Everhart & Mardis (FSU) to edit peer-reviewed School Libraries Worldwide and receive honors at ALA

Posted by Robert Branciforte on

Dr. Nancy Everhart and Dr. Marcia Mardis of The Florida State University (FSU) will begin co-editing School Libraries Worldwide, the official professional and research journal of the International Association of School Librarianship (IASL), in July 2010. They will be continuing the work of founding editor, Dr. Dianne Oberg (University of Alberta, Edmonton).

School Libraries Worldwide is a refereed, peer-reviewed research journal devoted to school librarianship, published twice yearly in January and July, and available online or through major periodical databases.

Everhart and Mardis are the director and associate director of Partnerships Advancing Library Media (PALM), a research center at FSU’s School of Library & Information Studies (SLIS), where they serve as faculty members. The school is one of three comprising the College of Communication & Information. PALM center focuses on the leadership role of school librarians and their impact on school technology.

The research team of Everhart and Mardis, who were lauded recently in the May 1 cover story of School Library Journal, ”Up, Up, and Away: How a group of researchers is reinventing school libraries,” is having a very active summer.

Everhart, who is slated to become the president of the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) in July, is currently serving as the guest editor of the June issue of Knowledge Quest, the official journal of the AASL. The issue is titled “What’s Next?” and looks at what school librarians can do in order to grow professionally. During July, Everhart will be teaching a three-week multimedia production course at the FSU London campus for 15 MLIS students from across the U.S.

Mardis will receive the American Association of School Librarians 2010 Distinguished Service Award at a luncheon during the American Library Association conference in Washington, D.C., on June 27. Along with SLIS doctoral student Janice Newsum, she will also be presented with the 2010 Frances Henne/YALSA/VOYA Research Award by the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) and a Heinemann/Raintree AASL Research Award during the conference. Mardis, who was asked earlier this year to chair the first National Accessioning Board  of the National Science Foundation’s National STEM Digital Library, is about to become chair of the AASL’s Research & Statistics Committee once again.

“Nancy and I are honored to be co-editing School Libraries Worldwide, as it is one of the only two peer-reviewed journals in school librarianship,” said Mardis. “The journal’s focus on school libraries in an international context is unique and crucial.”

First published in 1995, School Libraries Worldwide publishes current research and scholarship on any aspect of school librarianship. Contributors are invited to submit new scholarly works, such as research reports and reviews of research. Find out more about IASL at http://www.iasl-online.org/ and visit the School Libraries Worldwide site at http://www.iasl-online.org/pubs/slw/.