Assistant Professor and MS/LIS Program Director Nicole A. Cooke presented her research on October 3 as part of the Digital Dialogues series at the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities (MITH). The series is the signature events program of MITH, a digital humanities center that is jointly supported by the University of Maryland (UMD) College of Arts and Humanities and UMD Libraries.
In her talk, "Acknowledging History in Order to Disrupt it: Unearthing the Segregated History of Library and Information Science," Cooke discussed examples of segregation in LIS, highlighting The Carnegie Scholars, a group of thirty graduate students who attended the University of Illinois in the early 1970s. She stressed the importance of celebrating the success stories of people of color who are changing the profession as well as learning from mistakes of the past.
During her visit, Cooke also participated in a panel entitled "Libraries: Justice, Technology, and Culture", hosted by the African American History, Culture, and Digital Humanities (AADHum), an MITH partner.
"MITH is doing exciting work at the intersection of libraries, archives, history, and digital humanities, and it was an honor and pleasure to share my work with them," she said.
Cooke holds a PhD in communication, information, and library studies from Rutgers University. She is an expert in human information behavior, particularly in the online context; critical cultural information studies; and diversity and social justice in librarianship with an emphasis on LIS education and pedagogy. Cooke is the 2017 recipient of the American Library Association (ALA) Achievement in Library Diversity Research Award as well as 2016 recipient of the ALA Equality Award. She is the author of Information Services to Diverse Populations: Developing Culturally Competent Library Professionals (Libraries Unlimited, 2016) and co-editor with Miriam E. Sweeney (PhD '13) of Teaching for Justice: Implementing Social Justice in the LIS Classroom (Litwin Books/Library Juice Press, 2017).