Each year, GSLIS gives four major awards to graduating students. We've profiled each of the students below and invite you to read full Q&As on the GSLIS Alumni Profile pages at: http://www.simmons.edu/gslis/people/alumni/profiles/index.php. Many congratulations to each of the award winners and all of this year's GSLIS graduates!
GSLIS West Leadership Award: Adam Williams
This award is given to an outstanding GSLIS West student who best exemplifies the leadership values of
academic excellence, community building, service, and commitment to the success of other students and the
program. This year's recipient was Adam Williams.
Adam began at GSLIS in Fall 2006, and served as the LISSA West President for 2007-2008. During that year, he
and the LISSA West team brought students together into an active community by providing leadership and
initiating new and creative ways to build relationships. In addition to organizing public speaking events on
public, school, and academic libraries, and on archives, he helped arranged a number of well attended social
events. Of these, the most popular wasn't what you'd expect.
"My legacy is bowling," Adam says, with only a little bit of tongue in cheek. An activity originally begun by
a previous generation of student leaders, Adam "expanded on their work. Setting up events at the bowling
alley proved to be a good way to connect with fellow students and faculty at GSLIS-West as well as area
librarians outside the program." LISSA West also challenged the Boston Campus LISSA leaders to a "grand
bowling match," bringing West and East together.
Adam focused his coursework on management, reference and technology. While a student, he also worked as a
Thrive Circuit Rider. A grant received by the Western Massachussetts Library System (WMRLS), the project
allowed he and his colleagues to assist libraries serving populations under 2,000 to update their
collections. The grant also enabled WMRLS to build websites for a handful of small libraries. He is now
working as a reference librarian at the Springfield (MA) Technical Community College Library.
To read the full Q&A with Adam Williams, please see: http://www.simmons.edu/gslis/people/alumni/profiles/1560.php
Outstanding Information Science Student Award: Jen Langley
The Simmons Student Chapter of the American Society for Information Science & Technology (ASIS&T)
awards an annual prize for service to the chapter and academic achievement in information science. The
recipient of this year's award was Jen Langley.
While at GSLIS, Jen says, "I took as many classes with the word "digital" in the title as possible!" This
included Digital Libraries (LIS 462),
where she served on the web committee, and Digital Publishing (LIS 457), where she wrote
about Open Access. She also took Database
Management (LIS 458), Web Development and
Information Architecture (LIS 467) and Social Informatics (LIS 421).
Her most valuable experience while a student, however, was taking part in the GSLIS Information Architecture
(IA) Project, which formed the framework for the 2009 GSLIS Website redesign. One of a group of six students
who worked on the project as part of an independent study, Jen was part of the Paper Prototyping team and
also acted as the 'schematic wrangler, creating wireframes of the different iterations of the IA team's
proposed structure. "I worked harder on the IA project than on anything else in Library School and it turned
out to be one of the best experiences of my 2 ½ years," she says.
In addition to taking a full schedule of courses at GSLIS Jen served as Chair of the Simmons College Student
Chapter of ASIS&T while also working full-time as a Web Manager with YouthBuild USA. Now the Associate
Director of Information Systems, she uses what she learned about databases, user testing, web development,
social software, and information organization at work every day.
To read the full Q&A with Jen Langley, please see: http://www.simmons.edu/gslis/people/alumni/profiles/1561.php
Estelle Jussim Award: Caro Pinto
The Estelle Jussim Award is given each year to a graduating GSLIS student who has demonstrated great
promise in the visual arts. It honors Dr. Estelle Jussim, a GSLIS faculty member who was a distinguished
photographic historian and scholar, and who exhibited such professional accomplishments in the visual arts
and high academic achievement. GSLIS was pleased to present the 2009 Estelle Jussim award to Caroline "Caro"
Pinto.
Caro is a dynamic and innovative library and archives professional with complementary background in teaching
and research. With a second masters in American History and an undergraduate degree in History from Smith
College, she has gained experience in Archives and Special Collections at Harvard University, Amherst
College, Northeastern University, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst where much of her work involved
creating better access to audio-visual material. Since 2006, Caro has been a graduate advisor and teaching
assistant at the University of Massachusetts where she is widely recognized by colleagues and students as an
excellent instructor who successfully engages students in the learning process.
While at GSLIS, Caro loved taking both Visual
Communication (LIS 470) and Archiving and
Preserving Digital Media (LIS 444) with Martha Mahard. "It was exciting to consider how to tackle the
challenges of producing, sharing, and preserving scholarship in the digital age," she says. She also enjoyed
working at Amherst College on a project basis to process the Henry Steele Commager papers with a number of
other Simmons alumni, which was, she says, was "a remarkable experience."
To read the full Q&A with Caro Pinto, please see: http://www.simmons.edu/gslis/people/alumni/profiles/1562.php
