School of Information (iSchool) doctoral candidate Brittany Baum has been selected to receive FSU’s Graduate School’s Spring 2024 Dissertation Research Grant amounting to $1,000.

“I am incredibly honored and thankful to the Graduate School here at FSU for supporting me and my dissertation research. This means so much to me in helping to produce a quality dissertation,” Baum said.

Baum’s dissertation is titled “Public Youth Services Librarians’ Perceptions Towards and Experiences in Promoting Teens’ Positive Mental Health: A Mixed Methods Approach.” Her research seeks to explore the perceptions and experiences of public youth service librarians toward promoting teens’ positive mental health in the library. This includes how librarians define the professional boundaries related to this type of work, and any challenges or gaps in pre-service training/education in preparing them for this role.

“My findings from this study will provide greater understanding of what members of the profession are doing and/or are willing to do in response to rising teen mental health challenges,” Baum said. “This will improve teen service provision by informing future education and training efforts, and the development of new models for how to best promote teens’ mental health through a strengths-based lens.”

Baum hopes the grant will impact her research by being able to provide participants a gift card incentive in the second phase of her interviews as a thank you for their participation, as well as hoping for it to increase the number of interviews she is able to complete.

Baum currently works as an RA on an IMLS-funded project exploring social services in public libraries and after graduating next May, Baum hopes to pursue a career in academia.