Kimberly M. Gay, Reference and Instruction Librarian attended the Texas Library Association’s Annual Assembly in Austin during July 26-27, 2010. Ms. Gay serves on ten TLA Committees and Roundtables and attended the Annual Assembly.

Kimberly M. Gay, Reference and Instruction Librarian attended the Building Learning Communities Conference on Library Information Literacy in Boston, MA from July 13-16, 2010. The conference held workshops on the advancement in education using new media technologies. The conference was sponsored by the November Learning Group.

Phyllis Earles, University Archivist recently published an article in the The Genealogical Record entitled: Archives of the Houston Area Series - John B. Coleman Library at Prairie View A&M University. The article is in the Spring 2010, Vol. 52, Nos. 1 & 2 issue.

Kimberly M. Gay, Reference and Instruction Librarian co-presented at the RAMP (Research Association of Minority Professors) 29th Annual Conference; on Friday, February 5, 2010 in Houston, Texas. The presentation was Pathways to Pathfinders: Academic Librarians and Researching Credible Health Data in the World Wide Web for Minorities. The presentation addressed issues concerning information seeking behaviors of African American Health Information, Internet Technology- Digital Divide, Academic Librarians. She co-presented with Riley, Ola, M.L.I.S. Medical Academy Librarian at PVAMU.   

Dr. Rosie L. Albritton, Library Director, Helen Yeh, Associate Director, Juanita Walker, Assistant Director, and Dr. Stephen Shaw, Head of Reference and Information Services recently attended the American Library Association’s Midwinter conference in Boston, MA January 15-19, 2010. Librarians converged to meet and discuss cutting-edge ideas.

Kimberly M. Gay, Reference and Instruction Librarian was the keynote speaker for the University College Building Number 38 Lecture Series on September 22, 2009, held in the John B. Coleman Library. The theme of the lectures series was “The Path to Success: Life Skills 101. Are you Man Enough” Ms. Gay spoke about the three important issues for young men - knowing the value of getting a college degree; reading and knowing how to find good information; and building good friendships.

Karl Henson, Electronic Services Librarian and Steve Shaw, Head of Reference and Instruction, conducted a seminar at Lone Star College at North Harris September 17th entitled “Assessment and the Academic Library.” The seminar, presented to the Library Directors and other senior library staff of the eight campuses of the college system, focused on setting goals and objectives, departmental mission statements, overall library assessment best practices including data storage and documentation as well as an overview of the library requirement for SACS re accreditation.

Dr. Rosie Albritton, Director of Library Services was recently featured in the American Library Association (ALA) journal American Libraries. Dr. Rosie Albritton was re-elected to serve a third 3-year-term as a Councilor-at-Large, on the ALA Council. The election results are published in the June/July 2009 issue of "American Libraries. on page 12. (Web Announcement)

Kimberly M. Gay, Reference and Instruction Librarian Co-hosted a workshop on "Reflections on Reading Research-Sociological and Educational Implications: Best Practices for thinking, reading, and writing using African American literature; and the role of the librarian in developing initiatives for reading in the home, the school, the university, and the community" at the 15th National HBCU Faculty Development Symposium in Washington D.C. October 23-25, 2008.

Karl Henson, Electronic Services Librarian and Steve Shaw, Head of Reference and Information Services presented “An Introduction to Library Assessment” at the Texas Library Association’s District 8 annual Fall Conference held Saturday October 18^th at Lonestar College at Cy-Fair. The talk covered how to write goals and objectives, preparing for SACS as well as proper document retention, presentation and organization.

Kimberly M. Gay, Reference and Instruction Librarian presented a workshop on “From School Library to Academic Library: “Got EBSCOhost Database College Library Research Skills” at the Texas Library Association’s District 8 annual Fall Conference held Saturday October 18th at Lonestar College at Cy-Fair. 

Never has She Ever...

Lauren Kelley, Curator of Art Collections will be taking part in an exhibit and give a lecture at Never Has She Ever - Eblast for exhibition at Mason Gross School of the Arts.

Mason Gross School of the Arts Galleries at Rutgers University, in collaboration with the Judith K. and David J. Brodsky Center for Innovative Editions at Rutgers and the Institute For Women and Art, is pleased to present Never Has She Ever… an exhibition featuring 10 women artists re-representing the female gaze and figure twisting and challenging internalized notions of beauty and womanhood. This intergenerational exhibit brings together artists working in diverse media and techniques: photography, painting, drawing, installations, film and video.

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Kimberly M. Gay, Reference and Instruction Librarian attended the Texas Library Association’s Annual Assembly in Austin Texas July 7-10, 2008. Ms. Gay is the chair 2008-2009 of the TLA Genealogy Round table, TLA Black Caucus Round table Councilor Alternate 2007-2010 and a Working Group member of the TexShare Education Services 2007-2010. She planned programs and events for Genealogy Round Table at the TLA Houston Conference 2009 and attend various workshops on TLA Legislative Day 2009, Transforming Texas Libraries and TLA, Chair Training, and TLA Black Caucus.

Dr. Rosie L. Albritton, Library Director, Helen Yeh, Associate Director, and Dr. Stephen Shaw, Head of Reference and Information Services recently attended the American Library Association’s Annual conference in Anaheim, CA June 26-July 2. Over 22,000 librarians converged to meet and discuss cutting-edge ideas. Some of the more interesting sessions were on the use of Information Literacy, assessment and ‘Academic Library Instruction in an Online Environment.’

Elizabeth Jean Brumfield, Distance Services Librarian presented a paper at the 13th Annual Off-Campus Library Services Conference in Salt Lake City Utah, April 23-26, 2008. The paper entitled: Using Online Tutorials to Reduce Uncertainty in Information Seeking Behavior, suggests that many of our behavioral motivations in face to face activities would also apply in the online environment. By creating online tutorials that combine structured hierarchical instructions with familiar modes of communication we may be able to reduce symptoms of uncertainty in the library search process.
http://ocls.cmich.edu/conference/presentations/brumfield.pdf

The paper is published in Conference Proceedings of the 13th Annual Off-Campus Library Conference, by the conference host Central Michigan University. It will also be published in a separate volume of the Journal of Library Administration, Haworth Press.

Lauren Kelley, Library Art Curator - Fourth Floor Gallery - Ms Kelley was featured in the Houston Chronicle April 29, 2008 article entitled "Heartbreak in the dollhouse".

"Growing up in Spring, Lauren Kelley played with dolls — blonde-haired and blue-eyed Barbies, mostly, and a few that were brown-skinned and dark-haired like she was.

Dollhouse life was glamorous and carefree, the kind of existence that Kelley assumed she'd enjoy someday."

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Lauren Kelley, Library Art Curator - Fourth Floor Gallery - The New Museum and Altoids, the Curiously Strong Mints®, announced the first winners of The Altoids Award. Lauren Kelley, curator of the Prairie View A&M University Fourth Floor Art Gallery, will receive a $25,000 cash prize of a total $100,000 awarded to three other artists.

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Dr. Rosie Albritton, Director of Library Services, Helen Yeh, Assistant Library Director and Jimmizine Taylor, Former Special Collections Librarian was recently honored by Prairie View A&M University, celebrating the accomplishments, heritage and history of women with a series of lectures and activities throughout Women’s History Month, March 6-31. This year’s theme, “Women’s Vision-Expanding the View,” recognizes the contributions of women across the world and Prairie View A&M women that have achieved a high measure of success and who have greatly contributed to the Prairie View A&M community and mankind.

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Kimberly M. Gay, Reference and Instruction Librarian - visiting seminar lecturer at the University of Houston’s African American Studies Department on April 10, 2008.

Ms. Gay was chosen to be a visiting seminar lecturer at University of Houston’s African American Studies Department. She is conducting a seminar lecture on African Genealogy on Thursday, April 10, 2008 at 10 a.m. in the Agnes Arnold Hall Suite 628. The topic of her lecture is Minority Genealogical Research: Keeping the Cultures through Engagement, Enlightenment and Empowerment. This lecture will identify major challenges in genealogical research for people of underrepresented heritages, including African Americans, American Indians (Native Americans), and brainstorm best practices for research methodologies.

Elizabeth Jean Brumfield, Distance Services Librarian, Steve Shaw, Head of Reference and Information Services and Karl Henson, Electronic Services Librarian jointly presented “Using Library E-Resources to Enhance Student Learning”  during the 2008 Teaching with Technology Conference which was held on February 12 -13 at the Texas A&M University Memorial Student Center.

Yubao Li, Reference and Instruction Librarian, attended the American Library Association winter conference in Philadelphia from January 11 to January 14, 2008. Mr. Li is a member of the ALA Library Instruction  Round Committee (2007 to 2009). While attending the conference, he participated in the Committee meeting to plan the 2008 activities of the committee.  He attended LIRT sessions and discussion forums: Teaching and Learning with Technology Committee Discussion Forum, Information Literacy Best Practices, Teaching Disabled Students, Assessment: We Know We Should Do It and attended other discussion groups and seminars. He was invited to attend APALA (Asian Pacific American Librarian Association) meetings and he became a member.

Kimberly M. Gay HBCU Information Literacy Institute recipient

Kimberly M. Gay, Reference and Instruction Librarian was chosen to take part in the HBCU (Mellon Grant) Information Literacy Institute. The ILLI will convene in Charlotte, North Carolina from February 10 to 15, 2008 on the campus of Johnson C. Smith University and the James B. Duke Memorial Library. The participants will have an opportunity to learn about the Information Literacy Instruction programs provided at four other academic libraries, including the JCSU model for Information Literacy programs. Most importantly, participants will spend some time during the institute designing an Information Literacy Instructional Program for their own students. Consultations will be available during the institute addressing principles, components, and the use of information technology in developing an Instructional Literacy program. This Institute also will provide opportunities for libraries that do not have an information literacy instruction program to develop both a program and an implementation plan for their university and library.

For further information about the HBCU (Mellon Grant) Information Literacy Institute visit this web site >> http://archives.jcsu.edu/illi/

Marion Williams, library Development Coordinator has been spotlighted by the Zeta Gamma Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sonority on their web site. Ms Williams "... goes out of her way to make sure others are comfortable ... humble spirit and kind heart..." Zeta Gamma Omega is "honored to have in its presence women of character and style."

To view the entire spotlight – Click Here

Prairie View A&M University Representative
Selected To Attend National Conservation Forum

“Preserving America’s Diverse Heritage” to focus on at-risk museum, library collections

January 8, 2008, Washington, DC—Dr. Rosie L. Albritton, Prairie View A&M University’s Director of Library Services, at the John B. Coleman Library, Prairie View, Texas, has been selected to attend a national forum, January 31- February 1, 2008, in Atlanta, Georgia on “Preserving America’s Diverse Heritage.” She is one of 30 representatives of small and medium-sized collecting institutions nationwide invited to participate based on their leadership in the profession and in their communities.

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