by Maddy Vericker, DLIS Newsletter Editor
The faculty at the Division have been doing great work lately, and each of our professors has had a paper or panel presentation accepted at the upcoming ALISE Conference 2016. The conference, which takes place in Boston, MA from January 5-8, 2016, explores topics related to education in LIS. This year, the theme, “Radical Change: Inclusion and Innovation,” celebrates the far reaching impact of Dr. Eliza T. Dresang’s work. Dresang’s work on children’s literature and digital resources, and her research into information behavior, earned her the Beverly Cleary Professorship in Children and Youth Services at the University of Washington iSchool in Seattle. Dresang also served on many ALA committees and was dedicated to public service. Using Dresang’s work as inspiration, the conference seeks “contributions that explore inclusive practices and innovative strategies in teaching and research, with special interest for Cultural Diversity, Digital Societies, Intellectual Freedom, Social Justice and International Resources” (ALISE, 2015). For more information on Dresang, please take a look at http://eliza.ischool.uw.edu/.
Dr. Shari Lee is making two panel presentations, one with Dr. Kevin Rioux titled “Strategies for Change: Qualitative LIS Research Methods and Furthering Social Justice,” and another titled “The Global Classroom: Strategies for Designing Innovative Cultural Immersion Programs in Library and Information Science Education.” In their presentation, Drs. Lee and Rioux explore the use of ethnography in LIS research, which they argue is the best way to conduct research with underserved populations. Ethnographic methods, due to the participant research model, provide a deeper understanding of cultural behavior than is possible with other research methods, such as surveys. Dr. Lee will also be presenting on the topic of cultural literacy in LIS, where she has identified a need for further education for LIS professionals. In addressing this issue, Dr. Lee will describe the strategies she used when creating a global studies program for LIS students, “Cultural Immersion: Jamaica.”
Dr. Angel will be making both poster and paper presentations on the topic of Academic Service-Learning (AS-L) at St. John’s DLIS. Her poster presentation, titled “Providing Access to Cultural Heritage Collections through Academic Service Learning,” explores how LIS students use their AS-L projects to understand digital access issues and ALA Core Competencies in practice. Next, Dr. Angel’s paper presentation, which also discusses AS-L, is titled “Uncovering Cultural Heritage through Academic Service-Learning (AS-L) within the Division of Library and Information Science (DLIS) Program at St. John’s University.” The paper discusses more in depth Dr. Angel’s Cultural Heritage Collections website, which is a tool for LIS students to publish their course work on underrepresented communities. All readers are encouraged to take a look at Hidden Heritage Collections at http://hiddenheritagecollections.org/.
Dr. Rajesh Singh will be presenting his paper, titled “What motivates future information professionals? It’s probably not what you think,” as a part of a Juried Paper Presentation. His paper delves into the motivations of LIS students he taught at Emporia State University in Kansas. Dr. Singh was kind enough to send along his abstract, which is as follows:
This research stems from LIS management class discussions on the topic of motivation, and highlights the need for radical shifts in management approaches to motivation in information organizations. Our analysis of four student cohorts shows that intrinsic motivators are far more influential than any “carrot and stick” type of approach. Future information leaders and managers should recognize that intrinsic factors play a bigger role in employee motivation, and put more effort into creating a culture of respect, recognition, trust, and autonomy when tailoring their management strategies to tap into the emotions of their coworkers. (Singh, 2015)