Rutgers University is pleased to announce that Rebecca Reynolds and Chirag Shah, both Assistant Professors in the Department of Library and Information Science at the School of Communication & Information, are the recipients of ILMS Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Early Careers Development Awards.  Dr. Reynolds’ award of $399,995 is for "Guided Discovery-based Game Design as a Space to Investigate Problem- and Inquiry-Based Learning Among Youth." Dr. Shah received $272,996 for "CIS³: Collaborative Information Seeking Support and Services in Libraries."

Dr. Reynold’s project investigates instructional design in the context of an existing large-scale implementation of guided “discovery-based” e-learning and game design called Globaloria. This program aims to cultivate digital fluency, product development expertise, computational thinking, and core curriculum knowledge in participating students, through the activity of Constructionist game design. Globaloria is being offered currently to over 2,000 public school students in >150 schools in three U.S. states, who take game design classes for a full year as a credit-bearing daily elective, daily, for a grade. The program is implemented primarily with students from low income communities, and is operated by a New York City-based nonprofit organization called the World Wide Workshop (WWW).

Dr. Shah’s research investigates the need to introduce and support collaborative information seeking for people working in information intensive domains like libraries.  He employs a user-focused approach to investigate information seekers’ behavior while working collaboratively, with a focus on the obstacles faced and the help needed. The results and implications of creating collaborative support for information seeking could go beyond helping individuals in library settings, to the development of services that connect a librarian with a patron, a patron with a patron, a librarian with a librarian, a library with a library, and even a library service (such as virtual referencing) with an external crowdsourcing information seeking site (such as Yahoo! Answers or Wikipedia Reference Desk).

Congratulations to Rebecca and Chirag on these awards!

Marie L. Radford, Chair

Department of Library and Information Science

School of Communication & Information

Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey