Fall 2021 Issue

Top Stories

Read more faculty, alumni and student news:

Faculty and Staff Accomplishments, 2020-2021

Kristen Becker, EdD, was recently awarded a $75,000 grant from the Jane Nelson Institute for Women’s Leadership to conduct a research project on strategic planning. Dr. Becker also had a proposal for the ALISE 2021 Virtual Annual Conference accepted for presentation in September.

Aaron Elkins, PhD, co-authored a refereed journal article: Hollister, J. M., Lee, J., Elkins, A. J., & Latham, D. (2020). Potential Implications and Applications of Terror Management Theory for Library and Information Science. Journal of the Korean Society for Library and Information Science, 54(4), 317–349. Dr. Elkins also served on a panel discussion for Addressing Race and Justice Issues in Classrooms and Beyond as part of the Conversation Cafe series sponsored by the Penn Yan public library on August 25.

Elkins had 2 presentations:

De La Rosa, S., Elkins, A. J., Majumdar, T., Orepitan, V., Simons, R., Vierkant, A. (2021, November 4). Minimizing harm while maximizing engagement: using identity affinity groups to engage with diversity, equity, and inclusion topics in LIS courses [Conference presentation]. New Librarianship Symposia: Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, Virtual.
De La Rosa, S., Simons, R., & Elkins, A. J. (2021, October 30-November 2). Teaching with Color: Calling in White Faculty to Address Whiteness in the LIS Curriculum [Poster presentation]. 84th Annual Meeting of the Association for Information Science and Technology, Salt Lake City, UT.

Cindy Englehart (SLIS Academic Advisor) was elected TWU ASSET Treasurer for 2021-2022. Cindy has also been selected as a member of CFE-ACUE 2021-2022 cohort for professional development with ACUE’s Course in Effective Teaching.

Gretchen Hoffman, PhD, co-guest edited a two-part special issue: Hoffman, G. L., and Snow, K., guest eds. (2021). Cataloging and Classification: Back to Basics. Special issue. Cataloging & Classification Quarterly, 59(2-3). This special issue includes 11 articles written by cataloging educators and practitioners that focus on fundamental cataloging concepts, standards, and practices. It is available online through the TWU Library, and four articles have been selected for free online access for several months. The table of contents is available at https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/wccq20/59/2-3?nav=tocList.

Ling Hwey Jeng, PhD, gave several presentations during 2020-2021:

“Community-Anchored Transformation in LIS Curriculum and Learning,” at the 3rd Library 2.020 mini-conference, Sustainability in Libraries. The recording is available on YouTube.
United Way of Denton County, Project Blueprint: Nonprofit Board of Director Leadership Development program on Monday, October 19, 2020. Dr. Jeng gave two presentations, the first one on the topic of racial equity, and the other on the topic of Asset-Based Community Development. The recording of both presentations is available on the UWDC Project Blueprint YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/1AXLkPGO2IM.
Panel presentation on the LIS Education Update at the Texas Council on Academic Libraries 2021 Annual Conference.
Panel presentation on “Leading with Empathy and Compassion” at the Special Library Association Texas Chapter annual meeting, October 29, 2021, virtual.

Jeng recently gave a keynote speech at the 2021 Annual Conference of the Chinese Association for Library and Information Science Education (in Taiwan) on the topic of “LIS Education, Sustainable and Resilient.” The conference was held virtually on November 19, 2021.

Jeng was a facilitator of the “Disrupting Microaggression: Engaging in Effective Actions” program at the American Library Association Mid-Winter Meeting, January 22-26, 2021. She also spoke on the panel for the event Virtual Peaceful Protest against AAPI Discrimination on April 18, 2021. The event was sponsored by the Denton Together Coalition.

Jeng was also selected as a Thought Leader on the Librarian WikiWisdom Forum, which is sponsored by John Kluge Center of the Library of Congress and co-sponsored by the American Library Association. Dr. Jeng and 14 other Thought Leaders are collaborating on a report for the Center with actionable recommendations to combat disinformation and fake news in local communities.

Amy Lanier had a presentation: Lanier, A. D., & Morris, A. E. (2021). Get LITerate: Improving information literacy through school/university library partnerships. Cross Timbers Library Collaborative (CTLC) Conference, Virtual. Ms. Lanier was also a Celebrity Reader for the 2021 Celebrity Guest Readers event at Van Zandt-Guinn Elementary School of Fort Worth ISD and read multiple stories throughout the day to Pre-K, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 5th graders.

Hyuk-Jin Lee, PhD, co-authored a new volume of a book: Lee, H. J., Joo H. Y., & Lee. S. M. (2020). Encyclopedia of Traditional Korean Monsters and Ghosts (vol. 3).

Katie Loomis, PhD, co-authored a refereed journal article: Stamm, B., & Loomis, K. B. (in press, 2021). What does it mean to "engage" for learning on social media?: An analysis of Global Read Aloud Twitter participation. Journal of Research on Technology in Education.

Carol Perryman, PhD, co-authored a refereed journal article that was just published: Lee, M., DeMuynck, M., & Perryman, C. (2021, Oct.). Emergency Department Utilization among Patients with Schizophrenia in North Texas. Texas Public Health Association Journal, 73(4):16-23.

Perryman also had 2 virtual presentations:

Perryman, C. (2021). Public Libraries and Public Health: Partners for Community Health. WebJunction, Virtual.
Perryman, C. L., & Connery, D. (2021). Academic Library Connections. 2021 Rural Libraries Summit (ALA/PLA), Virtual.

Rachel Simons, PhD, has been appointed to serve on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Community Informatics for a 2-year term. Dr. Simons also received an Honorable Mention in the Best Paper Award category from the 2021 Association for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T) Special Interest Group for Social Informatics (SIG SI) for the paper she co-authored: Simons, R. N., Fleischmann, K. R., & Roy, L. (2020). Leveling the playing field in ICT design: Transcending knowledge roles by balancing division and privileging of knowledges. The Information Society, 36(4), 183-198.

Simons co-authored a refereed journal article: Simons, R. N., Gurari, D., & Fleischmann, K. R. (2020, October). “I Hope This Is Helpful": Understanding Crowdworkers' Challenges and Motivations for an Image Description Task. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, 4(CSCW2). https://doi.org/10.1145/3415176.

Simons had two refereed conferencing proceedings:

De La Rosa, S., Simons, R. N., & Elkins, A. (2021, October). Teaching with Color: Calling in White Faculty to Address Whiteness in the LIS Curriculum. Proceedings of ASIS&T 2021 Annual Meeting.
Simons, R. N., Girard, R., & Elkins, A. (2020). Supporting Inclusive Gaming Communities Through Fostering Online-Offline Hybrid Spaces. Proceedings of ASIS&T 2020 Annual Meeting. https://asistdl.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/pra2.394.

Sylvia Vardell, PhD, had several publications:

An article “Becoming an Anti-Racist Librarian” in School Library Connection (pp. 44-45).
An article “Celebrating Latinx Literature for Young People" in School Library Connection, September/October issue.
A review of Dear Treefrog for "Calling Caldecott," hosted by Horn Book Magazine.

Vardell made a podcast for "The Guest Book" for Holiday House Publishing Company, interviewing author Jordan Scott and illustrator Sydney Smith, creators of the award-winning children's book, I Talk Like a River. She also co-edited a new book: Vardell, S. M. and Wong, Janet. Eds. (2020). Hop to it: Poems to get you moving. Princeton, NJ: Pomelo Books.

Vycheslav (Slava) Zavalin, PhD, has published two journal articles:

Zavalin, V.I. and Miksa, S.D. (2021, August 9). Collecting and evaluating large volumes of bibliographic metadata aggregated in the WorldCat database: A proposed methodology to overcome challenges. The Electronic Library, 39(5). https://doi.org/10.1108/EL-11-2020-0316.
Zavalin, V. I., Zavalina, O. L. & Miksa, S.D. (in press, 2021). Exploration of subject representation and support of Linked data in recently created metadata: Examination of most widely held WorldCat bibliographic records. Library Resources and Technical Services, 65(4).

Zavalin also had 2 presentations:

Zavalin, V. (2021). Analysis of Genre and Subject Representation in the Children's and Young Adults' Cataloging Program (CYAC) Bibliographic Metadata for Fiction Books [Paper presentation]. International Association of School Librarianship Annual Conference.
Zavalin, V., Zavalina, O. L., & Safa, R. (2021, November 2). Longitudinal Analysis of Change in Subject Metadata in MARC21 Bibliographic Records Representing Audiovisual Materials [Refereed paper presentation]. Association for Information Science and Technology, Salt Lake City, Utah.

Alumni and Student News, 2020-2021

Alumni News

Two alumni, Judy Boone (MLS 2018) from Richardson ISD and Rolando Ramirez (MLS 2014) from McAllen Public Library, were selected for the 2021 TLA TALL Texans leadership development program, which took place in July 2021.

Dianne Connery (MLS 2020) is the Director of the Pottsboro Area Public Library, which received the American Library Association, Libraries Transforming Communities (LTC): Focus on Small and Rural Libraries grant. Connery also gave a presentation on “Rural Libraries Extending Public Services” at the International New Librarianship Symposia: Symposium 4 A New Normal Agenda in a COVID-Affected World on November 18, 2021.

Kimberly Gay (MLS 2006) was elected to serve on the Board of Directors of Beta Phi Mu, the International Library and Information Studies Honor Society.

Gwin Grimes (MLS 2020) was featured in this Texas Library Journal article: https://issuu.com/txlibraryassociation/docs/tlj-fall-2021_final/s/13584139. She developed the Kids Pantry project in the Community-Based Project Design course in Fall 2019 and took the initiative to implement it with Fort Davis ISD after the pandemic lockdown began in Spring 2020. Her library, Jeff Davis Public Library, took the lead in this project which has expanded to include a bookmobile called Mobile Comunidad to combine library services with other food and social services for residents in need.

Debbie Hathaway (MLS 2016) co-authored a book, Sudden Position Guide to Acquisitions, published by the American Library Association, 2020.

Carrie Kopacz (MLS 2020) published an article “Technology: How much of a priority are we actually making it?” in Texas Library Journal, 96(4): 25-26.

Whitnee Lowe (MLS 2018) had her first novel, Raising Limbo, published by Samone Publishing.

Rachel Pecotte (MLS, Summer 2021) was selected (when she was a current student) for an Association for Library Services to Children (ALSC; a division of the American Library Association) BIPOC membership scholarship and received a second scholarship through the Alice L. Haltom Educational Fund. The ALSC Membership Committee was moved by Pecotte's clear demonstrated commitment to children’s library services and to promoting diversity and inclusivity values in all aspects of library service to children.

Pecotte was also selected to participate in the highly competitive IMLS-funded Evidence Synthesis Institute sponsored by the University of Minnesota Libraries. Skills in performing systematic reviews are among the most desirable research and research support skills in library and information practice.

Crystal Sliva (MLS, Summer 2021) received the TWU College of Professional Education 2020-2021 Award for Outstanding Graduate Service, while she was finishing up her MLS degree.

Student News

Congratulations to Beatrice Downey and Isaac San Miguel who were both selected for the 2021-2022 cohort of the prestigious ALA Spectrum Scholarship program. The ALA Spectrum Scholarship program was established in 1997 to recruit students of color who aspire to become librarians, with $5,000 tuition scholarships, conference stipends, and leadership training.

Lora Abrams submitted a grant application on behalf of the Boyce Ditto Public Library in Mineral Wells, Texas, based on her grant proposal from the course LS 5183 Grant Writing & Management that she took in Summer 2021. The library was informed that the proposal for a tablet lending program was awarded $20,000 by the Hancher Foundation. Congratulations, Lora!

Matthew Cross gave a Student Presentation at the TWU Creative Arts and Research Symposium, April 13 and 14, 2021, on “Mental Health Treatment Using Telehealth: Implications for Consumer Health Protections.” His faculty sponsor was Carol Perryman.

Sandra Desjardins was selected to participate in the new TWU “[Wo]Mentoring in Graduate Education” grant project created by the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs and funded by the Jane Nelson Institute for Women’s Leadership. Desjardins's faculty mentor is Carol Perryman.

Olga Rodriguez was the recipient of a Bilingual/ESL Education Association of the Metroplex (BEAM) Scholarship.

Jennifer Urban-Flores is the recipient of Texas Library Association Summer School Scholarship and the Border Region Library Association scholarship.

Page last updated 2:49 PM, August 7, 2023