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Faculty
Sandra Hughes-Hassell
Sandra Hughes-Hassell is an associate professor at the School of Information and Library Science and the director of the School Library Media Program.
Hughes-Hassell joined the faculty of SILS in the fall of 2006. Before coming to North Carolina, she was a member of the faculty of the College of Information Science & Technology at Drexel University. Her experience includes Director of the Philadelphia Library Power Project, as well as several years as an elementary school library media specialist in Virginia. She has also worked as an elementary school teacher.
Her doctorate is from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She has both an M.Ed. in library science and an undergraduate degree in early childhood education from James Madison University.
Professional affiliations include the American Library Association, the American Association of School Librarians, the Association for Library Services to Children, the Young Adult Library Services Association, the Association of Library and Information Science Education, the International Association of School Librarians, the North Carolina School Library Media Association, and several education organizations. She is currently chair of the YALSA research committee and a member of the ALA Council Committee on Research and Statistics and the ProQuest/SIRS State and Regional Intellectual Freedom Achievement Award Committee.
Current research interests include the role of the school library media specialist in school reform and library services to underserved youth. Her most recent book is entitled Collection Management for Youth: Meeting the Needs of Learners (with Jacqueline C. Mancall, ALA, 2005). Her edited works include School Reform and the School Library Media Specialist (with Violet H. Harada, Libraries Unlimited, 2007), The Information-Powered School (with Anne Wheelock, ALA, 2000) and Curriculum and Instruction through the Library (with Barbara K. Stripling, Libraries Unlimited, 2003). Currently she and Denise E. Agosto are completing a new book for the American Library Association entitled The Information Needs and Behaviors of Urban Teens: Research and Practice.
Recent journal publications include articles in Library and Information Science Research, School Library Media Research, Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, Young Adult Library Services, Teacher Librarian and Knowledge Quest. She teaches courses related to materials and services to children and youth and school library media programs.
Brian W. Sturm
Dr. Brian W. Sturm is an associate professor at the School of Information and Library Science. He earned his MLS and his PhD in Library and Information Science at Indiana University in Bloomington. He has worked as a children’s librarian, an outdoor educator, and as a freelance editor.
Professional affiliations include the National Storytelling Network, the American Folklore Society Children’s Section, the Association for Library Services to Children, the Young Adult Library Services Association, the American Library Association, the American Association of School Librarians, and the Association of Library and Information Science Education, of which he is currently the co-chair for the Youth Services special interest group.
Dr. Sturm’s main research interest is exploring the experience of immersion or engagement (its psychological and physiological characteristics and influences upon it) and how various information resources (books, stories, computers, etc.) produce this effect on their users. Dr. Sturm teaches in the areas of storytelling and communication skills, children’s and young adult literature and technology, and public library youth services’ administration. He is an award-winning teacher and scholar who believes in merging theory and practice in his classes. He brings his talents as a professional storyteller to his courses, often sharing personal tales or world folktales to enliven students’ experiences and clarify or extend a point.
He has published articles in Children and Libraries, Knowledge Quest, New Review of Children’s Literature and Librarianship, School Library Media Research, and Young Adult Library Services, and his book The Storytellers Sourcebook (co-authored with Margaret Read MacDonald) is an award-winning reference source for finding and comparing world folktales for children.