Dr. Marcia Mardis, assistant professor at the Florida State University College of Communication & Information, edited the new issue of Library Trends (vol. 58, no. 1, summer 2009) entitled “Important to Us All: School Libraries and LIS Research.” This issue was Library Trends’ first to focus on school libraries in over 40 years. In addition to being the Issue Editor, Dr. Mardis wrote the introductory article overview “A Gentle Manifesto on the Relevance and Obscurity of School Libraries in LIS Research,” and co-wrote (with Ellen Hoffman) the final article in the issue, “A Decade of Promises: Discourses on Twenty-first Century Schools in Library Policy and Research.”

The overarching theme of the issue is the tension between the low status the study of school libraries is often given in LIS research and the enduring relevance of school libraries to the research and practice. The issue focuses on connection points between popular areas of information science and school libraries such as organizational culture; information policy; community informatics; child development; technology-mediated change; informal learning; and intellectual property

Dr. Mardis has an established interdisciplinary research career based on school libraries. Her related work encompasses digital libraries, broadband utilization, educator change, and science learning with multimodal resources. This Library Trends issue builds on relationships and work conducted internationally and includes contributors from Australia and Canada, where Dr. Mardis served as a Fulbright Senior Specialist in 2008.

“I am so pleased about it. I have longed for an issue that helps to demonstrate why we should continue to nurture our school librarian preparation programs. I think this issue has the potential to make great changes in LIS.” Mardis said. “I’m hoping it will raise awareness in other programs that school library components have very relevant research and theories to contribute to LIS.”

The School of Library & Information Studies at Florida State’s College of Communication & Information has demonstrated excellence in information use and behavior research in K-12 organizations. The School Media Specialization within the Master’s program is ranked 3rd by U.S. News and World Report and prepares students to meet the information needs of children and young adults in various settings.