Shasteen receives the 2018 Polestar Award

Ruth Shasteen
Ruth Shasteen, School Librarian Program Coordinator

Adjunct Lecturer Ruth Shasteen (CAS '13) has received the 2018 Polestar Award from the Association of Illinois School Library Educators (AISLE) for her contributions to school librarianship. Shasteen served as district librarian at Neoga CUSD and high school librarian at Central A&M High School in Moweaqua, both in the state of Illinois. In addition to being a school librarian, she also taught for many years in Illinois classrooms at Sullivan Jr. High School, Sullivan High School, and Bethany Jr-Sr. High School. 

"At Neoga, Ruth shared her passion for all types of literacies and shed a voluminous light on library studies and what a library could be. Under her direction and tireless efforts, our libraries—three at the time—became working models of Information Power," said Alicia Manuel Kessler, technology coordinator at Neoga CUSD #3.

Since retiring as a school librarian in 2012, Shasteen has continued to leave her mark on the profession, teaching graduate-level courses to future school librarians at the University of Illinois and Illinois State University. At the iSchool, she currently teaches School Library Media Center (IS 516AO) and Cataloging for School Libraries (IS 590CB1). She also co-teaches practicum and student teaching seminars and supervises student teachers in field placements in school libraries.

"As a school librarian, Ruth has influenced the lives of countless students. She has then gone on to teach others how to be school librarians—causing a ripple effect to provide even more children with high quality school libraries. In addition, her role in AISLE and other committees has influenced how we define quality library programs in Illinois," said Christy Semande, librarian at Canton Union School District #66, who nominated Shasteen for the award. 

Shasteen has served on numerous AISLE committees and task forces and has co-chaired the newest version of Linking for Learning, which connects school library media programs to core curriculum, information literacy, and the Illinois Learning Standards.

Georgeann Burch, former iSchool K-12 coordinator who retired in 2016, noted in her letter of support the significant impact of Shasteen's career on librarians and students. "She has truly helped shape Illinois school libraries to be student focused, welcoming places, no matter what the space looks like or the resources that are available. Ruth Shasteen is truly deserving of the ISLMA/AISLE Polestar Award, as one person who has definitely 'made outstanding contributions to school library media programs in Illinois.'"

Shasteen received the award on November 2 at the AISLE Annual Conference in Tinley Park.

Updated on
Backto the news archive

Related News

McDowell to present keynote on data storytelling

Associate Professor Kate McDowell will present the closing keynote of the Measures of Success Educator Impact Series at Western Michigan University (WMU) on March 21. The virtual series, which is sponsored by the WMUx Office of Faculty Development, focuses on equity and educator impact.

Kate McDowell

Dahlen selected as judge for National Book Awards

Associate Professor Sarah Park Dahlen has been selected by the National Book Foundation to serve as a judge for the 74th National Book Awards. The foundation chose 25 judges for this year's awards, which are given in the categories of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, translated literature, and young people’s literature.

Sarah Park Dahlen

Downie to present keynote at CHIIR 2023

Professor and Associate Dean For Research J. Stephen Downie will be the keynote speaker for the 2023 ACM SIGIR Conference on Human Information Interaction and Retrieval (CHIIR 2023), which will be held on March 19-23 in Austin, Texas. In addition to information interaction and retrieval, the multidisciplinary conference explores topics such as human-human information interaction, novel interaction paradigms, new evaluation methods, and related research from various fields.

Stephen Downie

Lawrence Auld, former faculty member, passes away

Lawrence W.S. Auld (PhD '75) passed away on March 2, 2023. He returned to school to earn a PhD in library and information science from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and served on the faculty at UIUC and then at East Carolina University until his retirement in 2003.

Lawrence Auld

iSchool participation in iConference 2023

The following iSchool faculty, staff, and students will participate in iConference 2023, which will be held virtually from March 13-17 and physically from March 27-29 in Barcelona, Spain.