Library Journal’s annual “Movers & Shakers” list recognizes professionals who are shaping the future of libraries in a variety of ways. The recently released 2014 class of Movers & Shakers includes two GSLIS alumni: Stephanie Davis-Kahl (MS '98) in the "Change Agents" category, and Cathryne Kaufman (MS '09) in the "Marketers" category. Omar Poler, a LAMP alumnus, also was honored in the "Change Agents" category.
Davis-Kahl is a scholarly communications librarian and associate professor at Illinois Wesleyan University (IWU). She manages Digital Commons @ IWU, an institutional open access repository, is a faculty coeditor of Undergraduate Economic Review, and works to engage undergraduate students in scholarship and publication.
From Library Journal:
Scholarly communications often involve seasoned academics, but Illinois Wesleyan University’s (IWU) Stephanie Davis-Kahl is more concerned with some less experienced scholars: students. As manager of the institutional open access repository Digital Commons @ IWU, “Stephanie is leading a growing national movement in academic librarianship by successfully working with stakeholders on her campus around issues related to the curation of original student work,” says Merinda Hensley, instructional services librarian/scholarly commons coordinator at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Davis-Kahl’s efforts have resulted in a robust collection of close to 9,400 original records from students, faculty, and the university; contributors to Digital Commons @ IWU retain copyright of their work but sign a nonexclusive licensing agreement. Since the site’s launch in late 2007, there have been nearly 1.2 million full-text downloads of work in 277 disciplines.
Kaufman, library services director at Illinois Central College (ICC), and colleague Brittany Dudek are leading initiatives at the ICC Library that have dramatically improved services to students. In 2012, they launched ForwardFocus, a professional development event for community college librarians, which continues to evolve and grow.
From Library Journal:
Janice Kinsinger, associate dean of instructional innovation and learning at ICC, says that in a relatively short time—Kaufman and Dudek joined forces in 2011 when the latter was hired as an electronic resources librarian—the duo have “spearheaded…the transformation” of a traditional community college library into a “progressive…learning center.” They’ve instituted embedded librarians, ebooks and films on demand, virtual chat, interactive hands-on library skills and literacy instruction, space for student and group study, and much more. Now, says Kinsinger, they’re on to phase two, a remodel and new building at the three-campus school. “They willingly share their talents, energetic enthusiasm, and professional synergy for [the good of] our community college students, faculty, and staff….”
That enthusiasm to share extends to the profession of community college librarians as well, says Kinsinger. Inspired by a June 2012 conversation Dudek had with Lori Bell and Tom Peters (2004 and 2005 Movers & Shakers, respectively), Dudek and Kaufman realized that most community college librarians spend their professional development dollars on conferences and training opportunities that cater largely to public libraries and four-year academic institutions. “We did a survey to see if other community college librarians felt there weren’t community college–specific professional development opportunities,” says Dudek. They did. “So we took the information and ran.”
Poler, a 2008 LAMP Scholar, earned his MLS at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2010 and has worked there as an outreach specialist since then. His work, including creation of the Tribal Libraries, Archives, and Museums Project, has drawn attention to American Indian issues in the LIS field.
From Library Journal:
Among TLAM’s initiatives are a graduate course cotaught by Poler, in which students learn about American Indian information issues, including indigenous languages, tribal histories, colonization, and cultural sovereignty; the Convening Culture Keepers professional development miniconference for Wisconsin tribal librarians, archivists, and museum curators; and a student group that brings students to tribal cultural institutions for service-learning projects.
“It’s not enough to study tribal institutions; you have to experience the living part of them,” Poler says.“The TLAM Project has become the model both for library schools that want to teach students how to provide service for underserved populations like American Indian communities, as well as for states that want to create networks of tribal information and cultural professionals,” says Robin Amado, a school librarian at Madison’s Memorial High School who as a graduate student in 2012 was Poler’s student assistant for Convening Culture Keepers. She continues to help organize the conference. So far seven conferences have been held, each attended by 50–60 people.