NCSU Libraries Focus Online

Volume 23 number 1 - Fall 2002

The NCSU Libraries is very pleased to announce the appointment of the 2002-2004 class of NCSU Libraries Fellows. Anna Dahlstein began her fellowship on August 5, 2002, Kelsey Libner started his on July 8, 2002, and Monica I. Lopez began her fellowship on August 27, 2002.

Each year, the Libraries recruits top graduates with demonstrated potential for academic library careers in science, engineering, digital librarianship, and library management. The Libraries also recognizes the importance of diversity in librarianship and makes extra efforts to recruit candidates from underrepresented backgrounds. The NCSU Libraries Fellows program offers a two-year appointment that facilitates the development of expertise in a functional area and the opportunity to contribute to an innovative initiative of strategic importance. A Fellow works approximately twenty hours each week in a home department, where he or she is a fully integrated member of the professional staff and performs entry-level librarian assignments; and twenty hours each week on a project in an area outside the home department.

Dahlstein's home department is Special Collections. For her project, she assists in the development of the Libraries' marketing programs in Scholarly Communication and External Relations and conducts research on enterprise-wide initiatives for library administration.

Dahlstein, a recipient of the Elizabeth Cary Agassiz Merit Award, earned her B.A. in government from Harvard University. She received an M.A. in library and information studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison), where she was awarded a fellowship from the Friedman Fund.

After completing her undergraduate degree, Dahlstein worked in Buenos Aires, Argentina, for five years. Positions she held were as an English teacher, a news editor for the Buenos Aires Herald, and a news analyst at Esmerk Information. In addition, she authored a book on Swedish immigration to Argentina over the past two centuries and volunteered as a librarian/editor for the local Swedish Association and Church. At UW-Madison, she served as a news librarian for the University Communications department.

Libner's home department is in Digital Library Initiatives, and his project assignment is in Preservation, where he works with staff throughout the Libraries to develop appropriate guidelines and strategies for preserving digital collections.

Libner brings a rich variety of work experiences to the NCSU Libraries. During a directed field study at the University of Michigan's Digital Library Production Service, he developed and documented routines for transforming electronic texts to enable users to search across multiple collections. He also worked as a programming assistant with the School of Information's Internet Public Library, as a reference assistant at the Graduate Library, and as a teaching assistant for Psychology 345, "Introduction to Human Neuropsychology."

Libner received a B.A. in English from Yale University, and he holds two master's degrees--an M.S. in cognitive psychology from the University of Oregon and an M.S. in information from the University of Michigan. While at Michigan, he received the Joseph Rounds Scholarship and the Margaret Mann Award and coauthored "Getting Answers to Natural Language Questions on the Web," published in the Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology.

Lopez's home department is Research and Information Services. Her project is to help implement an expanded program of curriculum-integrated instruction to support courses in textiles and engineering.

Lopez's undergraduate and graduate degrees both come from Florida institutions. She holds a B.A. in Spanish education from Florida State University and an M.A.L.I.S. from the University of South Florida. She is a recipient of the American Library Association Spectrum Scholarship, a major initiative in librarianship designed to develop a representative workforce that reflects the communities served by libraries.

Previously, Lopez worked in the University of South Florida Tampa Campus Library. As a teaching assistant, she conducted basic, advanced, and course-specific classes and created specialized user aids for library instruction. In 2001 she served as a graduate assistant in the Reference Department, staffing the reference desk and conducting bibliographic instruction. Her responsibilities also included assisting unaffiliated users through the library's fee-based service Call/USF and creating displays to promote library user awareness. In addition to library work, Lopez has experience as a student teacher of high school Spanish.

For detailed information on the NCSU Libraries' Fellows Program, see the Libraries' Web site at http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/personnel/jobs/FellowsProgDesc.html.