SILS selects ARL Academy fellows for 2006-2007

Release date:

December 13, 2006

The School of Information and Library Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has announced the selection of eight fellows for the ARL Academy: Careers in Academic and Research Libraries.

The 2006–07 ARL Academy fellows are:

• Lyn Batty - J.D., Georgetown University Law School, Washington, D.C.
• Kim Burton-Oakes - currently completing her doctoral dissertation in the UNC Department of English on Literary Magic: Crafting Magic in Medieval Romance.
• Stephanie Horowitz - M.A. in Public History, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC.
• Jennifer Joyner - M.A. in History, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC.
• Amit Kumar - Master of Dental Surgery, Mangalore University, KMC, Manipal, India.
• Jennifer Solomon - M.F.A., Creative Writing, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN.
• Vedana Vaidhyanathan - currently pursuing a master's degree in Library Science with a specialization in Bioinformatics (Certificate in Bioinformatics Program).
• Todd Venie - J.D., Ohio State University, Columbus, OH.

The ARL Academy recruits and prepares MLIS students who have received graduate degrees in other disciplines — or specialized educational accomplishments — for careers in academic and research librarianship. The Academy is a partnership between the American Research Libraries (ARL) and three library and information science schools: Catholic University of America, Simmons College, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The program is supported by a grant from the Institute for Museum and Library Services, the Laura Bush 21st-Century Librarian grant program.

"The ARL Academy has provided a wonderful opportunity for a group of very talented students with advanced degrees to prepare themselves for academic library careers," said Dr. Joanne Marshall, grant principal investigator and Alumni Distinguished Professor at SILS. "The shifting demographics in the library workforce make it imperative that we have such programs in place to develop and mentor our future leaders."

In addition to their SILS coursework, fellows:

Participate in a Web cast on new models of research, teaching, and learning in academic libraries;
Complete an intensive two part Leadership Institute at the American Library Association Midwinter Conference in Seattle, Washington and at ARL headquarters in Washington, DC, which includes a full-day at the Library of Congress; and
Complete custom-designed fellowship experiences in an ARL library.

Associate Dean Paul Solomon accompanied the 2005 Fellows to the Leadership Institute and commented that the Institute and other ARL resources provided Fellows “with extraordinary insights into emerging issues in academic librarianship as well as the mysteries of the academic library job market."

Past UNC ARL Fellows have included: Steve Bahnaman, Lisa Boxill, April Brewer, Emma Cryer, Ben Hunter, Leigh Jones, and Joan Petit, and the opportunities provided by the ARL fellowship experience have received high praise from past ARL fellows.

Steve Bahnaman (2005), now the Lilly Library Reference Intern at Duke University, wrote that the most valuable part of this fellowship has been “the opportunity to be part of a group of individuals with similar interests in academic libraries . . . to be included in this group is an honor and a privilege.”

April Brewer (2005), now in her second year in the UNC SILS masters program, commented that the ARL Academy fellowship has given her “a great opportunity to connect with students from Catholic and Simmons, to compare experiences,” and has helped her to “start building a network of colleagues in the field.”

“The ARL Academy Fellowship was a great professional opportunity," said Joan Petit (2004), instruction and outreach librarian at Duke University. "The ARL Academy Seminar in DC taught me about the big picture for research libraries across the country. I valued even more my fellowship work experience at the Sallie Bingham Center for Women's History at Culture at Duke University, where I immersed myself in the world of library archives and event planning.”

“My time as an ARL Fellow at the University of Washington was the perfect transition between my time as a student and working as a professional," said Ben Hunter (2004) reference/instruction librarian at the University of Idaho Library. "I was able to design a program based around what I wanted to learn and how I wanted to learn it. In the process I gained many new skills, improved some old ones, and made many professional contacts.”