DLIS Symposium 7: From the Classroom to the Community: Social Justice in Library & Information Science

April 18, 2015 – Professors, students, and field professionals gathered on a warm Saturday afternoon at the St. John’s University Queens Campus for an enlightening series of presentations on the issue of social justice in librarianship. A blend of professional talks and student presentations, Symposium 7 offered attendees a wide array of viewpoints on issues facing information professionals today, including digital representation of cultural heritage objects, library services to the incarcerated, the benefits of professional organizations to students and recent graduates, and revolutionizing library service to communities. Professional speakers included author and DLIS alumnae Marybeth Zeman and Michael Edison of the Smithsonian Institution, Open Knowledge Foundation, Council on Library and Information Resources.

DLIS Spring Symposium 2015 Photo Gallery

View images of the day’s event below:

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Scholarship Grant Award Winners Announced

DLIS was recently awarded the H.W. Wilson Foundation Scholarship Grant given to thirteen ALA-accredited library and information science programs throughout the country. The H.W. Wilson Foundation awards financial assistance to charitable and educational religious institutions for the performance of influential services and aid. The Academic Service-Learning projects as evidence of work in serving the underserved will be greatly impacted by the availability of these funds.

Dr. Shari Lee: Teen Library Services

DLIS assistant professor Dr. Shari Lee specializes in teen and young adult topics in librarianship. Recently, her work in the field earned distinction as the Best Article in the Journal of Research on Libraries and Young Adults. Dr. Lee was presented a YALSA Writing Award for her article, “Beyond Books, Nooks, & Dirty Looks: The History and Evolution of Library Services to Teens in the United States,” because of the importance of such historical research as means to provide better future service. The article examines the development and implementation of young adult library services over time and proposes an agent of change to improve the quality of relationships between teens and libraries.

DLIS Student Presents Research at METRO Annual Conference

Emily Griffin, DLIS Student

There is no limit to your education in library and information science. Independent studies in librarianship allow students to explore field topics that do not have specific courses at an institution. DLIS student Emily Griffin recently engaged in an independent study of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) through the Map Warper software. Map Warper is a GIS program and open source tool that allows users to impose current Google Maps data onto existing and historical maps. Griffin first gained experience with Map Warper by working on the New York Public Library (NYPL) project to create a digital gazetteer as part of an Academic Service-Learning project. The NYPL Map Warper is displayed on digitized maps for historical places in New York City. Griffin applied her experience and insight to the tool’s usefulness in a St. John’s University undergraduate Discover New York course project with adjunct faculty member Caroline Fuchs.

Welcoming Students to a New Semester

A week before classes were scheduled to begin, DLIS held its semiannual orientation meeting for new and returning students at the D’Angelo Center on the Queens Campus.

The meeting provided new students a chance to engage with each other and hear about continuing student experiences, while returning students caught up after a summer of internship and work opportunities.

New students arrived first to receive introductory information to benefit their inclusion into the program. A few select Graduate Assistants took the opportunity to give advice to the newcomers based on their personal experiences here at St. John’s. Above all, our Graduate Assistants stressed the importance of self-motivation and organization as a key component to success in the program. They encouraged new students to take advantage of every opportunity to introduce themselves to classmates, making the online learning environment much more personal and engaging. DLIS alumni April Earle left our new students with one important message, “Commit to what it is you say you’re going to do…you’re here for yourself”.

DLIS Student Wins University Essay Contest

Congratulations to Danielle Manri, a DLIS student, for her prize-winning Academic Service-Learning essay!

 

 

St. John’s University offers both undergraduate and graduate students an opportunity to compete in an essay contest regarding the participation in the University’s Academic Service-Learning Program. The essay contest, established in 1998, is held annually in the spring. Participants compete for a cash prize and a chance to have their essay published as a feature on the Academic Service-Learning Website.

 The essay is the student’s response to the fulfillment of the University’s Vincentian mission to search out the causes of poverty and social injustice to encourage adaptable, effective and concrete solutions through community service that directly relates to the student’s current coursework.

SLA Student Group Visits the Bronx Zoo

Members of the SLA@SJU, the student chapter of the Special Libraries Association, took a trip to the Bronx Zoo on April 11^th to tour the Wildlife Conservation Society Library and Archives. Led by archivist Madeleine Thompson, the students had a chance to speak with librarians and other archivists about highly specialized collections.

SJU Honors First Pratt-Severn Award Winner!

April Earle is the first St. John’s student to receive the prestigious Pratt- Severn Award for the Best Student Research Paper! The award is meant to recognize the outstanding work of a current student in an accredited information degree program. The purpose of the award is to “encourage student research in the writing in the field of information sciences”.

April’s paper, Design of an application profile for the St. John’s University Oral History Collection, was produced for her final project for Dr. Vorbach’s LIS 237. April describes her paper as comparing “discuss the trade-offs between using one standard over another, and finally existing metadata standards, arrives at an AP (a set of metadata elements and defining standards that dictate the policies and best practices appropriate to an application) that should facilitate the cataloging and/or web-based presentation of these oral history interviews by putting the content analysis of the resource in the hands of the interviewers; the Oral History students.”

As a recipient of the award, April is given the special opportunity of presenting her paper at the 75th anniversary American Society for Information Science and Technology in Baltimore this October. She will also be speaking at the DLIS Fall Symposium on November 3rd, so make sure to join us and hear April talk about her award-winning paper.

DLIS offers its congratulations to April and encourages other students to follow in her footsteps. We are proud to call April a member of our DLIS community!