Instructional Services Librarian Appointed

Kawanna Bright The NCSU Libraries has appointed Kawanna M. Bright as Instructional Services Librarian, effective June 4, 2007.

Kawanna Bright combines a background in instructional services with a zeal for enhancing student success by teaching skills for information discovery and retrieval. Under her leadership the Libraries will expand its initiative to join with faculty to integrate research and information skills throughout the undergraduate curriculum. With an emphasis on methods tailored to diverse learning styles, instructional services will incorporate the latest instructional technologies to provide point-of-need instruction on the Web.

Bright began her career as Minority Resident Librarian at the University of Tennessee Knoxville Libraries, where she now serves as Instructional Services Librarian. Her responsibilities include creating online tutorials, coordinating the Libraries' workshop series, collaborating on the development of information literacy programs throughout the curriculum, and coaching and mentoring librarians and graduate students to develop effective teaching skills. Bright serves as chair of the UT Knoxville Libraries Diversity Committee and the Reference Book Display Group, which provides informative displays on topics of interest to the university community. She participated in ACRL Immersion 2006: Teacher Track, an intensive program on all aspects of information literacy.

Highly involved in numerous service and professional activities, Bright serves on the American Library Association (ALA) Library Instruction Round Table PR Membership Committee, the Spectrum Advisory Committee, and the ALA Diversity Leadership Institute Planning Committee. She has published and presented on the topic of diversity in libraries and served as a recruiter for the Science Links program, an IMLS-funded project to bring members of underrepresented populations into science librarianship.

Kawanna Bright holds the Master of Library and Information Science from the University of Washington, where she received the Ruth Worden Award for Excellence in Library and Information Science, and the Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from the University of Oklahoma.