28, 2005. · “Creating Educated Communities of Information Literate Students at the University of Rhode Island, “CECILS Project.” New England Library Association Annual Conference. Worcester, Massachusetts, October 17, 2005 and Massachusetts Library Association Literacy Conference, April 2006 (Panel with Profs. Michael Havener, Karen Stein, and Mary MacDonald). · “Sharing Books: The Three I’s: Bringing Interaction, Interpretation, and Inquiry into the Classroom.” Barnes and Noble, Middletown, RI, Oct. 12, 2005. Professional Service and Service to the University: · Consultant and Evaluator, Central Falls School District, Literacy through School Libraries (LSL) Grant (With Grant Coordinator Debbie Fisher) 2005-06. · Editorial Review Board for Advances in Librarianship, 2005- present. · Rhode Island Center for the Book: Executive Board, 2006- Present. · Rhode Island Libraries Future Sub-Committee: Committee on Learning · Co-author, “A Community of Lifelong Learners,” 2005. · Campus Advisory Board, First Books. 2004-2005. · Committee for School of Communication for College of Arts and Sciences 2005. · Council on Teacher Education. Accreditation Reports. School of Education. 2002- present.
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Project Prism Scholars & AlumCarina CournoyerCurrently Carina (our first Prism Plus Fellow to graduate) is fulfilling a semester-long appointment as a Reference Librarian and lecturer for two sections of LIB120. She is also working part-time at Providence College as a Library Commons Librarian. Recently she was a panel speaker for the annual SLA dinner: "Predicting the Future of Special Libraries: The Next 40 Years." And if that wasn’t enough, her proposal for the 2008 Off Campus Library Services Conference was just accepted. She will be working on a paper with URI librarians Jim Kinnie and Joanna Burkhardt. The paper compares the results of the LIB120 comprehensive exam of students in the online WebCT sections with the students in the face-to-face course delivery. Ed Garcia Ed will be graduating in May 2008. Currently he is interning at Cranston Public Library as a reference librarian. He is also in charge of developing an adult graphic novel collection and assisting in the development of an adult Spanish language collection. Ed is a member of ALA, RUSA, REFORMA, RILA, Association of Fundraising Professionals and North Atlantic Health Sciences Libraries. He was appointed to the RUSA Reference Services Section Marketing & Public Relations Committee as an Intern until 2009 and to the Cranston Public Library Marketing Committee. He served as judge for Foreword Magazine 2007 Book of the Year Awards for the biography and popular culture categories and is Co-Chairperson of Planning group for Trejo Foster Foundation 2009 Institute hosted by University of Rhode Island. Along with several of his fellow PRISM scholars he had the opportunity to present a poster session at ALA Annual 2007 entitled “Meet Me in the Street: Researching and Reaching Out to Diverse Populations”. This past August he also published an article in the Providence Journal about graphic novels at the library. Besides working towards his MLIS, he is full-time non-profit professional and was just named Executive Director of Diabetes Association Inc. based in Fall River, MA. Stephanie Blankship Stephanie attended the First Joint Conference of Librarians of Color in October 2005. She presented a poster session at ALA Annual 2007 entitled “Meet Me in the Street: Researching and Reaching Out to Diverse Populations”. Currently she is working full-time as a children's and YA librarian at the Cranston Public Library Auburn Branch. She is also interning at the Central Falls Public Library. At CFPL she is helping the assistant director research environmental scanning to better serve the Hispanic community; she has helped promote and prepare focus groups at the library and will be creating a user and non-user survey to follow up on the success of these focus groups.
Alicia Waters Alicia is interning at the Pawtucket Public Library under the guidance of Eugene Jeffers, Community Outreach Librarian. Recently she participated in the creation of a focus group organized by the Pawtucket and Central Falls Public Libraries. The study focused on the need for services and programs for the Hispanic community. She assisted Shelley Quezada (Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners) and developed both a PowerPoint presentation and brochure for the Spanish speaking community. Currently she is developing action items for the strategic plan’s goals and objectives geared toward improving services to this community of people. Prior to that she interned at East Providence Public Library in children's services and adult literacy. She ran Monday afternoon Scrabble sessions with children. She also assisted with "Scavenger Hunt", a program aimed at acquainting students with library resources. And finally Alicia conducted a Citizenship Class every Tuesday and Thursday evening from 6-8 pm. (She was lucky enough to see two of her students pass their citizenship exam!) Lesya KreshchukLesya was recently hired as an Ocean State Libraries (OSL) junior cataloger. She was “inspired and encouraged by the dedicated faculty of GSLIS and very happy to have my long time dream come true.” As for the internship activities, Lesya has been part of East Providence Public library ESL book discussion group where students learn about American culture and language as well as library activities. Also she had an opportunity to catalog Portuguese books. Next semester she will participate in providing computer classes for ESL patrons. |
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Kerry Caparco
Currently Kerry is interning at the University Library's Reference Desk and doing library instruction for URI 101 (orientation class) and WRT 104 (College Composition). She is a representative of the student chapter of ALA, and a monthly contributor to the RILA Blog. She is working on her outcomes based evaluation project for the spring, "From Concept Map to Research Question: How to Narrow Your Topic."
Janaya Kizzie
This semester Janaya continued interning at Roger Williams University Main Library. Her duties include includes reference work and research on academic libraries and diversity.
She is also volunteering at the Providence Black Repertory Theater; she’s doing archival work for the well-renowned company. Recently she participated in a poster session at the ALA entitled “Meet Me in the Street: Researching and Reaching Out to Diverse Populations.”
Dipti Mehta
Dipti is currently working at the URI Kingston Library. While there she’s taught both the URI 101 and WRT 104/105 classes and provided reference services to our amazing URI students. During the Summer of 2007 she proposed a library instruction session for International Students. She designed and developed two sessions: 1) Basic Library Session, which involved taking international students on a tour of the library and showing them how to use the HELIN Catalog and 2) How to Find Articles in General and Subject-Specific Databases, which was taught by subject-specific librarians.
Dipti feels these sessions opened doors for the library to serve this underserved group and affiliations with the International Students Office “who in the near future would like a representative from the library during Orientation for Incoming International Students.”
Supporting GSLIS: Thanks To Our Marvelous Graduates!
The Fund for URI: Last year, 453 friends, faculty, and alumni gave a total of $28,121 to the GSLIS Fund for URI. This fund supports the program in many important ways. Over the past year, we used it to:
· Update technology support for teaching and research
· Match IMLS grant funds for student support
· Increase student scholarships
· Sponsor student participation in professional organizations
· Fund faculty research and travel
· Support continuing professional development events
· Upgrade the GSLIS job list
· Improve our recruitment materials
As you can see, the average gift is just over $62; the range is wide, with some gifts under $10 and some over $1,000. We are grateful not just for the monetary, but for the moral support. Even the smallest gifts are evidence of alumni involvement, and as such, they strengthen our program more than you know.
To give to the GSLIS Fund for URI, you can return your “Making a Difference” pledge materials to Annual Giving, Alumni Center, 73 Upper College Road, Kingston, RI 02881—or you can securely make your gift online at http://www.advance.uri.edu/giveonline.
Endowments and Other Funds: GSLIS also has several endowment funds, most of which support scholarships. Although some were created by and named for individual donors, anybody is welcome to contribute. Examples:
GSLIS General Scholarship (Fund number EA69): Our oldest endowment, this fund generates interest for several $500 scholarships, including the Frank Iacono scholarship. Friends and colleagues have donated over $3,000 to the fund in memory of the late Frank Iacono.
Elizabeth Futas Scholarship (Fund number ED01): Our largest endowment, in the 2007/2008 academic year this fund generated two $3,000 scholarships for students whose professional commitments and activism mirror those of the late Dr. Futas.
GSLIS Prism Scholarship (Fund number EB44): Matured in fall 2006, this fund was donated by W. Michael Havener and by additionally supported by GSLIS faculty and advisory committee members in honor of his years as our director. Currently it yields $400 to $500 annually to help a student who is committed to serving diverse populations.
Mattoon-Kline Scholarship (Fund E354): Our newest mature endowment, donated over several years by Nancy Mattoon Kline (class of 1973), is intended specifically to support students of color. The first award will be announced in spring 2008, and will probably be in the area of $700.
Not yet matured is the RI Coalition of Library Advocates (COLA) Scholarship (Fund number E379), established by Herman Rose to increase the $250 scholarships that COLA gives annually to promising GSLIS students in public librarianship (the Bill Bergeron Award) and school library media services (the Linda Aldrich Award).
How big does a mature endowment have to be? Currently, the URI Foundation threshold is $25,000. But a fund does not have to be that large to make a real difference. Operating funds are relatively small, and we spend capital rather than interest. For instance:
The Lucille Chernack Professional Development Fund (Fund number 5847) enables GSLIS to reimburse up to $25 for any student’s first-year membership in a professional association of his or her choice. We are grateful for the opportunities this gives students to network, learn from mentors, and make their own contributions to the profession.
The GSLIS Director’s Fund (Fund number 5354) can be used for anything from instructional technology to printing costs, and gives us much-needed flexibility.
To give to any of these existing funds, you can send a check to the Director of the URI Graduate School of Library and Information Studies, 94 West Alumni Avenue, Kingston, RI 02881. (One way to do it: make your check to the URI Graduate School of Library and Information Studies, and put the name of the fund and/or its number in your memo line.)
If you have questions about giving, a good person to talk with is Thomas R. Zorabedian, Senior Development Officer for the College of Arts and Sciences, 257 Chafee Building, Kingston, RI 02881. He can guide you through the mysteries of stock transfer, multi-year pledges, and more. You can reach him by phone (401-874-2853) or online (zman@advance.uri.edu).
Remember, all donations to GSLIS count toward the URI Make a Difference Capital Campaign. I’d like to add, our donations to GSLIS count toward the support of a vibrant profession. Many thanks for your support!
Professional Development Events
Fall 2007 Honors Colloquium: China Rising
Tuesdays, September 18-December 11, 2007
Chafee Auditorium 7:30PM
Confucius Institute Opening
Seminar and Performance of Chinese traditional music and Yue Opera. University Library, Galanti Lounge 2:30
The Butterfly Lovers—Opera by the Yue Opera Company of Ningbo, China.
October 27, 2007. VMA Arts and Cultural Center, Providence, RI. 8:00PM. Call (401) 272-4VMA for more information.
Integrating Web 2.0 in Public Libraries
By Eugene Jeffers, Community Resources Librarian at Pawtucket Public Library.
Tuesday, October 30, 2007. 7:00-9:00PM. Galanti Lounge, URI Library.
Music From China November 2, 2007
URI Find Arts Center. Concert Hall.
Please visit: www.uri.edu/greatperformances for more information
I is Not For Indian: North American Native People in Children’s Literature
Sponsored by Cornucopia of Rhode Island, serving the Rhode Island community of color. Guest speakers: Dr. Naomi Caldwell, Associate Professor, GSLIS and Ms. Gabriella Kaye, Head Librarian at the Mashantucket Pequot Children’s Library.
Friday, November 16, 2007. URI University Club, 9:00-12:00 Noon.
$5.00 for Student with ID, $10.00 for others. Continental breakfast included.