The SC&I Alumni Association, led by President Ron Jantz, held its Distinguished Alumni Event on April 13, 2022 honoring Nicole A. Cooke Ph.D’12, MLS’99, COM’97, for her contributions to the field of Library and Information Science and her other extensive professional accomplishments and a librarian and a scholar.

A three-time SC&I alumna, Cooke, the Augusta Baker Endowed Chair and Associate Professor at the School of Library and Information Science at the University of South Carolina, earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communication in 1997, a Master of Library Science (now called the Master of Information) Degree in 1999, and a Ph.D. in Library and Communication Science in 2012, all from SC&I. She also earned a Master of Education from Pennsylvania State University in 2006.

“We have this level of hypocrisy that we have to deal with, and we have to deal with it in our communities and our institutions, but we have to deal with it in the profession,” Cooke said.

Cooke, who was a practicing librarian in New Jersey libraries for 13 years before earning her Ph.D, has been the recipient of several major awards throughout her distinguished career, including the University of South Carolina’s 2021 Social Justice Award; the 2017 American Library Association (ALA) Achievement in Library Diversity Research Award; and the 2016 ALA Equality Award. In 2016 she also received the Maureen Y. Cohen “Make a Difference” Award from USC. In 2015 she received the YWCA Leadership Award by the University of Illinois in recognition of her work in social justice and higher education, and in 2013 she was named the recipient of the Norman Horrocks Leadership Award by The Association for Library and Information Science Education.

During the SC&I alumni event, Professor and Chair Marie Radford introduced Cooke, and following Radford’s introduction, Cooke spoke about her career goals, SC&I faculty members and mentors she admires, and her dedication to continuously study racism and misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation, explaining she recently attended a Race & Disinformation Conference at Harvard University at the end of April 2022.

Throughout the event, Cooke recalled many of the highlights of her career so far. These include serving as guest editor on a double issue of the journal Libraries, Culture, History & Society dedicated to Black women librarians and her book “Information Services to Diverse Populations: Developing Culturally Competent Library Professionals,” which is the first textbook of its kind in LIS, and “Fake News and Alternative Facts: Information Literacy in a Post-Truth Era.”

“I don’t know that it’s an exaggeration to say that Rutgers gave me my career, not only as a practicing librarian but as a faculty member, aside from just receiving a world-class education,” Cooke said.

Cooke also spoke about the challenges and discrimination she’s faced as a Black woman in the LIS field and academia.

“We have this level of hypocrisy that we have to deal with, and we have to deal with it in our communities and our institutions, but we have to deal with it in the profession,” Cooke said.

Cooke said a significant part of her mission as a librarian, educator, and speaker is to encourage and expand the discussion of social justice issues and anti-racism practices, noting she has been recognized by the LIS field for her work promoting education around these issues.

At the end of her presentation, Cooke took questions from the audience, and thanked SC&I faculty and Rutgers as an institution.

“I don’t know that it’s an exaggeration to say that Rutgers gave me my career, not only as a practicing librarian but as a faculty member, aside from just receiving a world-class education,” Cooke said.

Discover more about the Alumni Association at the Rutgers School of Communication and Information on the website.