SC&I Schoen Research Fellows Present their work at NJASL
Projects created by seven MI students and graduates, who are recipients of the Beverly E. Schoen Research Fellowship, were presented at the New Jersey Association of School Librarians Conference in Atlantic City in December.
Projects created by seven MI students and graduates, who are recipients of the Beverly E. Schoen Research Fellowship, were presented at the New Jersey Association of School Librarians Conference in Atlantic City in December.

By Brenda Boyer, NTT Lecturer in Library and Information Science 

The scholarly contributions of seven current students and recent graduates of the SC&I Master of Information program, all recipients of the SC&I Beverly E. Schoen Research Fellowship, were presented to the school library profession at the New Jersey Association of School Librarians Conference in Atlantic City in December, 2023. 

This statewide conference session was held in honor of the late SC&I Associate Professor Ross J. Todd, who was Director of the Center for International Scholarship in School Libraries  in School Libraries (CISSL) at SC&I.

As recipients of the Beverly E. Schoen Research Fellowship, which supports MI students preparing for certification as school library media specialists in K-12 schools via CISSL, the fellows were required to perform action research and develop projects “relating to dynamic learning in school libraries.”

Projects presented by the fellows at NJASL during the “Research Informing Practice” session included: “Get Out! Utilizing Outdoor Spaces for School Library Programs” (Jessica DiCicco), “Equity and School Libraries” (Alyssa Rivera), “Elementary Library Redesign” (Yuliya Abova), and “Museum and Object-Based Learning in Libraries” (Zach Arlt).  

 Projects by the fellows not in attendance, “International Book Celebration” (Kellyanne Healey), “School Librarians and Homeschoolers” (Jennifer Murray), and “New Jersey Know Your Source” (Harmony Birch), were presented by SC&I NTT Lecturer in Library and Information Science Brenda Boyer, Ph.D., the advisor to Schoen fellows.

The seven research projects resulted in a variety of resources such as LibGuides of curated materials, fully-developed lessons, and other tools for school librarians to immediately use in practice.  

Boyer said current Schoen recipients are embarking on projects with topics such as evolving digital citizenship, librarians’ support of college planning, developing a core curriculum around puberty, and social emotional learning.

“Students work with me in developing proposals, planning action research, and developing final deliverables,” Boyer said.  

The fellowship was established through the Carole A. and Norman Barham Family Foundation’s generous donation to CISSL. The goal of the Schoen Fellowship is to “build a culture of student research, professional leadership, contribution and innovation” within the SC&I MI librarianship concentration. “Rutgers Schoen fellows are making excellent progress toward this goal,” Boyer said.  

Learn more about the Schoen Research Fellowship, our recipients, and links to their projects as well as a recording of the NJASL presentation at our LibGuide.  

Schoen Projects are also featured on the "School Library Research Informing Practice" podcast available on YouTube and Spotify.  

Learn more about the Library and Information Science Department at the Rutgers School of Communication and Information on the website.

 

Photo: Schoen fellows at NJSAL December 2023.. Credit: Taken from the LibGuide with permission from Brenda Boyer. 

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