Doctoral candidate Jessie Maimone has been selected as the recipient of the 2025 Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE) Youth Services Graduate Student Travel Award. She will be honored at an awards presentation during the ALISE 2025 Annual Conference, which will be held October 6–8 in Kansas City, Missouri.
Maimone will present her research at ALISE 2025 as part of the Youth Services SIG panel titled "Youth Services: Youth Voices, Perspectives, and Experiences" as well as in the Jean Tague-Sutcliffe Doctoral Student Research Poster Competition. The travel award will support some of the expenses associated with attending the conference.
Maimone's dissertation will examine the experiences of Black teens in public libraries and how race affects their experiences. She is working with the Hampton (VA) Public Library and Big Brothers Big Sisters of Hampton Roads to recruit Black teens for interviews to gather suggestions and feedback on creating library spaces where they feel welcome. The topic of her dissertation is close to her heart.
"I grew up in a very diverse area, and my home library, prior to integration, was the only library for the Black community. As I grew older and lived in less diverse areas, there was certainly a difference in how I felt I was treated at the library," she said. "And as an adult, I've seen a marked difference in how teens from racialized communities, especially Black teens, are treated in an institution that is meant to be a public good for everyone. My hope is that my work will help to uncover how Black teens feel about the library, their interaction there, and what they wish it could be as a means to move toward the library as an institution where Black teens feel it’s for them."
Maimone holds an MSLIS from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, MS in publishing from Pace University, and BA in English from James Madison University. Outside of school and research, she enjoys watching Formula 1 racing and having weekly knitting/crafting get-togethers with friends she has made at the iSchool.