Emily Rimland, information literacy librarian in Library Learning Services, has accepted the Sally W. Kalin Early Career Librarianship for Learning Innovations, and Dawn Childress, humanities librarian in the Arts and Humanities Library, has accepted the Sally W. Kalin Early Career Librarianship for Technological Innovations at Penn State. The three-year awards will fund the efforts of Rimland and Childress in the first decade of their careers as they develop new resources and services for Penn State students and faculty.
Kalin explained, "I am excited about Rimland and Childress being selected as the inaugural Kalin Librarians. Rimland's work with information literacy and learning technologies, and Childress's application of technological advances to humanities research exemplify the intellect, creativity and engagement that are the future of the information profession."
"I am ecstatic to have this opportunity. I plan to use the endowment to explore areas related to my research interests like educational gaming, instructional technologies, mobile learning and adaptive technologies, Rimland said. "Of course, it will be important to disseminate any knowledge and expertise gained, so I will also explore outlets for sharing scholarship about these topic such as a workshop for other colleagues or librarians."
"The Kalin Librarianship is such an extraordinary opportunity. I plan to use the endowment to support projects, training and initiatives related to my research on digital scholarship and research methods in the humanities, Childress added. "I would like to investigate new and creative uses of technology, such as mapping and text encoding, to enrich faculty and student research and to explore and create new forms of digital scholarship here at Penn State. I love the turn that digital scholarship has taken in recent years -- that tools and technologies are accessible to students and scholars, not just to large-scale, institutionally sponsored digital humanities centers. I'm really excited to see where my projects and research take me and to see what our researchers will do with the tools and technologies available today."
According to Barbara I. Dewey, dean of University Libraries and Scholarly Communications at Penn State, "The awards, established by Librarian Emeritus and alumna Sally W. Kalin and her husband, State College attorney Richard L. Kalin, are the first positions of their kind at any U.S. research library, and they place Penn State's libraries as a leader in the evolving information world."
Sally Kalin retired in summer 2011 from the post of associate dean for University Park Libraries after more than three decades of service to Penn State. She launched the initiative that created the Tombros and McWhirter Knowledge Commons in Pattee Library -- a state-of-the-art collaborative learning center with a wide range of technologies and services, including the assistance of faculty and staff specializing in new media and innovative educational approaches.
For more information, contact Catherine Grigor, manager of public relations and marketing for the Penn State University Libraries, at 814-863-4240 or cqg3@psu.edu.