Category Archives: School of Library and Information Science

SLIS to host 2014 Faculty and Staff Awards

The College of Applied Sciences and Arts’ School of Library and Information Sciences at San Jose State University will host the 2014 Faculty and Staff Awards on May 15 with a reception. The annual event honors distinguished faculty and staff for their service, scholarship and teaching excellence within the School of Library and Information Science.

Each year candidates are nominated by fellow faculty and staff members as well as through self-nomination. This year 12 individuals will be honored in such categories as outstanding professor, distinguished scholars, distinguished service and more.

This year’s honorees include:

  • Dr. Debra Hansen, Outstanding Professor
  • Dr. Anthony Bernier and Dr. Susan Maret, Distinguished Scholars
  • Beth Wrenn-Estes, Distinguished Service (Faculty)
  • Kristina Luna and Vicki Robison, Distinguished Service (Staff)
  • Suzanne Harris, Distinguished Service (Special/Other)
  • Dr. Mary Ann Harlan, Outstanding Lecturer
  • Melba Tomeo, Outstanding Teacher
  • Dr. Lili Luo, Outreach and Collaboration
  • Marci Hunsaker and Dora Ozawa, Special Recognition

For more on each of the award recipients, visit http://slisweb.sjsu.edu/about-slis/news/detail/distinguished-faculty-and-staff-honored-excellence-2014-faculty-and-staff

For more on the SJSU School of Library and Information Science, visit http://slisweb.sjsu.edu/

Faculty, student honored for enhancing equity and diversity

Dean Charles Bullock and the Committee to Enhance Equity and Diversity will honor two members of the College of Applied Sciences and Arts for their efforts at San José State University as well as in the community to enhance equity and diversity with the 2014 CEED Award.

Ashwini Wagle speaks at a community event on healthy eating habits.

Ashwini Wagle speaks at a community event on healthy eating habits.

Ashwini Wagle, a professor in nutrition and food science, and Debbie Reese, a student in the School of Library and Information Science, will be honored at a reception April 29.

Each year, the committee requests nominations for faculty, student, student organizations and staff members who are committed to outstanding service to enhance equity and diversity in the committee. From the dozens of submissions the top nominees are selected to receive the CEED Award.

Reese is a student in the Master of Library and Information Science degree program and is a School of Library and Information Science Circle of Learning scholar. COL is a grant-funded partnership with the American Indian Library Association, funded by the Institute of Library and Museum Services. In her time as a student, she has been invited as a guest at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation’s American Healing for Democracy conference in New Orleans, as well as a presenter at the Pacific Northwest Library Association conference and the International Conference of Indigenous Archives, Libraries and Museums in Tulsa, Okla.

According to her nomination form, she was the recipient of the 2013 Virginia Matthews Scholarship Award for her “sustained involvement in the American Indian community and her sustained commitment to American Indian concerns and initiatives.”

Her award-winning blog, American Indians in Children’s Literature (http://www.americanindiansinchildrensliterature.net/), shined the spotlight on the Arizona law that led to the recent shutdown of the Mexican American Studies Program in the Tucson Unified School District. According to the American Indian Library Association, Reese not only works with the Nambe community and “she strives to inform the dominant culture about issues facing Indian people today.” After graduation, Reese plans to return to Nambe Pueblo to establish a library and archive for the community.

Wagle, who has been a faculty member since 2003, has an interest in how culture can affect food habits. She developed the “South Asian Carbohydrate Counting Tool for South Asians” with some of her graduate students and made the tool available at no charge through her faculty website. According to the colleague who nominated Wagle, the tool is being used in hospitals and diabetic clinics throughout the Bay Area to education South Asians. In addition she also created “SEED: Success and Enhancement through Education and Development” on Kiva.org to provide 30 microloans to minority women.

On campus, Wagle has served as a major adviser to more than 30 graduate student projects and mentored several others, especially minority women in their academic careers. Several of the student projects focused on multicultural/multiethnic enhancement ranging from health and dietary practices of pregnant and lactating South Asian women to infants and toddlers as well as the elderly population.

SJSU’s SLIS honored with award for online teaching excellence

San José State University’s School of Library and Information Science in the College of Applied Sciences and Arts received the 2013 Excellence in Online Teaching Award from the Web-based Information Science Education consortium. The consortium is made up of Library and Information Science graduate schools in the United States and Canada.

Dr. Michelle Holschuh Simmons was honored for the fourth time for her teaching on information literacy and information resources. Professors are nominated by students in their online courses.  One student said while it can be hard to connect with professors in online courses, Simmons’ “humor and thoughtfulness made me feel as if I was in a classroom, face-to-face with her.”

Dr. Michael Stephens has also been recognized multiple times by WISE for “his ability to bring authenticity, as well as vast knowledge of technology trends, to his online courses.”

Melba Tomeo was recognized for her teaching on the history of youth literature. Students said Tomeo creates a dynamic and interactive environment for them.  “She demonstrates a genuine passion for youth literature, which is very infectious!” one student said in a nomination.

The three instructors teach in the American Library Association-accredited Master of Library and Information Science program in the School of Library and information Science, where classes are taught exclusively online. The WISE awards were announced at the Association for Library and Information Science Education 2014 conference in Philadelphia.

For more information on the School of Library and Information Sciences, visit http://slisweb.sjsu.edu/.

 

SLIS professors teach librarians to be skilled researchers

Two faculty members from the College of Applied Sciences and Art’s School of Library and Information Science (http://slisweb.sjsu.edu/) at San José State University are partnering with scholars from Loyola Marymount University (LMU) in Los Angeles to develop and implement a professional development program, the Institute for Research Design in Librarianship.  Dr. Lili Luo and Dr. Michael Stephens’ program is funded by a three-year grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, and aimed at helping academic librarians become skilled researchers who engage in research, share findings and mentor peers.

Approximately 60 academic and research librarians will attend the institute during a three-year timespan. In addition to onsite instruction, institute participants will receive ongoing mentoring and support throughout the year, as they complete research projects. Dr. Lili Luo, an expert regarding research methods education for information professionals, serves as one of the project’s lead instructors, responsible for developing, delivering, assessing and refining institute curriculum. Additionally, Luo’s in-depth knowledge regarding online learning helps the team explore options for delivering some of the institute curriculum virtually, including learning activities that take place before participants attend a nine-day onsite summer institute. Dr. Michael Stephens serves as an institute instructor and will help the planning team explore options for delivering institute curriculum online. He will also identify and develop ways to provide ongoing support to institute participants. The participants will learn how to build personal learning networks, so in the years ahead, they can receive ongoing mentoring and remain motivated to conduct research and share findings.

For more information about the Institute for Research Design in Librarianship, visit http://irdlonline.org/. The first institute will be held from June 16 to 26, 2014 at LMU Library in Los Angeles, California.

SLIS professor promotes access to mobile healthcare info

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Christine Hagar, Assistant Professor
School of Library and Information Science

Christine Hagar, a professor with the College of Applied Sciences and Arts’ School of Library and Information Sciences (http://slisweb.sjsu.edu/) at San José State University, presented on the Mobile Health Information For All by 2015 project that is being led by the Health Information For All 2012-15 Challenge Working Group at a symposium in January.

At the BOBCATSSS conference (named for the nine universities involved in the first symposium in 1993,) Hagar presented on the need for everyone to have “healthcare knowledge and timely access to healthcare information to protect their own health and the health of others.” Hagar and the working group have proposed two stages to a project to increase access to healthcare knowledge, especially in low-income countries, with an emphasis on first aid, maternal and child health information. The group looked at existing frameworks for using mobile phones for providing health information in low-income countries with plans to provide consultation in the future.

With their preliminary findings, they have discovered that out of 1,500 mobile health projects or programs, only nine were found that provide residents in low-income countries with information to deal effectively with acute healthcare situations (see attached poster.)

Hagar worked with Heather Katzinel, a master of library sciences student, who worked as a research assistant during Fall 2013 to come up with the preliminary findings.

The HIFA2015 mission statement follows:

“By 2015, at least one telecoms provider, in at least one country, will endorse the vision of Health Information For All, and will provide free access to essential healthcare knowledge in the local language, preloaded on all new mobile phones they may sell and freely downloadable to all those who already have mobile phones.”

The HIFA2015 community involves more than 10,000 professionals in 167 countries, and includes health workers, publishers, librarians, information technologists, researchers, social scientists, journalists, policy-makers and others – working together towards a shared vision of a world where people are no longer dying or suffering as a result of lack of basic healthcare knowledge. HIFA2015 contributes to the broader goal of the Global Health Workforce Alliance (http://www.who.int/workforcealliance/en/) “All people everywhere will have access to a skilled, motivated and supported health worker, within a robust health system.”

You can join HIFA2015 at
http://www.hifa2015.org/joinhifa

mHealth poster (PDF)

For news on the School of Library and Information Sciences research, visit http://slisapps.sjsu.edu/blogs/wp/ciri/.