LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SCIENCE NEWS
The School of Information Studies at Syracuse University 
 
The Original Information School

August 2005
 
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SU receives nearly $1 million grant from IMLS

Thanks to a Librarians for the 21st Century grant from the Institute for Library and Museum Services (IMLS), the School of Information Studies at Syracuse University will partner with the New York City Department of Education to create a graduate-level program focused on educating school library professionals for service in high-need urban schools. 
 
The $999,033 grant will provide two-thirds tuition scholarships for 40 masters-level students to participate in the program, which has been dubbed A Plus (A+) for New York City's Libraries. Students will also have the opportunity to receive additional scholarship support through New York City's Department of Education. Barbara Stripling, director of school libraries for NYC and former president of AASL, is a principle investigator on the project.

The program will teach students to assist underserved communities by bringing together a distinguished school media faculty and expanding on the strengths and resources of the School of Information Studies. Most courses will be taught in New York City or through WebCT, the School's online teaching and learning environment. Two cohorts will be recruited to begin the program in spring 2005 and summer 2006.
 
Ruth Small, Syracuse professor and director of the school media program, is another principal investigator for the IMLS grant. Program advisor will be Pam Berger, Syracuse adjunct professor, educational technology/library consultant and trainer with more than 20 years of library experience, publisher and editor of InfoSearcher, and author of Internet for Active Learners.

In addition to Syracuse faculty, courses will be taught by a national faculty, which includes Ross Todd of Rutgers University, Jackie Mancall of Drexel University, and Linda Cooper of the Pratt Institute.
 
Librarians for the 21st Century supports efforts to recruit and educate the next generation of librarians and the faculty who will prepare them for careers in library science. It also supports grants for research related to library education and library staffing needs, curriculum development, and continuing education and training.

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SU alum Louise Schaper at the helm of 2005 "Library of the Year"

Louise Schaper became the library executive director of the Fayetteville Public Library in Fayetteville, Arkansas in 1997; eight years, hundreds of thousands of new materials, and one state-of-the-art new building later, she and her staff have been honored with the 2005 Thomson Gale/Library Journal Library of the Year award. 

In addition to the national recognition as the best library in the country, the Fayetteville Public library received a $10,000 check, presented at the ALA annual conference in Chicago, and was featured in a Library Journal article, "Five Steps to Excellence."

The Library Journal article described the extraordinary steps Schaper has taken in changing the Fayetteville Public Library from struggling library in a poor area to a vibrant community center offering the latest in information and computing technology, seminars on everything from playwriting to children's literature, and extensive collections of books, music, and film. 

Schaper said her previous experience as a corporate librarian at AT&T-Bell Labs in New Jersey helped her advance the library's development early on. Presenting requests for funding to Fayetteville's then-mayor, Fred Hanna, Schaper used a basic benchmarking technique to show the poor condition of her library compared to others in similar cities and situations.  

But Schaper told the Library Journal that her real secret for success was that she and her staff acted as if Fayetteville were already a great library, even before it reached its current level of success. Once the public got a taste of what a top-flight library could offer, she said, community support swelled. 

Last fall, Fayetteville became home to an 88,000 square foot modal library. In addition to housing a collection that has increased 2.5 times since 1997 to a total of 718,159 holdings, the new building stands as a testament to Fayetteville's community spirit. The bulk of the $23.3 million project's funding was provided by a temporary sales tax increase approved by nearly 75 percent of voters, and private gifts made up an extra $5 million of the cost.

Keeping with the community spirit, the Fayetteville Public Library offers patrons more than just a place to check out books. It boasts meeting rooms, a café, a writers' center, and a bookstore. 

Schaper is a 1984 MLS graduate of the School of Information Studies at Syracuse University. In 2003, she received the 21st Century Librarian Award.
  
Congratulations Louise Schaper and the Fayetteville Public Library staff for their continued excellence!

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A faculty profile: Jian Qin

Among the most prolific researchers and publishers on the faculty at the School of Information Studies, Jian Qin has written dozens of journal articles and conference papers in the fields of knowledge organization, information organization, and information technology applications in managing knowledge and information in various domains such as biomedical and educational information resources.

Qin's most recent research projects involve a query log analysis of the Gateway to Educational Materials (GEM) learning object vocabulary, and the Open Knowledge Exchange (OKE) ontology in the workforce domain. 
Previous publications for Qin include articles about vocabulary use in XML standards in the financial domain and other content management tools. A research paper on metadata vocabulary for educational resources is forthcoming in the Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology.
 
Qin has acted as co-editor of several special journal issues on knowledge discovery in databases and knowledge representation and she currently serves on the editorial board of Information Research: An International Electronic Journal and Modern Library and Information Technology. She is the chair-elect for the Special Interest Group for Scientific and Technology Information of the American Society for Information Science and Technology. 

Earlier this month, Qin, an associate professor since 1999, taught IST-558: Technologies for Web Content Management as part of the school's Regnier Institute on Leadership and Change. The week-long intensive class covered the basics of content management through XML programming and allowed students to improve an existing web site by implementing their own XML vocabularies and designs. She is preparing an online version of this course for spring 2006.

Qin also has taught an online version of IST-616: Information Resources: Organization and Access, incorporating quizzes, skill workshops, short papers, and a research project into the class. Students commented that she "comes across as being a very kind, thoughtful professor. She fostered a friendly, non-competitive climate for the online discussions. Classmates willingly helped each other out with resources, tips, and different perspectives."

In addition to her teaching work, Qin is faculty chair of the school's SLA student chapter and the advisor for the Certificate for Advanced Studies in Digital Libraries program. 

Qin received a PhD in library and information science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1996 and a master's degree in library science from the University of Western Ontario in 1986. 

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Oregon distance-learning student selected for Regnier endowed scholarship

After working as a paraprofessional in three academic libraries over the past seven years, Sherry Buchanan of Portland, OR will get a chance to earn her MLS as a distance student with the help of a full-tuition scholarship from the Victor and Helen Regnier Charitable Foundation.

The scholarship will allow Buchanan to pursue her dream of becoming a professional librarian, a goal she has aspired to for years, but which had been unable to pursue because of financial constraints. 

Buchanan, who currently works as a library technician at Portland State University, has demonstrated a strong commitment to the profession: writing articles, presenting at conferences, chairing and coordinating library events, and participating in task forces and initiatives. 

In April, the Regnier Charitable Foundation donated a $750,000 endowment to the School, which has been used to fund the Helen Benning Regnier Summer Institute on Leadership and Change, as well as endowed scholarships for distance students. Regnier earned a master's degree in library science from SU in 1937.

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For more information. . .
 
Amy Sloane-Garris
Director of Communications & Graduate Marketing
Syracuse University--School of Information Studies
Tel:  315.443.6885
Fax:  315.443.6886
[log in to unmask] 
www.ist.syr.edu 
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