Author: lischair

Lillian in a nutshell: everyone was a friend, every problem could be solved, every occasion could be an adventure.

Lillian Nicolich (NICK-oh-lich) graduated from the LIS Program in 2006.  Her personal qualities of kindness, integrity, and dedication made her a beloved figure among her peers and faculty. Her commitment to service and her ability to lead by example continue to inspire those who had the privilege of working alongside her. Lillian’s legacy serves as a reminder of the profound impact one individual can have on a community.

The Lillian Nicolich Memorial Award was established on behalf of Lillian’s classmates, friends, and family to honor the impact she had on so many of us.  There are many ways to contribute to the LIS community, and while ‘rock stars’ may sometimes dominate the spotlight, we believe there are also others who contribute to the fabric of the LIS community in less traditional, but profound ways.  To commemorate Lillian’s memory, we dedicate these funds to recognize remarkable students who have demonstrated alignment with the program’s values in some of the ways that Lillian did. Here are a few examples:

Supporting the larger community: A strong candidate is engaged in the community and has had a positive impact on the people around them.

• Pursuing initiatives that serve the greater good
• Service within LIS and/or personal volunteering
• Leadership & involvement within the LIS community
• Demonstrated positive impact on the LIS community

Problem solving for others: A strong candidate is committed to making the world a better place for others.

• Empathizing with the challenges faced by others and contributing solutions
• Contributing to bigger picture efforts independent of self-gain
• Concrete contribution to practical problem solving
• Engagement in, or promotion of, lifelong learning

Lifting others up: A strong candidate is concerned for other people’s well-being.

• Supports people who risk being forgotten or left behind
• Practices bringing joy in difficult situations
• Recognizes individual as well as collective needs
• Offers help without diminishing another’s independence

“When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, “Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.”

― Fred Rogers

Award candidates will be selected from each semester’s graduating MLISc cohort by an award committee appointed by the LIS Program Director. Award recipients should be students who have exemplified the qualities described above and to whom their LIS peers would easily recognize as exceptional contributors to LIS or the Hawai‘i library community.  These candidates may likely be different students than those who are heavily involved in student groups and activities, which are often opportunities unavailable to neighbor island students and students with full-time jobs and/or family obligations.

Graduating students may not themselves apply for consideration, but they may ask peers in LIS or others from the Hawai‘i library community to nominate them for consideration. Nominators should have had sufficient, direct interaction with the student, and the nomination may be via an email sent to lisstaff@hawaii.edu providing specific examples documenting why the student should be considered for this award.

Starting in Fall 2025, we aim to award about $5,000 each semester, with a minimum $1,000 given per awardee.  Awards will be announced at a public event such as the LIS graduation dinner when feasible, posted on the LIS website and social media, and shared with Lillian’s family, friends, and classmates.

To make a donation, click on the link below, that will take you to the giving page that preselects the Lillian Nicolich Memorial Fund:

https://give.uhfoundation.org/campaigns/63435/donations/new?designation_id=13077504

You can also send a check to University of Hawaiʻi Foundation, P.O. Box 11270, Honolulu, HI 96828-0270, ATTN: Gift Processing/Eriza Bareng. Please include “Lillian Nicolich Memorial Fund” on the memo section of your check. Mahalo!

Please join us in welcoming Meera Garud to the LIS faculty in a new permanent Instructor position! Meera has served as full-time temporary Instructor with the LIS program since 2019, and she will continue to coordinate the school library preparation program. Her focus is on understanding how educators can help students graduate high school while preparing them for college, career, and life success. Meera served as Co-President of the Hawai‘i Association of School Librarians from 2018–2020, and she also works closely with the Hawai‘i State Department of Education, supporting professional development opportunities for in-service school librarians. She earned her MLISc from UH Mānoa and BA from UC Berkeley.

Please join us in welcoming Assistant Professor Keahiahi Long to the LIS faculty in a new position dedicated to Hawaiian librarianship, starting in Fall 2023!  Keahiahi currently serves as Librarian at Kamakakūokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies, and has taught courses in Foundations of Hawaiian Collections, ‘A‘ole I Pau: Kanaka Worldviews and Librarianship, as well as Hawaiian Archival Research.

Keahiahi lives in Maunalua, Oʻahu, is a mea hula no Waʻahila, and is a practitioner of Hawaiian librarianship. A co-founder of Nā Hawaiʻi ʻImi Loa, a Native Hawaiian library association, Keahiahi is dedicated to advancing the wellbeing of our communities through information and knowledge caretaking. As a Co-PI on projects like Lau Ā Lau Ka ʻIke and Ka Wai Hāpai, Keahiahi’s recent work focuses on Indigenous knowledge organization systems. Keahiahi holds a Master’s Degree in Library and Information Science and Bachelor’s Degrees in Hawaiian Language and Hawaiian Studies from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. She is also currently pursuing her doctoral degree in the Communication and Information Sciences Program at UHM.

CIS PhD candidate and LIS Graduate Teaching Assistant Stanislava (Stasha) Gardasevic was awarded third place in the 2023 University of Hawaiʻi Venture Competition (UHVC) for LocaLinQs, a social and academic platform adapted from her dissertation research study that aggregates crowdsourced information and student and faculty publication data from multiple sources. Stasha’s team includes Valerie Iinuma, Colleen Milbury (business administration at UH Mānoa) and Milan “Miki” Cvetic, and their coach is Shidler College of Business Assistant Professor Caroline Fry.

Sponsored by the Pacific Asian Center for Entrepreneurship, LocaLinQs beat out 40 other teams in earlier rounds of competition, and as the third place finisher was awarded more than $17,800.  More information and photos can be found in the UH News release.  Congratulations Stasha!

After serving seven years as LIS Program Chair, the LIS faculty unanimously elected Professor Rich Gazan to continue in the same role with a new title, LIS Program Director, in the new School of Communication and Information in the College of Social Sciences.

“My vision for LIS is not to inflict any single vision of what LIS is or could be on students, staff and faculty. I want this to continue to be a place where people are supported to do the work they want to do, get to know each other as individuals, and develop LIS skills and perspectives to help the communities they want to help. That may not sound like the most radically subversive agenda, but I’m genuinely honored to be part of a community that values reflective and compassionate professional practice more than externally imposed metrics of achievement. As a program, we’re George Bailey, not Mr. Potter :).”

LIS Instructor Meera Garud, MLISc gave a talk on “Getting Past the Trigger: Learning How to Navigate Misinformation with Grace” as part of UH West Oʻahu Library’s Misinformation Week on March 20, 2023. This weeklong event raised awareness about this important topic with nine sessions led by faculty, college librarians, public librarians, and school librarians. Kapolei High School students also visited the UHWO campus to learn how to be responsible users of information. Garud’s talk allowed participants to learn about the role everyone plays in unintentionally sharing misinformation, and how we can practice mindfulness when we encounter emotionally triggering news.

LIS Associate Professor Andrew Wertheimer joined State Librarian Stacey Aldrich and HASL President Caitlin Ramirez in a Hawaiʿi Library Association Next Steps webinar “Facts in the Stacks: Considering Book Challenges in Hawaiʿi” on March 25, 2023, to discuss the national trend of book challenges and how local librarians are responding.  For those interested in learning more, Dr. Wertheimer will be teaching LIS 611 Intellectual Freedom this summer!

We welcomed back Rutgers University School of Communication and Information Professor Nancy Kranich to the LIS Program on March 7, 2023, when she spoke in Andrew Wertheimer’s Academic Librarianship class.  Kranich served as ALA President in the year 2000, which was an important one for academic and intellectual freedom. She’s a respected national voice on issues of community engagement, intellectual freedom, diversity, and many other library issues. She previously gave a special address at LIS in 2016.

The LIS Program kicked off its revitalized LIS Research Forum with Dr. Andrew Wertheimer’s presentation “Yiddish Bookstores & Cultural Survival in North America.” Jewish bookstores served as third spaces for the community, and mirrored the theological and philosophical divides of the Jewish Community. The presentation searches for shards of the bookstores’ existence in various American and Canadian cities and shares how they struggled with the crisis faced by most immigrant bookstores in America. Dr. Wertheimer concludes by highlighting a key difference between libraries and bookstores regarding cultural survival. The lecture took place on Feb. 21st.

We are grateful to Shirley Loo for establishing a new scholarship for students enrolled in the Library and Information Science Program at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa!  Initially funded with $52K, the purpose of this Fund is to provide scholarship support for costs associated with attendance (e.g. tuition, books, fees, etc.) to students who are residents of the State of Hawai‘i, and who demonstrate both financial need and outstanding academic merit.

From her American Library Association bio, Shirley Loo has been a librarian in the Congressional Research Service at the Library of Congress for over a quarter of a century. She served as President of the District of Columbia Library Association (DCLA) from 1989-1990 and she is currently co-chair of the Student Financial Assistance Committee and one of three elected Directors on the DCLA Board. She was recognized with the Distinguished Service Award in 1991 and the Community Service Award in 2002. She was chair of the Melvil Dewey Jury for 2002-2003 and is now serving on the Lippincott Jury. She served as President of the Federal Librarians Round Table and received the FLRT Distinguished Service Award in 1999 for her many contributions to the round table.

LIS Graduate Teaching Assistant Stanislava (Stasha) Gardasevic was elected to the board of the Association of Hawai’i Archivists at their annual conference.  Gardasevic has taught several courses for the LIS Program on digital libraries and database design among others.  Stasha is a doctoral candidate in the Interdisciplinary PhD Program in Communication and Information Sciences, and recently received the Dan J. Wedemeyer Excellence in Teaching Award.  Congrats Stasha!

We are seeking a full-time, tenure-track faculty member at the rank of Assistant Professor to join our American Library Association (ALA)-accredited program. People who locate some or all of their work in Hawaiian information practices, collections and/or institutions are especially encouraged to apply.

UH LIS graduates constitute roughly two thirds of the librarians, archivists and other information professionals in Hawai‘i. We seek a colleague with a passion for teaching and engaging with students who can support and expand our curriculum to best serve Native Hawaiian people and information practices, and expand indigenous research and librarianship. The ideal candidate will be committed to working in partnership with indigenous, local and international communities to enhance LIS research, education and practice so that it better reflects, aligns with and serves the needs of the people of Hawai‘i.

For more information and how to apply, visit: https://www.schooljobs.com/careers/hawaiiedu/jobs/3921475/assistant-professor-school-of-comm-and-infopos-0084813

On February 7, 2023, Dr. Chieko Mizoue gave a talk “Characteristics of Information Seeking Behaviors of Older People in a Public Library” to students in Dr. Asato’s LIS 610 Foundations of the Information Professions class and students in the ALA Student Chapter, which co-sponsored the event. Dr. Mizoue is a leading scholar on Japanese Librarianship and is currently serving as the University of Tsukuba’s Vice President. She was instrumental in developing the UHM LIS Program’s sister school relationship with the University of Tsukuba in 2009 with Professors Asato, Harada, and Wertheimer. Since that time Professor Mizoue has visited UHM a number of times.

Faculty from the LIS Program and our new partners in the School of Communication and Information met in October and November to shape a vision for our new School as part of the College of Social Sciences. The LIS Program joins Communication, Communicology, Journalism and the Spark M. Matsunaga Institute for Peace as founding programs in a new School whose working mission is How information flows–among people and communities, through media and technologies, and across time and cultures.

LIS Associate Professor Andrew Wertheimer gave a keynote address at the Hawaiʻi Library Association Centennial Conference at the Bishop Museum on the history of our library association.  LIS students and full-time and adjunct faculty giving talks included:

• Carina Chernisky, “Bolstering OER Efforts: Developing a Collection of Support Resources for UH Faculty”
• Stanislava Gardasevic, “Library Metadata and Technologies Through Time”
• Rich Gazan, “How Information Flows: LIS and the Co-Creation of the New School of Communication & Information”
• Ikaika Keliiliki and Kylee Munro, “I Nā Au o Ka ‘Ike – In the Currents of Knowledge.”
• Stephanie Robertson, “Past, Present, Future of Low-Cost Materials: Creating Access to Encourage Life-Long Learning in the Academic Library”
• Jessika Ross, “Printing in Another Dimension: 3D Printing at the MCBH Library”
• Kapena Shim, “Voyage Across Time – The Eddie Kamae Songbook: A Musical Journey”
• Danielle Todd, “Navigating Librarianship Through the HLA Mentoring Program.”

Several other students took part in poster presentations, including Timothy Buckley, Kate Marsi, Kylee Munro, Jessika Ross, as well as adjunct faculty member Gwen Sinclair.  LIS Professor Emerita Violet Harada and Instructor Meera Garud served on the organizing committee, and the LIS Program was a conference sponsor.

Recent graduate Jason Ford (2021) was just hired as the founding Kikuchi Archivist at Kaua’i Community College’s (KCC) Kikuchi Center. The Kikuchi collection is a multimedia collection of items either created or collected by Dr. William “Pila” Kikuchi, who taught archaeology and anthropology at KCC.

The collection contains Native Hawaiian archaeology items from Dr. Kikuchi’s research across the island chain. Items include artifacts and other ecofacts that demonstrate cultural significance, along with Dr. Kikuchi’s original documentation of the projects. As the founding Kikuchi Archivist, Jason hopes to acquire other significant archaeology collections from Kaua’i and Hawai’i. To make this possible, he will be designing a new facility that includes archival storage, a work space, and a public reading room with a reference section. He will be busy as the Kikuchi collection is entirely unprocessed.

Ford’s undergraduate studies were centered around ethnobiology, Indigenous research methodologies, and Hawaiian language. After two years working in archaeology as a cultural researcher and Hawaiian language translator at Cultural Surveys Hawaii, he entered the LIS Program. Now, he “basically gets the best of both the archival and library worlds.” Ford advises new students to “be open minded about the ways LIS skills are applied in different sectors to enhance your foundations, experience, and the unique opportunities available to you.”

The LIS Program is pleased to congratulate Georgina Tom on her recognition as the 2022 Spotlight Award recipient. Georgina is Archivist at the ‘Iolani School Archives and an instructor for the Society of American Archivists (SAA). She currently serves on the SAA Digital Archives Specialist Subcommittee (Committee on Education) which is charged with creating and maintaining curriculum for the professional development certification program. Georgina is a past board member of the Association of Hawai‘i Archivists; her previous work experience includes Reference Librarian at Hawai‘i Pacific University and Collections Technician at Shangri La Museum of Islamic Art. She earned a graduate certificate in Museum Studies and a Master of Library and Information Science with a specialization in Archives and Special Collections from the University of Hawai‘i. She also holds a Digital Archives Specialist Certificate through the Society of American Archivists.

Image: Society of American Archivists

Image by My Nguyễn

Associate Professor and Associate LIS Chair Dr. Vanessa Irvin will be joining the faculty of East Carolina University in Fall 2022.  Since she arrived at LIS in 2015, we’ve all benefited from Dr. V’s dedication to the highest standards of LIS research, education and practice, and her efforts in building communities of reflective LIS professionals in Hawaiʻi continue to have a positive impact on local practice.  We invite you to view a Padlet with some messages of appreciation from LIS students, staff, alumni and faculty.  Please join us in wishing her well on her next adventure!

We are very happy to announce that LIS alumna Cheri Ebisu will begin as LIS Program Coordinator May 1, 2019, and in lieu of a formal press conference :), she was kind enough to respond to a few questions:

Welcome and congratulations Cheri!