Spring (No) Break!
We
are past spring break and careening toward the end of the spring
semester. It seems that we say that every spring about this
time. But the past days have been splendid ones to walk across
campus with one floral explosion after another unfurling on
the Horseshoe and other leafy stretches. It's a perfect
enticement for all those prospective students and their parents
visiting from Ohio and Pennsylvania.
 I
spent one day of spring break with Cocky's Reading
Express™ in Hampton County visiting the Fennell and Estill
elementary schools. This effort is part of the SLIS grant from
the Barbara Bush Texas Fund for Family Literacy. We're
visiting schools in these two counties four times in the course
of the spring and fall semesters, adding a family literacy
component to our early reading emphasis.
Kim Jeffcoat has taken
over CRE activities and had four great students — Jessica,
Sarah, Silas and James — devoting two days of their spring
break to reading and handing out books to hundreds of pre-K,
K and 1st grade students. Cocky insists the children all pledge
to read every day with their parents, grandparents, siblings,
pets and anyone else who will read with them. In unison, the
children shout, "I promise, Cocky." Cocky's
hard to resist. A day with CRE is a great tonic and spring
break refresher.
Back from break, our journalism school paired hosting the
AEJMC Southeast Colloquium with inaugurating our first Media & Civil
Rights History Symposium. The combined events enabled us to
bring Isabel Wilkerson, journalist and author of The Warmth
of Other Suns, to Columbia as the keynote speaker. Wilkerson's
work traces the African-American migration out of the South
during much of the 20th century. Wilkerson pegs the north and
westward shift of some six million African-Americans between
World War I and the 1970s. But it also spans the time following
the ill-judged Supreme Court decision — often referred
to as "separate but equal" — in Plessy v. Ferguson
(1896) and the rectifying decision and subsequent implementation
of Brown v. Board of Education (1954).
In recent years, there has been what Wilkerson calls a "return
migration" to a South that is economically and socially
changed, if not perfect. As I listened to Wilkerson and her
passion for telling this story, I was struck by how important
it is to the future of South Carolina that the children in
Estill, and Fennell and elsewhere acquire the skills so they
can also grasp what Wilkerson relates in The Warmth of Other
Suns.
As I write, there's a warm, spring sun over Columbia.
Hope it's shining where you are.
Alumni News
 Alumnus Named "Mover and Shaker"
Rogan Hamby, '99, MLIS, will be inducted into Library
Journal's Movers & Shakers, a distinguished annual
award that, over the course of the years, has honored 500 individuals.
Hamby currently manages all the IT needs for Florence County
Library System (FCLS) and also is central administrator for
SC LENDs (South Carolina Library Evergreen Network Delivery
System), a consortium formed in 2009 that uses Evergreen open
source software for a shared Integrated Library System (ILS).
It now includes one-third of South Carolina's county
public library systems and the State Library as members.
Hamby
began working at the South Carolina State Library as Director
of Information Technology on March 28.
 Alumna Named Teacher of the Year
SLIS alumna Dawn Frazier, '10, MLIS, is the school
librarian at Goose Creek Primary School and, earlier this year,
was named Teacher of the Year.
Her article, "School Library
Media Collaborations: Benefits and Barriers," was published
in the Nov/Dec 2010 issue of Library Media Connection.
Alumna Helps Library Win Bookapalooza Award
Paula Childers, ‘01, MLIS, is the children's
services manager for Florence County Library, which was awarded
the Bookapalooza Award by the Association for Library Service
to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association
(ALA), and the 2011 ALSC Grant Administration Committee. Florence
County Library is one of only three nationwide winners of the
2011 Bookapoalooza program. Designed to help transform each
library's collection, the Bookapalooza award provides
an opportunity for communities to use these new materials in
creative and innovative ways, aligning with ALSC's core
purpose of creating a better future for all children through
libraries.
 Alumna Named Bayside Area Library and Special Services Library
Manager
Susan
Paddock, ‘09, MLIS, is the library manager at
the Bayside Area and Special Services Library (BASS) of the
Virginia Beach Public Library.
In addition to circulation of
over 100,000 items per year, BASS provides outreach to the
14 public schools in its service area. The Special Services
division, in cooperation with the Library of Congress and the
Library and Resource Center of Virginia, provides library service
to the Tidewater regional area residents with disabilities.
Alumna Wins Member Contest
Kate Walker, '09, MLIS, is a librarian at the Anderson
County (S.C.) Library System and won the 2011 Why I'm a YALSA
(Young Adult Library Services Association) Member contest.
Walker wins a free year of YALSA membership and an e-reader
for her essay. For more than 50 years, YALSA has been the world
leader in selecting books, videos and audio books for teens.
For more information, visit www.ala.org/yalsa/booklists.
College News
The School of Journalism and Mass Communications Hosted
SE Colloquium and Media & Civil Rights History Symposium
On March 17-19, the School of Journalism
and Mass Communications hosted the 36th annual AEJMC Southeast
Colloquium and the inaugural Media & Civil Rights History
Symposium. The Southeast Colloquium is an annual academic conference
of journalism and communication professors and students in
the fields of history, law, print media and broadcast media.
The Media & Civil Rights History
Symposium gathered scholars from history, journalism and other
disciplines in the U.S., the United Kingdom and South Africa
to share research on the relationships between civil rights
movements and various types of communication.
See
photos and video>
Student News
SLIS Students Showcase Work
Konni Shier, MLIS student, participated in the 2010 No-Frills
Conference at Central Carolina Technical College. For the September
presentation, she produced a Google Earth Lit Trip. This online
application allows you to coordinate locations mentioned in
the text of a book with images and video from Google Earth
to produce a multimedia presentation. At the South Carolina
Association of School Librarians in March, Shier and Lisa Ramage
demonstrated to school librarians three online technologies--
Glogster, Historypin.com and Google Earth--that can be utilized
in teacher-librarian collaborations.
Aileen M.J. Marshall, MLIS graduate student and law librarian
for Central Rappahannock Regional Library, had her article,"Library
Services in Correctional Settings," published in the
Jan./Feb. issue of Information Outlook.
Upcoming Events
The School of Library and Information Science's Deans' and
Directors' Lecture
"What Kind of Science Can Library and Information
Science Be?"
Speaker: Dr. Michael Buckland, Professor Emeritus at Berkeley
University
April 7, 7 p.m.
Ernest Hollings Library Program Room, Thomas Cooper Library
May Carolina Alumni Weekend
Make plans to join us and let the natural beauty of the University
of South Carolina campus inspire you this spring! Hope to see
you at the following events hosted by our college:
 May 13, 3:30 p.m., Hollings Library
Social Media: Not Just For Your "Friends"
May 14, 2:30 p.m., Carolina Coliseum
Annual Alumni Society Baseball Gathering
Bring your own food and drink and enjoy mingling with other
alumni, faculty and staff of the College of Mass Communications
and Information Studies. We'll take
the Gameday Shuttle to the baseball stadium after tailgating.
Cost is $2 per passenger.
May 14, 4:30 p.m., Carolina Stadium
Baseball Game vs. Arkansas
Group tickets available for $5 each. RSVP to Bianca Crawford
at Bianca@redcarpetcommunications.com if you would like a
ticket.
Student Spotlight
Huyen
Diep
By Caroline O'Neal, SJMC Undergraduate
 Huyen
Diep, a West Columbia, S.C., native, chose to pursue a master's
degree in library and information science because she says
nothing is more gratifying than helping adults find information
that can improve their quality of life.
"Being able to help adult patrons learn and find the
information they need has been satisfying for me … working
in a public library allows you to do so much more for your
community and really be a part of it," Diep said.
Diep works as a full-time library assistant at the Cayce/West
Columbia Branch Library of the Lexington County Public Library
system while she attends graduate school. She was drawn to
the School of Library and Information Science MLIS program
because it is flexible for those with full-time jobs. She said
the degree will help her continue her career path in library
science.
Although Diep helps patrons find information they need via
print and electronic sources, she also conducts monthly book
discussions and sits on the committee that selects which graphic
novels are purchased for the county library system.
When asked about the particularly rewarding aspects of her
job, Diep replied, "It's the small stuff, I guess — helping
people fill out job applications, or set up email addresses
or learn how to use a database."
Diep has also participated in diaper drives for Harvest Hope
and blood drives through the American Red Cross, all hosted
by the Lexington County library system.
After graduation, Diep plans to continue working in the adult
services portion of the public library system so she can continue
educating and interacting with members of her community.
Diep has served as vice president of LISSA (Library and Information
Science Student Association) and believes her involvement provided
her with a priceless opportunity to network with other students
with similar interests. She earned her undergraduate degree
in anthropology from USC. |
