Month: February 2025

Our congratulations and kudos to LIS alumni and students who made the news in the 2024 and 2025 editions of Hawaii Library Associationʻs Kolekole. Please visit the linked issues of the newsletter to read the full articles.

Carina Chernisky Receives UH Regents’ Medal (Spring 2025 issue)
Carina Chernisky, public services librarian at James and Abigail Campbell Library at UH West Oahu (UHWO), was awarded the Regents’ Medal for Excellence in Teaching in May 2024. She received this recognition for her outstanding leadership in teaching information literacy at UHWO. Carina’s innovative approaches include an asynchronous Research and Writing Skills worikshop series and numerous synchronous library workshops each semester.

Jenny Silbiger Assumes National Office (Fall 2024 issue)
Jenny Fujinaka Silbiger, Hawai‘i State Law Librarian, is the President-Elect of the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL). A 2009 LIS graduate, she is the first law libarian from Hawai‘i to serve as the association president. AALL was founded in 1906 and has over 3400 members.
Jenny will serve as vice president of AALL in 2025 and assume the presidency in July 2026 as she presides over the annual conference in Toledo, Ohio.

HSPLS Librarians of the Year (Fall 2024 issue)
The Hawai‘i State Public Library System (HSPLS) recognized three individuals as Librarians of the Year in a ceremony on February 28, 2024 at the Hawai‘i State Library in Honolulu. This annual event is sponsored by the Friends of the Library of Hawai‘i. To make up for the hiatus during the pandemic, three winners were honored.
Tamara Martinez King (2012 LIS graduate), Branch Manager, Kahuku Public and School Library, O‘ahu.
Elizabeth (Betsy) Knight (2011 LIS graduate), Juvenile and Young Adult Librarian, Makawao Public Library, Maui.
Susan Nakata (1983 LIS graduate), Head of Library and Development Services Section, O‘ahu.

Preserving Material from Maui Fires (Fall 2024 issue)
Liane Na‘auao, paper conservator, and Malia Van Heukelem, art archivist, who are both on staff at Hamilton Library, received the Presidentʻs Award from the American Institute for Conservation for their efforts to preserve material damaged in the Maui fires. In the weeks and months after the fires, they shared their knowledge in mitigating damage to culturally important materials. Liane and Malia are 2023 and 2014 LIS alumnae respectively.

HLA Award Recipient (Fall 2024 issue)
LIS student Morgan Schmidt received the 2024 Hawai‘i Library Association’s Student Success Award. This $1000 award, which includes a year of HLA membership, may be used to participate in an HLA conference or continuing education activity described in the award application.

The LIS Program is hosting our next LIS Research Forum on Tuesday, February 25, 4:00-4:50pm. We welcome Kylie Flood from Nānākuli Public Library, Kawena Komeiji from UH West Oʻahu, and Michiko Joseph from UH West Oʻahu, as they present “I Ulu Nō Ka Lālā I Ke Kumu: Supporting the Genealogy Research of Our Local Communities”.

Please join us in the LIS Program Area in the Hamilton Library basement, room 003F, or on Zoom: https://hawaii.zoom.us/j/89430135980
Meeting ID: 894 3013 5980
Passcode: 315035

Presentation Description:

I ulu nō ka lālā i ke kumu: Branches grow because of the trunk. An ʻōlelo noʻeau speaking about the importance of ancestors and kumu (sources). Learn how a project,that started as a small seed in an LIS class, grew into a tree of sources that help our lāhui and Hawaiʻi communities to find their roots.

Presenter Bios:

Kylie Flood is the Hawaiian Pacific & Adult Collections Librarian at Nānākuli Public Library. Collection development, programming, displays, and community engagement are a large part of her kūleana at Nānākuli Public Library. She received her Masters in Library Information Science at the University of Hawaʻi at Mānoa in 2016. Kylie attributes her success, resiliency, and industriousness to all her kūpuna who came before her and to the village of ʻohana and hoaloha who continue to guide her.

Kawena Komeiji is from Nuʻuanu, Kona, Oʻahu with ancestral roots in Waialua and Koʻolauloa moku. Kawena currently lives and works in Honouliuli, ʻEwa, Oʻahu as the Hawaiʻi-Pacific Resources Librarian in the James and Abigail Kuaihelani Campbell Library at the University of Hawaiʻi – West Oʻahu. As an aloha ʻāina ʻoiaʻiʻo and a fierce proponent for ea, she enjoys working with the lāhui Hawaiʻi and giving back to the ʻāina that has sustained her ʻohana for generations.

Michiko Joseph is from Mākaha, Oʻahu. She is currently serving as the Interim Library Director at the University of Hawai‘i West Oʻahu where she is primarily responsible for the planning efforts, budgeting, personnel, and assessment at the UHWO library. Michiko earned her bachelor’s degrees in Psychology from the University of Hawaiʻi West Oʻahu and a Master of Library and Information Science degree from UH Mānoa.