The Institute of Museum and Library Science (IMLS) has awarded Drs. Barbara Moran and Javed Mostafa a grant in the amount of $891,451 for their project, "Educating Librarians in the Middle East: Building Bridges for the 21st Century: ELIME-21."
Under Moran's and Mostafa's direction, the School of Information and Library Science (SILS) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, in partnership with the university’s Carolina Center for the Study of the Middle East and Muslim Civilization, will launch a program to promote graduate-level education in library and information science at two universities – The American University in Cairo and Al Akhawayn University in Morocco. Six doctoral students will earn joint degrees from the two UNC programs established by the project. They will be involved with SILS faculty in providing on-site and distance learning opportunities for students at the two universities.
The project will help to prepare future U.S. library educators who are knowledgeable about the Middle East, and it will promote collaboration among libraries in areas such as collection development and cataloging of Arabic-language resources.
Dr. Moran, Louis Round Wilson distinguished professor, joined the faculty at SILS in 1981 and previously held the position of dean at the School from 1990 to 1998, and served as interim dean from May 2009 to March 2010. During her tenure, she added an undergraduate minor program and increased graduate enrollment by 32 percent. She enhanced technical resources, hired the School’s first development director, established the first Board of Visitors and doubled the School’s endowment. Dr. Moran also increased the international involvement of SILS and began the very successful Oxford and Prague Summer Seminars and most recently added the London Summer Seminar to the school's programs. She was appointed the first SILS Louis Round Wilson Distinguished Professor in July.
Dr. Mostafa joined the SILS faculty and the Biomedical Research Imaging Center (BRIC) for a joint appointment as associate professor on Aug. 1, 2007. His current research focuses on mining and retrieval of biomedical data. Since joining UNC, he has been a successful principal investigator and co-investigator on three large-scale grant initiatives, including a $2.5 million dollar, four-year initiative sponsored by the Multiple Sclerosis Foundation that involves developing a multi-site data registry. Dr. Mostafa was appointed Frances McColl Term Professor in 1997.
Information from the IMLS Web site was used for this press release.
