Assistant Professor Nicole A. Cooke will speak at the 2016 LACUNY Institute—hosted by the Library Association of the City University of New York (LACUNY)—on May 20 at Brooklyn College. She will copresent a talk titled, “Interrogating Racism and Exploring Identity in LIS Classrooms: Collaborative Autoethnography in Social Justice Education,” with Robin Kurz, assistant professor in the School of Library and Information Management at Emporia State University.
Through personal journal entries and recorded segments of a joint reflection, two LIS faculty members will guide attendees through their autoethnographical journey of teaching social justice courses and their dialogic and critical reflections on this process as examined through the lenses of their roles as educators, scholars, and activists.
Cooke and Kurz both teach graduate-level courses that center race, racism, and identity in both face-to-face and online classroom spaces. Throughout the Spring 2016 semester, the two collaborated to document their experiences as they each taught courses that introduced students to concepts such as intersectionality, cultural competence, and privilege in an attempt to empower them to become social justice advocates in their future practice.
Earlier this week, Cooke led a workshop titled, “Beyond Awareness: Outreach to Underserved Patron Populations,” with Renee F. Hill, assistant professor of practice at Syracuse University’s School of Information Studies. The professional development workshop was held on May 17 at Queen Anne’s County Library in Stevensville, Maryland. It attracted forty participants from public libraries across the state.
Diversity isn’t just about race and ethnicity. This workshop focuses on the library and information needs of individuals who are considered “traditionally underserved,” such as patrons who have disabilities, are currently or were formerly incarcerated, are English language learners, are homeless, or are members of the LGBTQ community.
We’ll discuss the components of cultural competence, learn principles of inclusion for all library user groups, and articulate strategies that can be implemented in the library in order to provide more effective outreach to underserved library user groups.
In addition to her role as assistant professor, Cooke is a faculty affiliate in the Center for Digital Inclusion at GSLIS. Her research interests include human information behavior, particularly in an online context, eLearning, and diversity and social justice in librarianship. She has published articles in journals including JASIST, The Library Quarterly, InterActions: UCLA Journal of Education and Information, Polymath: An Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences Journal, Library and Information Science Research, Information Research, and New Review of Academic Librarianship. Cooke also coauthored Instructional Strategies and Techniques for Information Professionals (Chandos Press, 2012).
Named a Mover & Shaker in 2007 by Library Journal and the 2016 recipient of the American Library Association Equality Award, Cooke is professionally active in ALA, ALISE, ASIS&T, and several other professional library organizations. She holds an MLS degree from Rutgers University, an M.Ed. in adult education from Penn State, and a PhD in communication, information, and library studies from Rutgers, where she was an ALA Spectrum Doctoral Fellow.