School of Library and Information Science
20 23 YEAR IN REVIEW
CONTENTS
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Message from the SLIS Director
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Our Mission and Vision
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SLIS by the Numbers
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Programs and Degrees
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Faculty Highlights
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Achievements at Simmons
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Student Highlights
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Alumnae/i Highlights
MESSAGE FROM THE SLIS DIRECTOR I am delighted to greet you (again) as the Director of the School of Library and Information Science (SLIS). Last year, I served as the Interim Dean of the College of Organizational, Computational and Information Sciences (COCIS). This October, the Simmons University Board of Trustees approved a new academic reorganization in which COCIS was disbanded, and I returned to my position as Director of SLIS. I am thrilled to share that in this new structure, SLIS will once again be an independent academic unit reporting directly to the Provost. The coming year will continue to be a transitional period and we are eagerly anticipating welcoming you once again as the School of Library and Information Science. 2023 was another successful year for SLIS. Our new student enrollments are strong and our students, faculty, and alumnae/i continue to receive the highest accolades, including fellowships, grants, and invited presentations. We have successfully launched a Library Fellows Program, designed to prepare a diverse group of candidates with different perspectives and experiences for careers in libraries and archives. We are also growing our Cultural Heritage Informatics concentration, and have created a Libraries and Librarianship Concentration, which focuses on the principles of managing a library collection and guiding patrons in their quest for information. I hope you will enjoy reading this year-in-review to learn about all these achievements.
Sanda Erdelez, SLIS Director
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SLIS Year in Review 2023
SLIS Year in Review 2023
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MISSION SLIS educates and empowers the next generation of librarians, archivists, and other information professionals. With a focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion, we ground students in the history and values of our discipline, encourage them to critically examine the current state of our profession, and prepare them to lead the way toward a more just future though innovation and creativity.
VISION Simmons University's School of Library and Information Science imagines an interconnected world with a diverse and engaged citizenry empowered by information, cultural heritage, and technology; in which the information disciplines and creativity improve lives; and where literature, knowledge, and collective wisdom are preserved and celebrated.
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2023 SLIS BY THE NUMBERS FACULTY
DEGREES GRANTED
66
279 Master of Science: 277
Full-time faculty: 19 Tenured: 11
Contract: 3
Tenure-Track: 5
Adjunct: 45
Doctoral: 2
SCHOLARSHIPS
$3.3
STUDENTS
879
million
Awardees: 578
Master of Science: 850 Doctoral: 29
ALUMNAE/I
CREDIT HOURS
14,671 10,281 Master of Science: 14,646
Master of Science: 10,215
Doctoral: 25
Doctoral: 66
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PROGRAMS AND DEGREES
Graduate Programs • Library and Information Science MS
Undergraduate Accelerated Programs
• Library and Information Science: Archives Management + History MA, MS
• Computer Science + Library and Information Science (3+1) BS, MS
• Children's Literature + Library Services to Children MA, MS
• Information Technology + Library and Information Science (3+1) BS, MS
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• Library and Information Science: Libraries and Librarianship MS
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Certificates Concentrations
• Archives Management • School Library Teacher Licensure
• Archives Management • Cultural Heritage Infomatics • Information Science and Technology
Doctoral
• Libraries and Librarianship • Library and Information Science PhD
• School Library Teacher
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FACULTY HIGHLIGHTS NORTH STAR COLLECTIVE FELLOWSHIP Assistant Professor Rebecca (Davis) Stallworth was awarded a fellowship from the North Star Collective, designed to cultivate a close-knit community, mentorship, and professional development for BIPOC faculty in the humanities and social sciences in New England. Davis presented “Flourish or Perish: Exploring the Lived Experience of Trauma in Librarianship,” at the Spring 2023 Augusta Baker Diversity Lecture, February 23, 2023. Stallworth’s research was recognized by the University with her receipt of a 2023 Faculty Award for Excellence in Research.
KEYNOTE PRESENTATIONS In early March, COCIS Interim Dean Sanda Erdelez was a keynote speaker at the Northeast Chapter of the Association for Information Science and Technology (NEASIS&T) Annual Conference, co-hosted with Simmons ASIS&T. The conference theme was Information Science and Technology in Action, and Erdelez delivered, “Information Science - Theory To Application." In April, Adam Kriesberg, Assistant Professor and Co-Director of Dual Degree MS LIS-Archives and MA History Program, presented a keynote address, “The Digital Archivist: The Next Frontier for the Caribbean Profession,” at the Twelfth General Assembly and Conference of CARBICA, the Caribbean Archives Association. Also in April, Professor and Associate Director of SLIS Laura Saunders '01MS, '10PhD co-presented a virtual keynote, “Information Intersections: Mis-and Disinformation at the Convergence of Critical Information, Critical Pedagogy, and Critical Race Theory” at the Maryland Information Literacy Exchange.
GRANT FROM MASSACHUSETTS CULTURAL COUNCIL In January 2023, Assistant Professor of Practice and SLIS West Coordinator Eric Poulin shared his video “Here Comes the Pizzer: The Found Poetry of Gerald Peter Remy,” for the Society for American Baseball Research. This project was funded by a grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council in January 2022.
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INTERNATIONAL PRESENTATIONS In March, Assistant Professor Rhiannon Bettivia co-presented “What Does Provenance LACK: How Retrospective and Prospective Met the Subjunctive,” at iConference 2023 in Barcelona, Spain. Professor Rong Tang also presented at iConference, offering a workshop, “Exploring Data Competencies and the Associated Data Skills, Training, and Education” and participated in a panel, “Data Literacy in Supporting an Inclusive Information Environment.” Associate Professor and Director of the PhD Program, Kyong Eun Oh, presented a paper, “Understanding Researchers’ Shared File Organization Practices in Cloud Storage for Collaborative Projects,” at the Libraries in the Digital Age (LIDA) International Biennial Conference, Osijek, Croatia. Associate Director of SLIS Laura Saunders '01MS, '10PhD presented “Library Instruction for Mis/Disinformation: French and US Perspectives” at the European Council on Information Literacy (ECIL) Conference in Krakow, Poland in October 2023. Saunders also did an invited presentation on Civic Literacy for the public librarians of Kazakhstan through ALA's International and Chapters Relations Office. SLIS Director Sanda Erdelez was selected for the Fulbright Specialist Program at the University of Osijek, Croatia, where she gave lectures on artificial intelligence and librarianship, and advised the LIS faculty on programmatic changes involving new technologies and developments in the information job market.
iLEAD COLLABORATION Simmons SLIS and the San José State University School of Information have a cooperative project, iLead: Preparing Tomorrow’s Library Leaders, which was funded by the IMLS one-year planning grant ($146,770). The project team co-PIs from SLIS are Assistant Professor Rebecca (Davis) Stallworth and SLIS Director Sanda Erdelez. The Schools will collaborate with national, state, and local partners to develop an openly accessible leadership program with an equity, diversity, and inclusion focus that will help inform future Library and Information Science leaders. Library leaders, instructional designers, and LIS practitioners will help identify the required core competencies for workforce development in a post-pandemic society. SLIS Year in Review 2023
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FACULTY HIGHLIGHTS INTERNATIONAL LIBRARIANSHIP In 2023 Associate Professor Lisa Hussey spent time in Rwanda, working to set up a library at the School of Leadership Afghanistan (SOLA) in Kigali, Rwanda, a school for Afghan girls, which was relocated from Kabul when the Taliban took over Afghanistan. Hussey presented her international work on a panel, "Leaning International: Notes from the Field," at the 2023 ALA Annual Conference. This summer, Hussey also resumed the study abroad program with Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea, which provides opportunities for Simmons SLIS students to travel to Yonsei University. The two universities alternate between visiting and hosting each other every year.” SLIS students will travel to Yonsei University in the summer of 2024.
AWARD FOR RESEARCH EXCELLENCE Assistant Professor Rachel Williams is the 2023 recipient of the ALISE / Connie Van Fleet Award for Research Excellence in Public Library Services to Adults. Williams was recognized for her innovative program—a collaboration with Assistant Professor Catherine Dumas—that uses Virtual Reality technology to train LIS students and professionals to support patrons struggling with their mental health. In testing the program with students, Williams reported an increase in empathy and self-confidence, vital skills for public librarians tasked with defusing challenging scenarios with patrons. The award was formally presented in October 2023 at the ALISE conference in Milwaukee, WI.
PRISCILLA MCKEE AWARD FOR FACULTY AND STAFF The Simmons Alumnae/i Association selected former Simmons University Archivist & Deputy Director Jason Wood ’01MS, ’11MS the recipient of the 2023 Priscilla McKee Award for Faculty and Staff. Wood has collaborated on projects across the University, including a collaboration with the School of Nursing to document the history of nursing education at Simmons, and a collaboration with History department students and faculty to preserve the history of the physical campus with the Simmons Memory Project.
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ADVISORY BOARD APPOINTMENT
SELECTED CO-EDITOR Assistant Professor Sumayya Ahmed will be co-editor of the Routledge Studies in Archives book series. Ahmed was also awarded a CASA III Fellowship (CASA for Scholars) for Spring 2024 at AALIM Arab American Language Institute in Meknes, Morocco. Dr. Ahmed, whose research has focused on the access to and preservation of Islamic and Arabic historical manuscripts in post-colonial North Africa, said, “It is truly an honor to be able to steward new voices, experiences and perspectives for this vital series.”
Assistant Professor of Practice Sarah Pratt Martin ’12MS was officially appointed to the Massachusetts State Historic Records Advisory Board in March. Martin was the recipient of the Simmons Steve London Community Engagement Award in April 2023, as recognition of her service to the University
PUBLISHED BOOK Associate Professor and Director of the PhD Program Kyong Eun Oh and Professor Rong Tang co-authored a book, Smartphones, Current Events and Mobile Information Behavior: Consuming, Reacting, Sharing, and Connecting through News, published by Routledge, 2023.
EXCELLENCE IN RESEARCH
NATIONAL ORGANIZATION LEADERSHIP APPOINTMENTS Naresh Agarwal, Immediate Past President, ASIS&T, 2022-2023 Kyong Eun Oh, Program Chair, DCMI 2023 Annual Conference Rong Tang, President, ALISE 2022-2023 Sanda Erdelez, Chair, iSchools Organization 2021-2023
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Assistant Professor Rebecca (Davis) Stallworth received the University Award for Excellence in Research. In presenting the award, Provost Pinizzotto noted Dr. Stallworth’s impressive track record, including peer-reviewed articles, a book chapter, conference presentations and invited talks, and a grant from the Institute for Museum and Library Studies. Dr. Stallworth's research is particularly notable for its critical lens and focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion, which is central to the missions of both Simmons University and the SLIS. Her work includes research on Black and African-American students’ experiences of academic libraries and research on first-generation master’s students. simmons.edu/slis
ACHIEVEMENTS AT SIMMONS "I believe that Simmons is the best program out there. One of the things Simmons does very well is they don't just teach theory, but they also offer practical experiences. There are wonderful internship experiences that prepare Simmons graduates to be very successful in the field. When you come out of the program, you know how to process a collection, create a MARC record, or do a digitalization project. Many of my successes can be traced back to the foundation I received at Simmons." Steven D. Booth '09MS, Fellow of the Society of American Archivists and co-founder of the Blackivists, a collective of trained Black archivists in the Chicago area.
PROMOTIONS Amy Pattee - Professor
MILESTONES Donia Conn - 5 years Catherine Dumas - 5 years Sanda Erdelez - 5 years Danielle Maurici-Pollock - 5 years
Peter Cotticelli - 10 years Kyong Eun Oh - 10 years Lisa Hussey - 15 years Linda Schuller - 20 years
FACULTY ACHIEVEMENTS
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Book
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Research Grants
Presentations at Research and Professional Conferences simmons.edu/slis 5 of which were keynotes
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21 30
Peer Reviewed Publications
Professional Service Engagements
SLIS Year in Review 2023
DEAN'S FELLOWS SLIS students have been awarded COCIS Dean's Fellowships, which include an award package of a scholarship and assistantship. Each Fellowship is a one-year (three-semester) appointment, with the possibility of renewal for successive appointments. Dean's Fellows have the opportunity to work closely with faculty, staff, and students on a variety of projects. • • • • • •
Zhan Hu '16MS: current PhD student: Information Analysis Clio Lang '24MS: Information Techology Support Marco Lanier '24MS: Events and Marketing Ramin Nadieri '27PhD: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Initiatives Glori Chase '23MS: Social Media and Communications Sage Innerarity '25MS: Social Media and Communications
STUDENT ENGAGEMENT 10 Student Organizations
$15,236 awarded in professional development to 126 students
RETIRED FACULTY Ann Graf - Assistant Professor
"All of the little pieces of my job that I do every day are absolutely curated by Simmons. Comfort with research skills, databases, and search strategies were a huge focus in my classes at Simmons, and it helps my job exponentially that I can narrow down information. I often present or communicate what I'm doing, explaining my research process to people who don't have a background in librarianship, so communications skills are also vital." Kaitlin Allair '21MS, Research Librarian, Boston Children's Hospital and the Digital Wellness Lab. SLIS Year in Review 2023 simmons.edu/slis 13
STUDENT HIGHLIGHTS Assistant Professor of Practice and SLIS West Coordinator Eric Poulin brought a group of Simmons students to the Massachusetts Statehouse on Library Legislative Day, March 15. The group included Danita Callender '23MS, Lisa Grasso '24MS, Evan McGonagill '24MS, and Adrian Walker '24MS. The students met with their local Representatives and Senators to discuss issues important to libraries, museums, and archives.
Under the guidance of Faculty Co-Advisors Associate Professor Kyong Eun Oh and Professor Rong Tang, Simmons University's Student Chapter of the Association for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T) received the Student Chapter of the Year award from ASIS&T for the fourth consecutive year. The student chapter has received this recognition twelve times since the year 2000.
SLIS student Laurel Murphy '24MS received a McGrath Global Research Grant to fund her internship abroad. Murphy spent four months at the United Nations ESCAP (Economic and Social Commission of Asia and the Pacific) Library in Bangkok, Thailand. Following her time at the United Nations, Murphy secured another internship with International Student Conferences, escorting undergraduate students on an academic exchange through Washington, DC and South Korea.
SLIS Doctoral students Zhan Hu ’16MS and Jie Jiang ’22MS presented “Incorporating Social VR Technology in Graduate Students’ Collaborative Work: A Comparative User Experience Study of Horizon Workroom” with Assistant Professor Catherine Dumas at NEASIS&T 2023 in March and the ASIS&T 2023 Mid-Year Conference in April.
2023 LIBRARY FELLOWS Jena Saul '25MS Loyola Notre Dame (Library Fellow for Online Learning) Hannah Gershone '25MS Simmons University (Library Fellow for Systems and Web Applications) simmons.edu/slis
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Aijeah Hennessey ’24MS and Jasmine Vandermark ’24MS presented with Library Director & Adjunct Professor Vivienne Piroli and Professor Laura Saunders at the Maine Library Association Annual Conference in May, “Library Fellows: Changing the Profession from the Inside Out.” SLIS Year in Review 2023
COMMENCEMENT AWARDS
In May of 2023, SLIS faculty celebrated the recipients of the 2023 Commencement Awards. These students were honored because of their service and leadership with SLIS. Delaney Knapp '23MS was awarded the ASIS&T Outstanding Information Science Student Award. The Simmons Student Chapter of the Association for Information Science & Technology awards an annual prize for service to the chapter and academic achievement in information science.
Even Delano '23 received the 2023 Terry Plum SLIS West Leadership Award. This award previously called the LIS West Campus Leadership Award, is now named in honor of former LIS West Director Terry Plum, whose kind and thoughtful leadership guided the program for over ten years. It is granted by the LIS faculty and administration at SLIS West to an outstanding student on the SLIS west campus who best exemplifies the leadership values of academic excellence, community building, services, and commitment to the success of other students and the program.
Becca DeGrace '23MS received the 2023 Daniel Fleming Outstanding Student Library Teacher Award. This award is given each year to a Simmons graduate student enrolled in the School Library Teacher Program who has demonstrated academic excellence, outstanding achievement in the school library yeacher practicum experiences, leadership, and service—all qualities are associated with its beloved and highly esteemed dedicatee, Daniel Fleming.
Danita Callender '23MS received the 2023 Kenneth R. Shaffer Outstanding Student Award. The award is given each year to a student whom the faculty has identified as outstanding and possessing great leadership potential.
SPECTRUM SCHOLARS
Frank Foss '23 received the 2023 Estelle Jussim Award for the Visual Arts. This award was created to acknowledge the photographic arts, film in communication, and their role as it relates to the fields of museums and cultural heritage. SLIS Year in Review 2023
• Janin Escobedo-Garcia '23MS • Marian Toledo Candelaria '23MS • Caitlin Abadir-Mullally '23MS • Darshai Hollie '25MS • Sage Innerarity '25MS • Heidi Orozco '25MS
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ALUMNAE/I HIGHLIGHTS Tamar Evangelestia-Dougherty '03MS, Director of Smithsonian Libraries and Archives, was the Commencement speaker for Simmons University’s graduate schools. The ceremony took place in May 2023 at the MGM Music Hall at Fenway. In her speech, Evangelestia-Dougherty expressed the importance of archival traces for everyone, not just librarians: "Working in archives involves acts of preservation.... Librarians and archivists facilitate discoveries of collections for researchers by creating finding aids. We serve as a guide to the making of history and collective memory. Archives embody evidence. And like all living beings, you will leave something behind that is evidence of your existence." In fall of 2023 Dr. Evangelestia-Dougherty was presented with the SLIS Alumni Award.
Emily Pastore Galgano ’18MS, Archives and Collections Director at Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI), has finished a three-year digitization project, funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. SHI hosts one of the largest Indigenous dance festivals in Alaska, Celebration, which takes place in Juneau every other summer; the project was to digitize all of the Celebration footage from the inaugural event in 1982. Galgano says: “All of the Tlingit people come to dance and sing in tribes from across the US. It’s an amazing community that comes together every other year. It’s open to the public, so everyone can see this huge collaboration of these cultures. The earlier footage was shot on two cameras, but we edited it together. People can look up dances and see their family members, and see what dances and songs were performed.” The recordings are a rich record, not just of performances but of the regalia worn (such as the increase in use of sea otter fur after the reintroduction of sea otters to Alaska) and particular harmonies that weren’t retained elsewhere.
Sacha Lamb ’20MS/MA embraces Queerness and Jewish folklore in her debut novel, When the Angels Left the Old Country, an "Ellis Island-era immigrant fairy tale" inspired by her historical research on immigration. The book was a 2022 National Jewish Book Award Finalist in Young Adult Fiction and a Sydney Taylor Award winner. It also won a Printz honor, and received a Stonewall award for the queer aspects of the story. simmons.edu/slis
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SLIS Year in Review 2023
Anna Kijas '08MS co-founded Saving Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Online (SUCHO) to help Ukraine preserve the digital presence of their architectural monuments, visual arts, archives, and libraries.
Ferndale youth librarian Mary Grahame Hunter '20MS was interviewed about her work defending intellectual freedom for the cover story, "Conservatives Are Trying to Ban Books in Your Town. Librarians Are Fighting Back," in the April 2023 issue of The New Republic.
Mohawk Trail Regional School Librarian Emily Willis '05MS was honored with a 2023 Pioneer Valley Excellence in Teaching Award for her work "creating an innovative curriculum, curating a diverse and studentcentered book collection, and crafting a welcoming space for students."
SLIS Year in Review 2023
Derek Mosley '11MS, Archivist and Division Manager at the Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American Culture and History, was inducted as a 2023 Fellow of the Society of American Archivists (SAA) during an awards ceremony at the Joint Annual Meeting of the Council of State Archivists and SAA in Washington, DC. This is the highest honor bestowed by the SAA; previous fellows include Professor Emerita Jeannette Bastian, Associate Professor Katherine Wisser, and Steven Booth ’09MS.
Adjunct Georgina Trebbe ’07MS, was quoted in a July opinion article in The Boston Globe, “To combat book bans, strengthen school libraries.”
Ann G. Bognolo ’15MS was appointed director of the Greenfield Public Library. Kimberly Hewitt '15MS was appointed library director of the Watertown Free Public Library.
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School of Library & Information Science 300 The Fenway Boston, MA 02115 simmons.edu/slis
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