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SJSU SLIS Associate Professor Brings Young Adult Expertise to Two New Books
How should libraries perceive and serve young adults? That’s the question raised in one of Dr. Anthony Bernier’s new books published this summer.
Transforming Young Adult Services, a 232-page textbook published by Neal-Schuman, an imprint of the American Library Association, is “designed to provoke classroom debate primarily among graduate students and faculty,” said Bernier, an associate professor at the San Jose State University School of Library and Information Science (SJSU SLIS).
Bernier said working on the book was “an exciting intellectual journey because it required synthesizing young adult librarianship whole, not in bits and pieces, and seeing our intervention historically. Young adult librarianship is an area with an out-of-date research record, and so I hope Transforming will be true to its name and spark rejuvenation.”
Bernier has two new books out this summer. His other work, titled The Collected Wit and Wisdom of Dorothy M. Broderick, is a 260-page trade paperback published by VOYA Press. This collection of essays by Bernier and two other authors, along with selections of Dorothy Broderick’s own writing, is a type of publication called a “festschrift,” Bernier said. “That’s German for a kind of analytical memorial to a luminary in the field.”
The work celebrates the contributions of Broderick, who not only co-founded the most important magazine in young adult librarianship – Voice of Youth Advocates, or VOYA – but was an influential advocate for intellectual freedom until her death in 2011. “My hope is that it will be appreciated not only by the many people who knew Dorothy, but by students she has yet to inspire,” Bernier said.
Bernier, who was asked to edit this collection, said the process of reading and selecting Broderick’s work, collecting the other essays, writing his own, and then editing the material, took about two years.
In addition to his two new books regarding young adult librarianship published this summer, Bernier traveled in June 2013 to Seoul, South Korea, at the invitation of the government, to deliver the keynote address for the Seventh International Symposium on Library Services for Children and Young Adults. His speech covered recent developments in youth services in the U.S. He also presented a paper on research he conducted on youth volunteers in libraries.
Bernier’s research interests include history of libraries and library science, information literacy and instruction, libraries and society, serving multicultural populations, and young adult services. He is the principal investigator on a three-year National Leadership Grant, sponsored by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, to study young adult library spaces – a topic Bernier said he introduced to the library and information science (LIS) field.
“Our research teams of six faculty and SLIS students are currently preparing several article manuscripts for publication,” Bernier said, allowing the team to share their findings broadly with information professionals and scholars.
For more faculty news, please visit the information school’s website at: http://slisweb.sjsu.edu/about-slis/news/Faculty%20News
About SJSU SLIS
The San Jose State University School of Library and Information Science is a recognized leader in online learning and is a member of the Sloan Consortium (Sloan-C) and Quality Matters. In 2012, the information school's online programs received a score in the exemplary range according to the Sloan-C Quality Scorecard for the Administration of Online Education Programs.
SJSU SLIS prepares individuals for professional careers in the information profession. The information school offers the following online educational programs:
· Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS)
· Teacher Librarian Program
· Master of Archives and Records Administration (MARA)
· Post-Master's Certificate in Library and Information Science
· San Jose Gateway PhD Program
· Hyperlinked Library MOOC
For more information about the nationally ranked school, please visit: http://slisweb.sjsu.edu