Kapena Shim Wins Award

Kapena Shim has been awarded the Harold T. Pinkett Minority Student Award from the Society of American Archivists (SAA). The award will allow Kapena a full complementary registration as well as hotel and travel expenses to attend the SAA annual meeting to be held in San Diego, August 6-11, 2012.

In making the award, the reviewing subcommittee indicated that they were unanimous in selecting Shim over 20-plus applications. They were impressed with his “academic record, student activities, professional experience and personal commitment to the preservation of Native Hawaiian culture.”

Congratulations to Kapena for exhibiting outstanding leadership in the archives community and a commitment to diversity in this field!

Blair Award Winners

Tamara Martinez and Sarah Gray are the spring 2012 recipients of the Robert and Rita Blair Memorial Award. The Robert and Rita Blair Memorial 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.

Tamara has served on the LIS Curriculum Committee and on the Manoa Graduate Student Organization. She has also been the secretary-treasurer for the student chapter of the Society of American Archivists. Her immediate plans after graduation are to continue working with the Hawaii Literacy’s Family Literacy Program.

Sarah has served as vice president and president of Hui Dui. Like Tamara, she has also been a student representative to the Manoa Graduate Student Organization. In addition, Sarah has actively participated in the student chapters of ALA and SLA-ASIS&T.

Achievement Scholarships Awarded for Fall 2012

Congratulations to the following students, who will be receiving UH Achievement Scholarships for the fall semester. This competitive scholarship is based on merit, service, and academic achievement. To be eligible, a student must be a degree-seeking student in a master’s program and have a cumulative GPA of 3.5 or above. The award is open to both residents and non-residents.

Annemarie Aweau
Elizabeth Bacon
Pearl DeSure
Nicolita Garces
Erin Green
Jennifer Hamada
Stephanie Kawamura
Joshua Mika
Mara Paio
Jaclyn Parrott
Frankie Pasion
Michelle Santiago
Amy Steinbauer
Barbara Trecker
Masahide Yokomoto

Xi Chapter Beta Phi Mu Scholarship

Beta Phi Mu Xi Chapter is offering a $250 scholarship. Details for applying is on the Beta Phi Mu webpage:  http://www.hawaii.edu/lis/organizations/beta_phi_mu/bpm_scholarship.html

The deadline to apply for the Xi Chapter Beta Phi Mu Scholarship is April 1, 2012.  

Valeho-Novikoff Hired as Librarian at School of Hawaiian Knowledge

Shanye Valeho-Novikoff, a 2003 graduate of the LIS Program, has been hired as the full-time librarian for the Kamakakuokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies, at the Hawaiinuiakea School of Hawaiian Knowledge. Shanye says that her work centers on supporting the school’s students and faculty in “knowledge generation and dissemination” while strengthening the school’s work with the local, national, and international indigenous resource centers and libraries.

She is particularly excited about assisting with the school’s latest project to create a digital “Knowledge Well” as an institutional repository to centralize collections in a Web-based environment accessible to everyone. Shanye has a bachelor’s degree in Hawaiian Studies and is currently also working on an associate’s degree in paralegal studies at UHM. In addition, she brings extensive experience in K-12 education having served as a teacher and a librarian in several middle and high schools in the state. She is now looking forward to “practicing librarianship in an academic setting.” Congratulations, Shanye!

Dr. Asato Receives Best Research Award from the Nippon Association for Librarianship

Dr. Noriko Asato received an award at the 2012 Nippon Association for Librarianship conference in Kobe, Japan last week. The award is presented to the best research article published every two years in their journal Toshokan Kai (Library World). The English translation of the Japanese title is “Responding to Librarians who Defend the Library Bill of Rights: The ALA and Intellectual Freedom in a Period of Transition.” It explored librarians’ intellectual freedom. 

LIS School Library Specialization Places Again Among Top 10 in U.S. News and World Report

For the fifth consecutive year, the school library media specialization in the Library and Information Science (LIS) Graduate Program has been recognized as one of the top ten programs in the nation by the U.S. News and World Report in its “America’s Best Graduate Schools 2011.” It was ranked eighth in the top ten. U.S. News and World Report analyzes more than 12,000 different graduate program areas for this special report. Rankings are based on expert opinions regarding program quality and statistical indicators that measure the quality of the faculty, research, and students.

 The LIS Program is a master’s program in the College of Natural Sciences, Department of Information and Computer Sciences (ICS). Martha Crosby, ICS Department chair, commented: “The ICS department is extremely proud of the five year sustained record of excellence made by the LIS program’s school library media specialization for having the U.S. News and World Report name it in the top ten out of more than 12,000 different graduate program areas programs nationally.”

The graduates of the LIS Program make up 85% of the Hawaii DOE’s school library workforce. Several of them have received national recognition. In 2007, Kapolei High School Library led by Carolyn Kirio and Sandy Yamamoto was cited as the National School Library Media Program of the Year by the American Association of School Librarians (AASL). This year, Kailua Elementary Library was selected as one of 35 exemplary programs across the nation by the AASL and librarian Darren Tanaka was commended for his innovative approaches to learning.

In 2009, the LIS Program received a $250,000 federal grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services to design and implement training for teams of high school teachers and librarians working on capstone research projects with their students. This three-year grant enables the Program to support the state’s P-20 initiative.

For more information on the U.S News and World Report rankings of America’s Best Graduate Schools, visit www.usnews.com/grad

LIS Students Receive Japanese Government Scholarships

This year a second group of students will participate in the exchange program between the UH LIS Program and the University of Tsukuba.  The following five students were selected to receive $1,000 scholarships from the Japanese government to help participate in the program.

Meagan Calogeras
Erin Green
Taryn Jim
Kapena Shim
Jordan Trader

These LIS students will observe major libraries and archives in Japan, including the National Diet Library, National Archives, Tokyo Metropolitan Library in December 2011. They will also give presentations to Tsukuba students and faculty.

In October, we hosted LIS student Yukako Mizukami, and Dr. Chieko Mizoue, Graduate Chair of the School of Library & Media Studies at the University of Tsukuba.  Sending the five students to Tsukuba is part of our cultural and academic exchange initiative.

The University of Tsukuba is Japan’s largest LIS Program in a national university. At one time it was the National University of Library and Information Science before merging with the University of Tsukuba, which is one of Japan’s leading scientific research institutions.

In fall of 2012, Dr. Andrew Wertheimer will be a visiting researcher /professor at the University of Tsukuba.  We hope this further develops this partnership between our programs.

Achievement Scholarships Awarded for Spring 2012

Congratulations to the following students, who will be receiving UH Achievement Scholarships in the spring. This competitive scholarship is based on merit, service, and academic achievement. To be eligible, a student must be a degree-seeking student in a master’s or doctoral program and have a cumulative GPA of 3.5 or above. The award is open to both residents and non-residents.

Elizabeth Bacon
Shianne Beer
Ruobing Chi
Pearl DeSure
Nicolita Garces
Sarah Gray
Erin Green
Heather Haack
Jennifer Hamada
Lea Anna Hoffman
Guannan Liu
Kealii MacKenzie
Tamara Martinez
Stacy Naipo
Donna Ohora
Mara Paio
Frankie Pasion
Caitlin Ross Ramirez
Amy Steinbauer
Jordan Trader
Philip Whitford
Masahide Yokomoto

Maui LIS Students Receive 2011 MFOL Scholarships

Two LIS students taking courses from Maui have received $1000 scholarships from the Maui Friends of the Library (MFOL). They are Taaren M. Samuelson and Leslee-Ann Elena Barclay.

The MFOL scholarships are offered to Maui County residents pursuing a career in library and information science through distance education. The courses are offered by instructors in the University of Hawaii’s Library and Information Science Program on the Manoa campus and televised to neighbor island sites.

MFOL is a non-profit organization that supports public libraries and the wide variety of services they offer to Maui community residents. MFOL operates a used bookstore behind the Puunene School and several book sale tables located in Maui County Public Libraries. It uses the proceeds to support the provision of materials and services to public libraries.