Category: Congratulations

Dr. Gazan, who attended the ALA Mid-Winter 2016 conference to represent the UHM LIS Program before the ALA Committee on Accreditation wrote from Boston to say:

I’m very happy to report that ALA has granted us continuing accreditation for the maximum seven year period. Many of you took time to answer surveys, meet with the visiting team and in large ways and small helped demonstrate who we are as a program, and this best-case outcome would not have been possible without you.

We received both praise for our uniqueness and constructive suggestions for improvement, but in my final meeting with the Committee on Accreditation they mostly wanted to talk about how impressed they were with the level of engagement of our students, alumni, faculty, administration and the local LIS community. So to all of you, and to our families who support us in our work, thank you!

For a copy of the re-accreditation letter from ALA, click here. For the official UH Manoa press release, click here.

Aloha,
Rich Gazan
LIS Program Chair

As part of his Spring 2016 sabbatical, Dr. Rich Gazan will work with the NASA Astrobiology Institute at NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, CA, to develop metrics and visualizations of interdisciplinary science based on the analysis of research publications focused on life in the universe. Building on previous work, this project will help identify areas of actual and potential synergy between researchers from diverse disciplines, and track how terms and concepts in the astrobiology research literature have changed over time.

In Dr. Gazan’s invitation letter, NASA Astrobiology Institute Director Carl Pilcher wrote, “These are important areas of research for the NAI if it is to be able to self-evaluate its effectiveness in bringing together the various disciplines involved in astrobiology research, in a way that can achieve results and discoveries that individual disciplines can not. We are looking forward to working with you again.”

Dr. Noriko Asato was invited to join the editorial board of International Information & Library Review. A peer reviewed quarterly journal published by the Taylor & Francis Group, the journal has served information scientists and librarians all over the world for more than twenty years.

Routledge/Taylor and Francis’ library and information science journals use the “Green OA” option, meaning that there is never an author publishing charge. Authors achieve full open access and have an ability to disseminate pre-prints at institutional repositories and post-print immediately following publication, with no embargo.

Carolyn Kirio (1994 alumna) has garnered the 2015 Information Technology Pathfinder Award for Kapolei Middle School Library. This coveted award is presented by the American Association of School Librarians and sponsored by Follett. Carolyn also received a proclamation from Governor David Ige for her award.
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The Center for the Study of Libraries, Information & Society (CSLIS) has voted to appoint Vanessa Irvin, Ed.D., as a CSLIS Fellow for 2015-2016. She is being awarded this honor in appreciation for her tireless work in helping to define the CSLIS as a founding member of its Steering Committee. Irvin’s contributions helped to make the Center become a reality. In awarding this honor, the selection committee explained that “a part of the Center is now and always will be based on Dr. Irvin’s unique contributions.”
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Johanna (Hana) Akina and Jenny Yamamoto are the fall 2013 recipients of the Robert and Rita Blair Memorial Award. This coveted award is presented to graduating students who show special promise in providing library services to children and youth. The LIS faculty select the awardees based on high academic standing and strong evidence of professional leadership.

Hana has served as vice president of the ALA Student Chapter, leader of the LIS Web Team, and secretary of Hui Dui, the LIS student organization. In addition, she has volunteered at Kahuku Public and School Library and tutored high school athletes at Kahuku High and Intermediate. She will be working as the librarian at Aiea Elementary for the spring 2014 term.

Jenny is currently a teacher librarian at Leilehua High School. She has served as the school’s Senior Project Coordinator and is actively working on collaborative partnerships between the school and Wahiawa Public Library. As part of her senior project work, she was invited to join a team of presenters at the 2012 Schools of the Future Conference. She shared the exemplary work being done at Leilehua on Project PEARL, a collaborative initiative to improve students’ research skills. Jenny plans to continue her work in the Leilehua school library after graduation.

Dr. Asato received a $40,000 grant from the Social Research Council through the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Fellowship.  Dr. Asato will conduct comparative research on the Philosophy of Modern Public Libraries in Japan and the United States.  The grant allows Dr. Asato to conduct an onsite collaborative research with colleagues in the Kyoto University in Spring and Summer of 2014.

Growing Schools: Librarians as Professional Developers edited by Debbie Abilock, Kristin Fontichiaro, and Violet Harada, has been selected as the “2013 Best Professional Guide for School or Youth Librarians” by Library Media Connection (LMC) and the American Reference Books Annual (ARBA). Harada is a professor emeritus in the University Hawaii’s Library and Information Science Program, Department of Information and Computer Sciences. (more…)

Jaclyn Lee Parrott won the second annual Hawaiian Pacific Chapter of the Special Libraries Association Poster Competition. Parrot, who is president of SLA-ASIST Student Chapter, was invited to attend the HPC-SLA Annual Business Dinner on November 16, were she gave a brief presentation on her winning poster, titled “Theological Librarianship with a Focus on Theological Libraries in Oahu,” and accepted the $500 competition prize.

The HPC-SLA Poster Competition is open to all University of Hawaii at Manoa MLISc or CIS students, as well as students who have taken an LIS class, and is part of the organization’s efforts (along with the yearly Mentoring Mixer) to provide professionalizing experiences for new and aspiring librarians and information specialists.

Rich Gazan has received a grant of $29,849 from the NASA Astrobiology Institute Director’s Discretionary Fund, to investigate the extent to which publications by astrobiology researchers demonstrate actual and potential interdisciplinarity.  The project, entitled Interdisciplinary Research Metrics in Astrobiology (IRMA), will provide summer research funding for two graduate students in 2013 (Co-Investigators Lisa Miller and Mike Gowanlock), to integrate data mining and information clustering techniques with a social science component to assess opportunities for, and barriers to, interdisciplinary research across astrobiology’s diverse constituent fields.

The NASA Astrobiology Institute Director’s Discretionary Fund makes one-year awards for research that advances the science of astrobiology, demonstrates impact to NASA’s space flight programs or its broader science activities, and/or contributes to NASA’s role as a federal R&D agency.  More information about the NASA Astrobiology Institute can be found here: https://astrobiology.nasa.gov/nai/.