Category: News

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Faculty Position: Information Scientist and Information Designer at the University of South Carolina

The University of South Carolina School of Library and Information Science in Columbia invites applications and nominations for two tenure-track faculty positions at the Assistant or Associate Professor level to begin fall 2017.

Shape the future of library and information science. Pursue your interests in a diverse, intellectually stimulating, and multi-disciplinary environment that provides support and encouragement as part of a collaborative work culture. Be a strong voice in the shaping of a growing information science undergraduate program. An earned doctorate in library and information science or a related field is preferred, while strong candidates who are ABD with a fixed graduation date will be considered. This position requires a clearly articulated research agenda, and enthusiasm for and excellence in teaching in both online and face-to-face formats.

The School is particularly interested in two candidates with specializations in one or more of the following areas:

  • Information Science
  • Information Retrieval, Storage, and Access
  • Human Computer Interaction
  • Databases
  • Knowledge Management
  • User Experience and Service
  • Web Systems
  • Metadata
  • Data Analytics

Selected candidates will be expected to help with the school’s commitment to diversity through research, teaching, and service.

The School of Library and Information Science has a growing Bachelor of Science in Information Science program and a joint Certificate of Health Communications with Public Health and Communications. The School’s MLIS degree program is fully accredited by the American Library Association.  The school library preparation program is part of the University’s Professional Education Unit which is accredited by the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP).  The School also offers three programs of advanced study beyond the Master’s degree (the Certificate of Advanced Graduate Study in Library and Information Science, the Specialist in Library and Information Science, and the Ph.D. in Library and Information Science).  Faculty teach across all degree programs.

The School has a strong commitment to distance education and is one of two Schools in the College of Information and Communications. The second is the School of Journalism and Mass Communications. The School is located on the campus’ historic Horseshoe. It has nationally recognized programs in school library media, youth services, and medical librarianship. Since its inception, the School has emphasized the use of information technology as a vital component of library and information services.

Founded in 1801, the University of South Carolina-Columbia is the flagship campus of an eight-campus, fully accredited, state-supported system. USC­ Columbia has strong undergraduate and graduate programs and other highly regarded professional schools including: medicine, law, education, engineering, social work, pharmacy, public health, arts and sciences, nursing, and business administration. The University is a Carnegie Research I institution. Approximately 33,000 students are enrolled on the Columbia campus and more than 44,000 throughout the system. The City of Columbia is the state capital with a metropolitan area population of almost half a million. It is a state center of financial, transportation, and industrial development, and it has a rich historical and cultural tradition.  It is located within easy driving distance of both mountains and coast.

Responsibilities:

  • Participate in instruction, research, publication, grant writing, and other scholarly activities
  • Instruct undergraduate and graduate courses in both face-to-face as well as online environments
  • Mentor and advise undergraduate and graduate students
  • Provide service to the department, college, university, profession, and community

Minimum Qualifications:

  • Earned doctorate in by time of appointment in library and information studies or related field
  • Capacity to teach in an undergraduate program
  • Ability to conduct scholarly research in the field
  • Capacity to teach and mentor at the graduate level
  • Knowledge in creating educational materials for face-to-face and online instruction
  • Understand and appreciate information science’s connection to field of librarianship

Preferred Qualifications:

  • Teaching experience at the collegiate level
  • Teaching experience in an online or distance education environment
  • Active involvement in one or more professional organizations appropriate to area of expertise
  • Experience in management or teaching management courses
  • Experience in procuring grants or external funding

Applications and nominations are invited for positions to be available in August 2017. Salary is fully competitive. The Committee will begin full review of applications and nominations October 31, 2016 and will continue until the position is filled.

TO APPLY: Applicants should send a letter of application and a complete resume/CV including the names of three references to Ms. Angela Wright at [email protected] or by mail to School of Library and Information Science, University of South Carolina, Davis College, 1501 Greene Street, Columbia, SC 29208.

For further information, questions, or to submit nominations, send an email to Dr. Heather Moorefield-Lang, Committee Chair at [email protected] or call at 803-777-0224

School Information is available at http://www.sc.edu/study/colleges_schools/cic/library_and_information_science

Minorities and women are encouraged to apply. The University of South Carolina is responsive to the needs of dual career couples.

The University of South Carolina is an equal opportunity institution.

[Be aware it may take the official university a couple of days to post the job and application information]

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Faculty Position in Schools and Youth at the University of South Carolina

The University of South Carolina School of Library and Information Science in Columbia invites applications and nominations for one tenure-track faculty position at the Assistant or Associate Professor level to begin fall 2017 in the area of school librarianship and/or youth services.

Shape the future of library and information science. Pursue your interests in a diverse, intellectually stimulating, and multi-disciplinary environment that provides support and encouragement as part of a collaborative work culture. An earned doctorate in library and information science or a related field is preferred, while strong candidates who are ABD with a fixed graduation date will be considered. This position requires a clearly articulated research agenda, and enthusiasm for and excellence in teaching in both online and face-to-face formats.

The School is particularly interested in candidates with a specialization in school libraries and/or youth services. Selected candidates will be expected to help with the school’s commitment to diversity through research, teaching, and service.

The School of Library and Information Science has a growing Bachelor of Science   in Information Science program and a joint Certificate of Health Communications with Public Health and Communications. The School’s MLIS degree program is fully accredited by the American Library Association.  The school library preparation program is part of the University’s Professional Education Unit which is accredited by the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP).  The School also offers three programs of advanced study beyond the Master’s degree (the Certificate of Advanced Graduate Study in Library and Information Science, the Specialist in Library and Information Science, and the Ph.D. in Library and Information Science).  Faculty teach across all degree programs.

The School has a strong commitment to distance education and is one of two Schools in the College of Information and Communications.

The second is the School of Journalism and Mass Communications. The School is located on the   campus’ historic Horseshoe. It has nationally recognized programs in school library media, youth services, and medical librarianship. Since its inception, the School has emphasized the use of information technology as a vital component of library and information services.

Founded in 1801, the University of South Carolina-Columbia is the flagship campus of an eight-campus, fully accredited, state-supported system. USC­ Columbia has strong undergraduate and graduate programs and other highly regarded professional schools including: medicine, law, education, engineering, social work, pharmacy, public health, arts and sciences, nursing, and business administration. The University is a Carnegie Research I institution. Approximately 33,000 students are enrolled on the Columbia campus and more than 44,000 throughout the system. The City of Columbia is the state capital with a metropolitan area population of almost half a million. It is a state center of financial, transportation, and industrial development, and it has a rich historical and cultural tradition.  It is located within easy driving distance of both mountains and coast.

Responsibilities:

  • Participate in instruction, research, publication, grant writing, and other scholarly activities
  • Instruct undergraduate and graduate courses in both face-to-face as well as online environments in the areas of school librarianship and/or youth services
  • Mentor and advise graduate students
  • Provide service to the department, college, university, profession, and community

Minimum Qualifications:

  • Earned doctorate by time of appointment in library and information studies or related field
  • Ability to conduct scholarly research in the field
  • Ability to teach and mentor at the graduate level
  • Knowledge in creating educational materials for face-to-face and online instruction

Preferred Qualifications:

  • Teaching experience at the collegiate level
  • Teaching experience in an online or distance education environment
  • Active involvement in one or more professional organizations appropriate to area of expertise
  • Experience in management or teaching management courses
  • Experience in procuring grants or external funding

Applications and nominations are invited for this position available in August 2017. Salary is fully competitive. The Committee will begin full review of applications and nominations October 31, 2016 and will continue until the position is filled.

TO APPLY: Applicants should send a letter of application and a complete resume/CV including the names of three references to Ms. Angela Wright at [email protected] or by mail to School of Library and Information Science, University of South Carolina, Davis College, 1501 Greene Street, Columbia, SC 29208.

For further information, questions, or to submit nominations, send an email to Dr. Heather Moorefield-Lang, Committee Chair at [email protected] or call at 803-777-0224

School Information is available at http://www.sc.edu/study/colleges_schools/cic/library_and_information_science

Minorities and women are encouraged to apply. The University of South Carolina is responsive to the needs of dual career couples.

The University of South Carolina is an equal opportunity institution.

[Be aware it may take the official university a couple of days to post the job and application information]

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Faculty Positions: Seeking Geeks with Social Skills

img_0857Today we’re announcing a search for four new faculty positions at the University of South Carolina School of Library and Information Science (posts to follow). We are looking for three tenure track faculty and one instructor to be part of a growing program. The searches represent a continued commitment to librarianship and the School of Library and Information Science’s well-deserved reputation in youth services, school libraries, and doctoral study. However, these searches also represent a new strategy to ensure the values of librarianship (openness, learning, intellectual freedom & security, and intellectual honesty) spread throughout society.

We are looking to grow our undergraduate program in information science. In essence we are actively seeking geeks with social skills-in this case geeks being passionate people and social being social science. The future of librarianship depends not only in preparing leaders within libraries, but also in preparing the CIOs, mayors, principals, and trustees that will hire/manage/support tomorrow’s librarians. This means preparing, through undergraduate degrees and minors, information professionals that can sit at the intersection of technology, strategy, and people. These information scientists will bring a set of skills to this crucial intersection, as well as bringing values, ethics, and a mission based on improving society.

We are looking for diverse perspectives that represent the skills our students need, and the communities these future alumni will serve. Rather than seeking to solely train future librarians, we want to produce leaders and visionaries that will work with librarians and technologists, bankers and NGOs, entrepreneurs and activists to make real positive change in our communities.

Over the next several weeks and months, I will be announcing forums where the faculty, staff, and students of the University of South Carolina will be forging a school of thought around knowledge and impact. We are beginning a field-wide conversation on what comes after library schools and information schools: knowledge schools focused on impact and improving society.

All are invited to participate in this conversation, but right now I am looking for scholars (and yes, geeks of the highest order) that can help forge this new school of thought. You will be joining a dedicated corps of scholars, staff, and students with a history of seeking to change the world – through reading and data science; through maker spaces and image archives; through metadata and intellectual property; through graphic novels and knowledge management – not simply document it. You will be part of a growing program, at a growing university dedicated to crafting higher education for today and tomorrow.

[Be aware it may take the official university a couple of days to post the job and application information]

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Expect More at ALA Annual

We’re putting together a working session for folks interested in crafting messages, materials, and projects to promote librarians to the general public. We are doing an increasingly good job getting the word out about libraries growing relevancy and community focus, but folks need to know this is a result of librarians and library staff.

Please consider joining us in Orlando and sharing your ideas. Information below:

 

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The New Librarianship Field Guide Now Available

This week I’m posting on my new book, The New Librarianship Field Guide. I’ll be talking about what’s in it, but also how it fits with other work like the Atlas of New Librarianship. MIT Press is shipping these now, and Amazon is taking pre-orders with availability starting the week of May 20th.

To kick us off, here is the information from MIT Press’ Catalog.

The New Librarianship Field Guide

By R. David Lankes

CoverOverview

This book offers a guide for librarians who see their profession as a chance to make a positive difference in their communities—librarians who recognize that it is no longer enough to stand behind a desk waiting to serve. R. David Lankes, author of The Atlas of New Librarianship, reminds librarians of their mission: to improve society by facilitating knowledge creation in their communities. In this book, he provides tools, arguments, resources, and ideas for fulfilling this mission. Librarians will be prepared to become radical positive change agents in their communities, and other readers will learn to understand libraries in a new way.

The librarians of Ferguson, Missouri, famously became positive change agents in August 2014 when they opened library doors when schools were closed because of civil unrest after the shooting of an unarmed teen by police. Working with other local organizations, they provided children and their parents a space for learning, lunch, and peace. But other libraries serve other communities—students, faculty, scholars, law firms—in other ways. All libraries are about community, writes Lankes; that is just librarianship.

In concise chapters, Lankes addresses the mission of libraries and explains what constitutes a library. He offers practical advice for librarian training; provides teaching notes for each chapter; and answers “Frequently Argued Questions” about the new librarianship.

About the Author

R. David Lankes is Professor and Dean’s Scholar for New Librarianship in Syracuse University’s School of Information Studies.

“David Lankes continues to be a crucial voice in support of libraries as they evolve during tumultuous times. The New Librarianship Field Guide is an invaluable resource for all who care about libraries—and for anyone who wants to help build a bright future for knowledge and democracies in a digital era.”
—John Palfrey, Head of School, Phillips Academy, and author of BiblioTech: Why Libraries Matter More than Ever in the Age of Google

“Libraries + librarians = community: Lankes makes the case and shows his work. He offers a well-structured argument for where libraries in this century need to be going, and how librarians can get them there, answering the question ‘Where in the hell is librarianship going anyhow?’ with charm and grace. Lankes’s invigorating and challenging ideas will help new and existing librarians find their purpose and achieve positive change.”
—Jessamyn West, community technology librarian, Open Library and librarian.net

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Lankes to join the University of South Carolina’s School of Library and Information Science as Director

SLISI am very pleased to announce that I will be joining the University of South Carolina’s School of Library and Information Science as director and associate dean in the College of Information and Communications. My appointment will take effect July 1, 2016 subject to the university’s approval process.

I make this move with a great deal of excitement, and a healthy dose of sadness. I have been affiliated with SU for nearly 28 years in one capacity or another but now is the time for me to apply what I have learned in a new environment.

While there will be more details to follow, I did want to say that it has been the greatest honor and privilege to be part of the School of Information Studies at Syracuse University. I also want to extend my thanks to the faculty, staff, and students at SLIS and the College of Information and Communications who have been so welcoming and supportive.

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New Servers

For a few behind the scene reasons I have moved my website to a new host. With any luck you didn’t notice.

The site now uses DavidLankes.org for all the URLs, rather than just redirecting to quartz.syr.edu which traces (at least the name) back about a decade to the GEM project. So please update your links.

At this point I think everything has made the move or soon will. Please let me know if you run into any dead links or URLs that point to nowhere. As a nice side benefit I fixed the links to presentations I’ve made before 2008…because I know you were clambering for my thoughts from a decade ago.

A BIG special thank you to Ryan Drescher and James Powell for providing the technical back up, and the whole iSchool tech team under Roger Merrill for all the hosting support int he past.

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Changing Servers

Over the weekend and the next week I will be working on moving my site from it’s current server to a new hosted set up. That will involve changing URLs.

If all goes well everything will automatically redirect to the new site, but for future reference (when all is done) current URLs that point to quartz.yr.edu will soon be replaced with davidlankes.org

Also for this weekend the url http://DavidLankes.org will be a bit spotty.

I’ll post updates as I go.

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ALA Press Release on Haycock Award

Here is the official press release on the Haycock Award for Promoting Librarianship. Thanks to Teri Switzer for her very kind words:

For Immediate Release
Mon, 01/25/2016

Contact:

Cheryl Malden
Program Officer
Governance
312-280-3247
[email protected]

CHICAGO — Dr. R. David Lankes, professor and Dean’s Scholar for New Librarianship at Syracuse University’s School of Information Studies and 2016-2017 Follett Chair in Library and Information Sciences at Dominican University Graduate School of Library and Information Science, Chicago, has been selected to receive the 2016 American Library Association Ken Haycock Award for Promoting Librarianship. This prestigious honor is given annually to an individual for a “significant contribution to the public recognition and appreciation of librarianship through professional performance, teaching, and/or writing.”

“It is a privilege and an honor that the Award Jury recognizes Dr. Lankes for his distinguished achievements in the field of Library and Information Science over a career of more than 20 years,” said Teri R. Switzer, chair of the Ken Haycock Award Committee and dean and professor emerita at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs. “David has spent the majority of his career advancing librarianship and making us all think about our profession in different ways. David’s commitment to the profession is clearly evident in his teaching, his presentations, his writings, and his service.”

Lankes holds a Ph.D. from Syracuse University, School of Information Studies, and an MS in Telecommunications, also from Syracuse University. In addition to being a faculty member at Syracuse University, Dr. Lankes has also served as a visiting fellow at the National Library of Canada, an adjunct instructor for the OCLC Institute, a visiting scholar at Harvard University’s School of Education, and was the first OITP Fellow at the ALA’s Office of Information Technology Policy. Dr. Lankes’ professional successes, publications, grants and service achievements all support his receiving this award.

As noted in the nomination submitted on his behalf, supporters mentioned, in particular, his 2011 The Atlas of New Librarianship and his leadership of the I LEAD U, a three-year continuing education initiative that addresses the need to expand librarians’ leadership abilities to use technology to effectively engage their libraries’ constituents, as only two of the several librarianship projects in which he has been actively engaged. One supporter stated, “ His presentations, teachings, curriculum development, and writings supporting the growth and development of our esteemed profession not only address technologies and infrastructure, but also re-articulate the core role of librarians in the learning process. In today’s world of databases, electronic resources, intellectual property concerns, digital rights management, and efforts of cross border cooperation, it is easy to lose sight of the vision and motivating principles that drew many of us to the profession. David steadfastly draws his readers and listeners back to the core.” Another letter summed up Lankes’ broad achievements by saying, “Having worked with him in various settings, I see the many ways he has taught, inspired, and challenged librarians – those still in their graduate programs, those new in the profession, and those who have been in the profession a long time – all have benefitted from David’s unparalleled methods of teaching and inspiring us al to greatness.”

Members of the Ken Haycock Award Jury are: Nancy Bolt, Nancy M. Bolt & Associates, Denver, Colorado; Nicolas H. Buron, Dorothy M. Persson, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa; Thomas T. Suprenant, Queens College, Graduate School of Library & Information Studies, Flushing, New York; and Teri R. Switzer, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs.

The Ken Haycock Award for Promoting Librarianship will be presented to David Lankes at the ALA Award Ceremony and Reception on Sunday, June 26,, during the Annual Conference in Orlando.

The deadline for submission of applications for the 2017 Ken Haycock Award for Promoting Librarianship is Dec. 1, 2016. Guidelines and application forms are available on the ALA website.

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Lankes Receives 2016 Ken Haycock Award for Promoting Librarianship

ALA-MGwebI am very proud to announce that I have received the 2016 Ken Haycock Award for Promoting Librarianship from the American Library Association. From ALA’s award page:

The Ken Haycock Award for Promoting Librarianship was established in 2004 and recognizes an individual who has contributed significantly to the public recognition and appreciation of librarianship through professional performance, teaching or writing. Former award recipients include Nancy Kranich (2015), former ALA president; Wendy Newman (2011), former Canadian Library Association president; Michael Gorman (2010), former American Library Association president; and Mary Dempsey (2007), former Chicago library commissioner.

That is some humbling company. My thanks go out to the award committee and those who nominated me. Also a special thank you to Ken Haycock who will always be one the profession’s greatest champions.

Award Home Page