November 9, 2021
Library Science brings home accolades from conferences
The Library Science program recently participated in three conferences. Here are some of the accomplishments they brought back home to Pirate Nation:
Dr. Kawanna Bright
Dr. Kawanna Bright was awarded REMCo’s (Roundtable for Ethnic Minority Concerns) LIS instructor Roadbuilder’s Award at NCLA (N.C. Library Association.
Dr. Al Jones was awarded the Ray Moore Award at NCLA for his article in N.C. Libraries (v. 78, no. 1, 2020) entitled “Advocacy for Multiculturalism and Immigrants’ Rights: The Effect of U. S. Immigration Legislation on American Public Libraries: 1876-2020.” This prestigious award is presented to the author of the best article about public librarianship published in North Carolina Libraries during the preceding biennium.
Along with these state-level awards, the LIBS program overall was well represented, and had many presentations, etc. including the following:
Dr. Kaye Dotson (along with Joseph Thomas from Joyner and Beth Strecker (one of the LIBS adjuncts) presented “Managing the Transition to Online Internships for Library Science Students.”
Dr. Kaye Dotson
Dr. Kaye Dotson, Joseph Thomas, & Kathy Parker presented Copyright: Policies, Resources, and Questions for School Media Centers
Current student Alyssa Coleman had a poster presentation: Pet Therapy in Libraries.
Four students, Walter Lanham, Anna Monroe-Stover, and Olivia Mills received student scholarship awards from various sections of NCLA.
Prior to NCLA, the NC School Library Media Association Conference was held.
Ellen Bryson, one of the LIBS adjuncts, was named N.C. Media Coordinator of the year.
Four alumni presented at NCSLMA – Lisa Denning (‘11), Lisa Lanier (‘11), Wendy Moorehead (‘18), and Lisa Raynor (‘21). Their session was “Re-engaging with the North Carolina Children’s Book Awards”
Dr. Rita Soulen
Dr. Rita Soulen had three presentations at the national conference, American Association of School Librarians (AASL):
- IdeaLab 5 Audits**5 Tools**5 Minutes
This was a table presentation to provide simple tools to support diversity audits of the school library collection. - Apply Research to Practice with the NxtWave Scholars
This was an interactive session to show practitioners how to read research articles and pull out the information which can be applied to improve practice. The NxtWave Scholars are my cohort of former doctoral students supported by the AASL CLASS research grant. We continue to work collaboratively to interpret research into practice. - Transforming School Libraries: Children’s Access to Reading Materials
This was a concurrent session exploring my survey research on children’s access to school library materials prior to/during/and predicted after COVID-19, followed by participant discussion of their own anecdotal experiences in school libraries related to the pandemic.