Fall 2025 Issue

Top Stories

SLIS Updates

Congratulations to Cindy Englehart, SLIS Senior Academic Advisor and Retention Specialist, for winning the 2025 College of Professional Education “Above and Beyond Staff Award.” Cindy also received a TWU Staff Council Professional Development Grant ($950) to attend the 2026 TEXAAN Annual Conference.
SLIS faculty member Amy Lanier completed her PhD at the University of North Texas in May 2025. She successfully defended her dissertation, “A Good Cup of Coffee, a Little Slice of America: Finding Common Ground Through Information Flow in a Small-Town Texas Information Ground.”
Congratulations to faculty member Meti Tmava, PhD, who was awarded tenure and promotion to Associate Professor.
SLIS Professor and former SLIS Director Ling Hwey Jeng, PhD, retired at the end of Spring 2025 and was recently awarded faculty emerita recognition from TWU.
Several SLIS faculty received 2025 TWU Service awards:
- 5 years: Kristen Becker, Kerol Harrod, Katie Loomis, Slava Zavalin
- 20 years: Hyuk-Jin Lee

Faculty News

Paria Aria, PhD, published two articles and a report:

Reed, C., Aria, P., Mondésir, G., & Long, H. (2025). Ongoing changes in virtual reference and online instruction in academic libraries. College & Research Libraries, 86(2). https://doi.org/10.5860/crl.86.2.294
Baxter, I., Antognoli, E., Aria, P., Albro, M., Boice, J., McCullough, M., & Jackson, C. (2024). Data Sharing Practices in Agricultural Research: Findings from a Systematized Review. Journal of eScience Librarianship 13(3), e967. https://publishing.escholarship.umassmed.edu/jeslib/article/id/967/
Al Badi, W., Aria, P., Bravo Govea, E., Cayzac, A., Cevher, N., Chugg, B., Flores-Solemos, R., … Weerasinghe, Sa. (2025, February 10). A skills agenda for the trend report. https://repository.ifla.org/handle/20.500.14598/3837

Aria was selected for the 2024-2025 TWU Hanover Grant Academy. The Hanover Grant Academy “seeks to discover and encourage individuals of outstanding talent with a keen interest in research.” It is supported by the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs (ORSP) and the Center for Research Design and Analysis (CRDA). In early 2025, she was also selected for the first TWU Pioneer AI Community of Practice group.

Aria is a 2025 ALISE Leadership Development Internship Program award winner. During the 2025 ALISE Conference, these individuals will participate in, and assist association leadership with conference activities, including the ALISE Emerging Scholars Program. They will also design and complete the 2025 Intern Class project to be presented at the 2026 ALISE Conference, as well as meet with their select ALISE Leadership Mentor throughout the 2025-2026 conference year. During the 2025 ALISE Conference, Paria was honored as a 2025 ALISE Leadership Development Intern.

Aria chaired the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) New Professionals Special Interest Group (NPSIG), which was awarded IFLA's 2025 Dynamic Unit and Impact Award for Quality & Impact of Work.

Kristen Becker, PhD, published an article: Becker, K.L. (2024), Revitalizing a community college library: aggressive weeding’s impact of circulation statistics, Reference Services Review, Vol. 52, Issue 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/RSR-03-2024-0012

Becker also published an article with Katie Loomis, PhD, and SLIS student Xitlalli Hernandez: Becker, K. L., Loomis, K. B., & Hernandez, X. S. (2025). Anxiety, Depression, and Stress Amongst U.S. Public Library Employees. Public Library Quarterly, 1–26. https://doi.org/10.1080/01616846.2025.2496594

Aaron Elkins, PhD, received a TWU Travel Assistance Fund grant for the 2025 AASL National Conference. He was also invited to give a talk on intellectual freedom at the Krum (TX) Public Library on Oct. 8, 2025.

Kenneth "Woody" Evans, PhD, SLIS Adjunct Faculty, earned his PhD in Rhetoric from Texas Woman's University in August 2024. His dissertation, "Authority, Information Organization, and Posthumanism in the Rhetoric of Chaos Magic" is available in the TWU repository: https://hdl.handle.net/11274/16756. Evans was also promoted to the position of Assistant Dean for Research, Instruction, and Outreach at the TWU Library.

Kerol Harrod, MLS, was quoted in a Dallas Morning News article on 4/8/25: “Texas libraries could lose millions following order.” He presented “Storytelling in Action: A Practical Approach to Intellectual Freedom Advocacy” at ALA’s LibLearnX conference in Phoenix in January 2025.

Harrod gave a talk at TEDxTWU 2025 on May 3, 2025, at the TWU Redbud Theatre, titled "Books are Dangerous." He was also elected chair of the Denton Library Board, and accepted an invitation to serve on the Public Library Quarterly (PLQ) Editorial Board.

Deborah Hathaway, MLS, SLIS Adjunct Faculty, published 2 articles:

Hathaway, D. (2024). Review of Supporting Student Parents in the Academic Library: Designing Spaces, Policies, and Services. Journal of New Librarianship, 9(2), 63–66. https://doi.org/10.33011/newlibs/17/7
Hathaway, D., Scrogham, R., & Thenayan, S. (2024). eResource Record Purge Project: By Debbie Hathaway, Ron Scrogham, and Sylvia Thenayan, University of Dallas. Journal of Electronic Resources Librarianship, 36(3), 233–235. https://doi.org/10.1080/1941126X.2024.2390804

Gretchen Hoffman, PhD, published an encyclopedia article: Hoffman, G. L. (2024) Collections: General, subject, and special. In D. Baker & L. Ellis (Eds.), Encyclopedia of libraries, librarianship, and information science (Vol. 2, pp. 423-431). Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-323-95689-5.00032-8

Hoffman also accepted an invitation to serve on the Cataloging & Classification Editorial Board.

Rebecca Ivey, MLS, SLIS Adjunct Faculty, published "Beyond Barriers: Making the Library Accessible to All" in the Summer 2025 issue of Texas Library Journal.

Priya Kizhakkethil, PhD, received TWU Travel Assistance Fund grants in 2024 for the ASIS&T conference and in 2025 for the ALISE conference. Her paper presentation at the 2024 ASIS&T conference, "Student Perceptions of Generative AI in LIS Coursework," was co-written with SLIS Faculty Emerita Carol Perryman, PhD. Her paper presentation for the 2025 ALISE Conference was titled “Teaching Search Expertise in the Age of Generative AI: An Autoethnographic Exploration of Liminality.”

She also presented a poster, developed with Carol Perryman, titled "Are we ready? Generative AI and the LIS Curriculum," at the 2024 ALISE annual conference. In March 2025, she participated in a panel presentation at the ALISE Curriculum SIG meeting.

Kizhakkethil published an article: Miksa, S. D., Klein, J., Kizhakkethil, P., McLain, C., Bank, N. L., & DeWitt-Miller, E. (2024). The Intersection of Bibliographic Control Research and Information Behavior Research: An Analysis of Cataloging & Classification Quarterly Articles from 1980 to 2023. Cataloging & Classification Quarterly, 62(3–4), 255–279. https://doi.org/10.1080/01639374.2024.2356604

Kizhakkethil gave an LIS pedagogy chat on April 11, 2025: "Student Perceptions of Generative AI tools in an Information Retrieval Course." The LIS pedagogy chat series is a program run by Laura Saunders at Simmons University School of Library and Information Science that features LIS educators. She was also promoted to vice chair of the ACRL Awards Coordinating Committee, and she participated in the ACRL AI Competencies for Library Workers Task Force, which published “AI Competencies for Academic Library Workers” in October 2025.

Amy Lanier, PhD, presented a poster, "Proceed with Caution! Trigger Warnings in Online Book-related Information Grounds," at the 2024 Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE) annual conference. She was also a 2024 ALISE Emerging Scholar.

At the 2025 ALISE Conference, Lanier presented the poster “A Good Cup of Coffee, A Little Slice of America: Finding Common Ground Through Information Flow in a Small-Town Texas Information Ground.”

Lanier published an article: Roeschley, A., Lanier, A., Frederick, M.D., Seibert, K., Dentler, L., Alberque, L., Nasiripour, P., Tharayil, C. & Fralia, C. (2025). "We were working alongside with, rather than for, a professor": An autoethnographic reflection on fostering community and research skills through project-based learning in online LIS education. Journal of Education for Library and Information Science. https://utppublishing.com/doi/10.3138/jelis-2024-0088

Lanier was selected to participate in the Fall 2025 cohort of the Faculty Fellows Program as part of TWU’s Quality Enhancement Plan, Amplify Your Impact. She will develop a public-facing assignment that empowers TWU students to connect their disciplinary knowledge to community wellbeing.

Lanier was also a keynote speaker at UNT's Archives Learning Lab Fall 2025 Colloquium. She presented her research on community information sharing, “The Power of Proximity in Building Community."

Katie Loomis, PhD, Amy Lanier, PhD, and Kerol Harrod, MLS, published an article: Loomis, K., Lanier, A. & Harrod, K. (2025). Beyond the shelves: Partnering for impact. Knowledge Quest 54(1).

Loomis and Lanier also published a book supplement: Loomis, K. B., & Lanier, A. D. (2024), Curation lesson starters: Information sources treasure hunt. In D.L. Smith, & L. Bryan. Shared foundations: Curate. (pp. 152-153). American Library Association.

Loomis published several book reviews in 2024 in School Library Journal, including:

Loomis, K. B. (2024). Troop Esme. School Library Journal. [November]
Loomis, K. B. (2024). Dungeon Runners: Hero Trials. School Library Journal. [October]
Loomis, K. (2024). Hellaween: Spellbent. School Library Journal ,70(6), 59.
Loomis, K. (2024). Cookie & Broccoli: Scariest Halloween Ever! School Library Journal ,70(6), 59.

Hyuk-Jin Lee, PhD, presented a poster, "Proposal for a Monster Village in Namsan Mountain, Seoul: Significance from a Phenomenological Perspective," at the 2024 International Conference on Cultural Heritage and Tourism.

He was also invited to become an editorial board member of the Global Journal of Cultural Studies.

Jone MacCulloch, MLS, SLIS Adjunct Faculty, published art and poetry in 2024, and had art on display in summer 2024:

"Seven Crows Keep a Secret," a piece of mixed media art, was published in The Poeming Pigeon: A Journal of Poetry and Art, Volume 14 (October 2024).
A haiku about witnessing the aurora borealis was published in the Haiku Society of America, Members' Anthology, 2024.
Ten pieces of MacCulloch 's art were displayed as part of the Clackamas County Art Alliance (summer 2024): https://www.jonerushmacculloch.com/mixed-media-art-and-photography/places-and-portals-a-collection-of-mixed-media-art-and-photography

Meti Tmava, PhD, received a TWU Travel Assistance Fund grant to present a paper at the 19th International Conference on Knowledge Management (ICKM) conference in 2024. The paper he presented was titled "Information Literacy in the Digital Age: What Is Being Taught in LIS Programs?”

Slava Zavalin, PhD, received a Travel Assistance Fund grant to present a paper at the 2024 DCMI (Dublin Core Metadata Initiative) conference. The paper was titled "Exploring Accuracy, Completeness, and Consistency of Student-Created VRA Core 4.0 Paintings Metadata.”

Zavalin gave two other presentations:

Paper presentation: "Skill-Building in Subject Representation: Assessing Learning Outcomes through Analysis of Student-Created Metadata" at the 2024 Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE) annual conference
Podium presentation as part of the Metadata, Cataloging, and Collections Special Interest Group session: "Truth & Information? Preparing Information Organization & Retrieval Students for an AI Future" at the 2024 ALISE annual conference

Zavalin also published four papers:

Zavalin, V., & Zavalina, O. L. (2025). Are we there yet? Evaluation of AI-generated metadata for online information resources. Information Research: an International Electronic Journal, 30(iConf), 732-740. https://doi.org/10.47989/ir30iConf47215
Zavalin, V., & Zavalina, O.L. (2025). Assessing comparative effectiveness of metadata creation with specialized and general standards for representing artworks. Journal of Library Metadata (JLM). https://doi.org/10.1080/19386389.2025.2499343
Zavalin, V. (2024). Skill-Building in Subject Representation: Assessing Learning Outcomes through Analysis of Student-Created Metadata. Association for Library and Information Science Education, 2024. https://doi.org/10.21900/j.alise.2024.1665
Zavalin, V., & L. Zavalina, O. (2024). Exploring Accuracy, Completeness, and Consistency of Student-Created VRA Core 4.0 Paintings Metadata. International Conference on Dublin Core and Metadata Applications, 2024. https://doi.org/10.23106/dcmi.952488807

At the 2025 ALISE Conference, Zavalin presented as part of a panel: “Cataloging with RDA and Other Content Standards: Identifying Barriers and Exploring Solutions in MLIS Education.”

Tara Zimmerman, PhD, was awarded the 2025 Outstanding Early Career Alumni Award from the UNT College of Information, Department of Information Science, and she is a 2025-2026 TWU College of Professional Education (COPE) Research & Innovation Fellow.

Zimmerman was elected 2025-2026 Chair-Elect of the U.S. Midwest Chapter of the Association for Information Science & Technology (ASIS&T).

Zimmerman received a TWU Travel Assistance Fund grant to present at the 2024 annual meeting of the Association for Information Science & Technology (ASIS&T).

Poster presentation: "Call for Research: Leveraging Social Networking for Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Awareness"
Juried paper presentation: "Crime Junkies: A Case for Studying Information Behavior Surrounding True Crime Podcasts"
Poster presentation: "Determining Trust in Information: Initial Literature Review"

Zimmerman presented a juried paper, written with TWU Teacher Education doctoral student Anthony Rose, "Examining the Role of School Librarians in Teaching Young Children to Detect and Avoid Misinformation," at the 2024 Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE) annual conference. She also presented an ASIS&T webinar: “Living in the Misinformation Age: Personal and Professional Perspectives.”

In October 2024, a group of international visitors from Germany came to visit TWU and attend a presentation by Zimmerman. The group was part of the International Visitors Leadership Program hosted by the World Affairs Council of DFW. They had discovered Zimmerman’s research on social noise and social media misinformation, which aligned with the objectives of their trip, and wanted to meet with her and find out more about her research.

In March 2025, Zimmerman was quoted in an Axios article: “Libraries and museums in limbo across Texas.”

Student News

Four SLIS students swept the 2025 STEAM Powered Poetry Videos Contest – all students in Jone MacCulloch's LS 5663 Poetry for Children and Young Adults course in Spring 2025.

First Place: "Ms. Quito Bandito" by Kimo Aleman (Jaime)
Second Place: "My New Remote" by Valerie Torres
Third Place: "E-Reader, E-Reader" by Samantha Miller (MLS Spring 2025)
Honorable Mention: "Name That Seed" by Sierra Betsill

SLIS students, Alison Beshur, Mary Homan, and Caitlyn Hood, and recent graduates, Valerie Warwas (MLS Summer 2025) and Brooklyn Washburn (MLS Summer 2025), presented the poster "From Literature to Practice: Expanding the Librarians' Roles in Evidence-Based Medicine" at the 2025 Medical Library Association Conference. They performed this research under the direction of Dr. Paria Aria in her LS 5473 Health Reference Services and Resources course in Spring 2025.

Kassandra Gaither presented a TLA webinar in Fall 2024 on DIY Escape Rooms and Mystery Nights.

Jessica Garcia received a 2025 TLA H-E-B Summer at the Library Grant for the Sgt. Fernando de la Rosa Memorial Library in Alamo, Texas, where she is Library Supervisor/ Assistant Director. She created this grant as part of her coursework for Dr. Kristen Becker’s LS 5183 Grant Writing and Management course.

Garcia and Sarah Salomon were 2024 Texas Conference on Digital Libraries student scholarship recipients.

Madison Hastings was awarded a 2025 Mayo Drake Student Scholarship from the South Central Chapter of the Medical Library Association. The scholarship will enable Hastings to attend the 2025 SCC/MLA annual meeting.

Aya Hayasaka (Aya Nakata) had a journal article publication: Nakata, A., & Datta, S. (2024). Current status of librarian collaboration in Japan’s national curriculum IBDP schools in light of the teacher librarian collaboration (TLC) model. International Baccalaureate Education Research. 8. 145-155.

Megan Greaves has been awarded the 2026 Mark Smith-Gloria Meraz Scholarship by the Texas Library and Archives Foundation. Greaves currently serves as an assistant librarian at the Frisco Public Library and volunteers at the Light Farms Elementary Library.

Amber Ursprung received a 2025 Library Infrastructure Facility Improvement (LIFI) grant from the Texas State Library and Archives Commission (TSLAC). The grant will provide upgraded, adaptive technology that will improve accessibility for library patrons at the Liberty Municipal Library in Liberty, Texas. Ursprung created this grant as part of her coursework for Dr. Kristen Becker’s LS 5183 Grant Writing and Management course.

Yesenia Bernal was awarded the Helen Anderson Taliaferro Library Science Scholarship Endowment.

Urania Chambers has made multiple accomplishments this year.

Urania received the 2025 Educator of the Year Award from iWRITE! She also received a grant from iWRITE (sponsored by Phillips 66), to promote reading and writing through a schoolwide publishing project in which every student becomes a published author (2024/25 and 2025/26 school years).
Urania received a Fort Bend Education Foundation Grant to develop a “Puppetry in Motion” theater to help students build confidence and communication skills (2024/25 school year).
She just received an Innovative Labs grant from Inventionland Education to reconstruct her school library to make it STEM ready, and to make it more interactive, appealing, and fun.
And last - but not least - Reader's Digest selected haiku poems by 25 of Urania's students to be published in a children's poetry book scheduled to be released in November 2025.

Luetta Coonrod published an article in Legacy magazine, March/April 2024, "From History to Science and Back Again."

Lola Edwards Gomez has a new job as a school librarian at Centennial High School in Frisco ISD.

Angela King earned a new job as a school librarian at Liberty Grove Elementary School in Garland ISD.

Alumni News

Marj Atkinson (MLS 2012), founder of Ask Marj the Research Sage, is featured in the anthology, Careers in Library and Information Services: First-Hand Accounts from Working Professionals, edited by Priscilla K. Shontz, and published by Bloomsbury Libraries Unlimited in January 2025. In this anthology, Atkinson shares her unique career journey and insights into the evolving landscape of library and information services and entrepreneurship, in her chapter, “Internet Research Specialist.” This contribution not only highlights her achievements but also serves as an inspiration for current students and fellow alumni.

Recent graduate, Kara Belt (MLS Spring 2025), received the 2025 COPE Outstanding Graduate Student Service Award from the TWU College of Professional Education. Belt performed many service activities for SLIS, TWU, and GLISA during her time as a SLIS student, including being President of GLISA for 2024-2025. She is pictured at the awards ceremony with Katie Loomis, PhD, 2024-2025 Chair of the COPE Awards Committee.

Rose Brock (MLS 2003, PhD 2013) was awarded the 2024 Scholastic Library Publishing Award from the American Library Association, which honors a librarian whose unusual contribution to promoting access to books and encouraging a love of reading for lifelong learning exemplifies outstanding achievement in the profession.

She was also selected to be a judge for the Young People's Literature Award of the National Book Awards.

Olivia Chin (MLS 2023) is the Scholarly Communication Librarian at the University of Tennessee Knoxville Libraries. She was the recipient of the Library Society Service Endowment for Extraordinary Customer Service award in 2025.

Nikki Darcy (MLS 2023) received a 2024 Texas Book Festival Collection Enhancement Grant for the Rio Grande City Public Library. The new collection will focus largely on personal finance and small businesses.

Kimberly M. Gay (MLS 2006) published "Fostering Interdisciplinary Library Collaborations: A University Librarian's Role in Enhancing STEM Education through Partnerships" in the Summer 2025 issue of Texas Library Journal.

Gay also presented "Fostering Interdisciplinary Collaboration: A Texas University Agriculture Research Librarian’s Role in Enhancing STEM= STEAgricultureM Education Through Partnerships with the College of Education and the College of Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources" at the 2025 STEM/STEAM and Education Conference.

Aisha Lavallis (MLS Summer 2025) was awarded the prestigious Dr. E.J. Josey Scholarship from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association (BCALA) in Spring 2025. She was only one of two students who received the scholarship. This competitive scholarship recognizes graduate students who demonstrate academic excellence, leadership, and a commitment to the future of librarianship.

Michelle Maraj-Joseph (MLS 2024) is currently the Music Library Manager at the University of Houston Libraries.

Susan Minchew (MLS Spring 2025) was a Remote Metadata Intern with the Library of Congress in Fall 2024 while working on her MLS.

Cari Montgomery (MLS 2015) accepted the position of Library Media Services Coordinator at Melissa (TX) ISD in July 2024.

Annita Owens (MLS 1998) was promoted to Director of Library Research, Instruction and Outreach at TWU Libraries Denton in Spring 2025.

Michelle Paxton (MLS 2019) serves as the Youth Services Coordinator at York County Public Library in Yorktown, Virginia. In October 2024, she was honored with the Donna G. Cote Librarian of the Year Award by the Virginia Library Association in recognition of her dedication to fostering inclusive and accessible spaces, programs, and collections for the community. Her efforts also include strengthening community collaborations and partnerships, further enriching the library’s impact.

Jose-Luis Quintero (MLS 2023) is a Health Sciences Librarian at the University of Houston Libraries supporting the Gessner College of Nursing and Graduate College of Social Work.

Lisa (Propes) Seddon (MLS 2015) received the British Columbia Teacher-Librarians Association Teacher-Librarian of the Year Award in October 2024. Seddon is teacher-librarian at Queensborough Middle School and New Westminster Secondary School in New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada.

Janina Besa Siebert (MLS 2024) accepted a position as a Learning & Curricular Services Librarian for Texas A&M University Libraries in September 2024.

Krystal Smith (MLS 2020), reference manager at the Springfield-Greene County Library in Springfield, Mo., was selected as a 2025 ALA Emerging Leader.

Emma Smutzer (MLS Summer 2025) was selected for a graduate reference internship at the Texas State Law Library for her practicum in Spring 2025.

Sarah Titus (MLS 2021) was a librarian at Mid-Pacific Institute in Honolulu, Hawaii, where she enjoyed growing professionally while immersing herself in Hawaiian culture. She is currently the Librarian at Roanoke Elementary in Northwest (TX) ISD.

Sarah (Buckner) Ward (MLS 2012) accepted the position of Youth Services Supervisor at the Lewisville (TX) Public Library in October 2024.

Beta Phi Mu board members Greg Hardin, Gretchen Hoffman, PhD, and Lilly Ramin

SLIS's Beta Lambda chapter of Beta Phi Mu made the latest issue of the Beta Phi Mu Pipeline newsletter (page 8), highlighting the May 2025 induction ceremony. Board members present at the ceremony included Greg Hardin (MLS 2000), Gretchen Hoffman, PhD (SLIS Director), and Lilly Ramin (MLS 2006).

Congratulations to the TWU SLIS graduates who were accepted to the 2025 class of the Texas Library Association TALL Texans Leadership Development Institute. The 2025 institute will be held Nov. 20-22 at the Sheraton Georgetown Hotel and Conference Center.

Jessica Rico, Plano Public Library System (MLS 2024)
Christalyn Stansell, Cleveland ISD (MLS 2016)
Charlotte Vandervoort, The University of North Texas Health Science Center (MLS 2013)
Maricela Verastiqui, Dallas ISD (MLS 2015)
Anna Waugh, Mesquite ISD (MLS 2020)

Miranda Smith (MLS 2024) landed her dream job in a brand new library at brand new school, Chavez Elementary in Little Elm ISD, and is loving it.

Kassie Chambliss (MLS 2022; SLC 2025) will be presenting at the 2026 Texas Library Association conference in Houston about doing story times with students in life skills classes and functional academics in middle school.

Page last updated 1:02 PM, December 2, 2025