Kent State Builds Library Bridges

New university scholarships encourages school, public library cooperation

By Walter Minkel -- School Library Journal, 3/1/2004

Few library school professors take building bridges between media centers and public libraries more seriously than Carolyn Brodie and Greg Byerly of Kent State University. Their latest project, New Libraries, New Leaders, offers scholarships to eight prospective Ohio library media specialists and eight young adult librarians, who will study and work together for two years at the university's new Institute for Library and Information Literacy Education.

Funded by a $392,000 grant from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services, the program's objective is to prepare a new generation of "library leaders" who will understand how to collaborate with their counterparts in school and public libraries, as well as with teachers, say the program's founders. Students will also have access to the new Reinberger Children's Resource Center, an 1,800-square-foot classroom with a cutting-edge automation system, top-of-the-line Internet equipment, and videoconferencing. The 16 students will start their studies this fall and graduate with master's degrees in library science in 2006.