Press

October 19, 2002

School identifies criteria to help recruit PhD students

The Florida State University School of Information Studies is in the process of developing criteria to help identify potential doctoral students for Library and Information Science Studies (LIS) programs.

The task is one of many in the first stage of Project Athena, an adaptable model for the recruitment and preparation of the next generation of LIS faculty. The project is funded through a three-year, $482,780 grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS).

The goal of Project Athena is to help replenish the inadequate supply of LIS faculty. IMLS, and independent federal agency that supports the nation's museums and libraries, has reported that nearly two-thirds of the nation's practicing librarians will retire by 2019.

FSU will work in collaboration with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the University of Washington to develop "Project Athena," which includes a recruitment model, a new doctoral course and resources and instruments for outcome-based assessment of recruitment, and preparation activities nationally.

"We are extremely grateful to the IMLS for providing funding for this collaboration with two highly regarded LIS schools," said Associate Dean Kathleen Burnett, the principle investigator for the project. "With their help, we believe that we can demonstrate effective ways to recruit, prepare and, ultimately, retain high-quality faculty to assist in the efforts to meet the national shortage of librarians. A special strength of Project Athena is its emphasis in recruiting faculty who will serve as role models for underserved populations."

Each school will recruit three doctoral fellows who will participate in developing and demonstrating the recruiting model. The project also involves revising the Survey of Doctoral Education and Career Preparation that was funded by the Pew Charitable rusts and developed by the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2000. The survey was designed for several reasons, one of which was to discover how effective doctoral programs are at preparing students to become faculty members. School of Information Studies Dean Jane B. Robins will lead this research effort.

Burnett and Robbins are joined by co-principal investigators Laurie J. Bonnici, director and assistant professor at the School of Library and Information Studies at Texas Women's University and a former visiting assistant professor at FSU, and Judith Mulholland, an FSU doctoral students who is a faculty member at the School of Library and Information Studies at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nava Scotia.

Linda Smith, interim dean of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Harry Bruce, associate dean for research at the University of Washington, will serve as coordinators of the project at the partner schools.