2020 News

Kathy Harty

12/28/2020

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Kathy Harty

Resource & Education Services Librarian, Leo Dehon Library Sacred Heart Seminary & School of Theology, Franklin, Wisconsin

 

Describe your career as a librarian and where you work.

I am the Resource & Education Services Librarian at Sacred Heart Seminary & School of Theology, in the suburbs of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Sacred Heart is a national seminary run as an apostolate of the Priests of the Sacred Heart (SCJ), an international order founded by Ven. Leo John Dehon in 1878. We have a seminary division that accepts students from dioceses and religious orders around the country, and a Master of Arts division that trains laity and seminarians for ministry in various parts of the Church. I’ve been at Sacred Heart since 1982 and have enjoyed pretty much every day! My current duties include answering questions; helping faculty and students with research; co-teaching a first-year course (Theological Research & Writing) for all incoming Masters of Divinity students; being the library webmaster; creating LibGuides; assisting with inter-library loan; assisting faculty in using Populi, our learning management system; filming, streaming, and editing video for special events; learning more about online teaching; basically, many of the public services. In addition, the library staff is first-tier technical support for students, faculty, and staff—a nice variety of things, never a chance for boredom!
Share something about yourself not related to librarianship. 
My husband and I have three children and two grandchildren. I also teach fourth grade religious education at our parish. 
How does your faith inspire or fit in with your work?
It’s a marvelous fit between the two because I don’t have to hide or suppress my faith; it’s a part of helping to train future priests and lay people for ministry in the Church. It has also given me the opportunity to get a second master’s degree in theology, and for attending conferences and other continuing education sessions. And I love to hear the faith journeys of our students, both lay and future ordained.
When and why did you get involved in the CLA?
I got involved with CLA through our local Wisconsin chapter. I had been encouraged by my library director to get involved locally, so I found out about WCLA and CLA. I served as the chair of the Academic/Library Education Section from 1991 to 1993, on the Executive Board from 1993 to 1995 as membership chair, and was the convention program editor from 1994 to 1996. 
What has been your most rewarding experience with the CLA?
I think my time on the board was wonderful, because CLA was going through a transitional time, and seeing how board members and members worked so hard to preserve this resource was inspiring. And to see how it’s been kept up is encouraging. 
What do you hope for the future of the CLA? 
CLA provides a much-needed forum, focus, and resource, particularly for those smaller libraries at the elementary and high school levels, which allows the librarians to form their students well. It’s also a place in which librarians in specifically Catholic situations, or who are Catholic, can discuss issues that are pertinent in a helpful atmosphere.
 

CLA Member Dr. Leslie S.J. Farmer Authors New Book

12/28/2020

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Longtime CLA member Dr. Leslie S.J. Farmer's, new book, Impactful Community-Based Literacy Projects, has been published by the ALA. Farmer's book provides evidence-based practice guidelines for librarians and educators. The projects described in this book blend early literacy benefits, fundamental reading skills, and other foundational concepts with culture- or community-specific sensitivity and leveraging. They’re adaptable based on age, audience, size, resources, and budget; and most importantly, they address social inequities and foster cross-culture interactions. The book features profiles of dozens of successful literacy projects.

Farmer is a professor at California State University, Long Beach (CSULB), coordinates the Teacher Librarian Program and manages the CSU Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Literacy Project Literacy Project. She has worked as a librarian in K–12 school settings as well as in public, special, and academic libraries. She is the CLA 2020 Katharine Drexel Award recipient.
 

Heather Bouwman

12/21/2020

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Heather Bouwman

Professor of English, University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minnesota

Author of fantasy novels for kids 

Describe your career as a librarian and where you work.
I’m an English professor at the University of St. Thomas, where I’ve worked since 2001. Originally hired as an early American specialist, I’ve since transitioned to writing children’s novels and teaching creative writing courses. I love teaching—though this year with the pandemic has been particularly challenging—and I love writing. St. Thomas has been particularly supportive of my mid-career switch in focus from early American to creative writing, and I’ve found wonderful colleagues in the English department and elsewhere on campus. While at St. Thomas, I’ve published three fantasy novels for kids ages 10+, and three early chapter books for kids 5-8 years old. (Apparently, I ignore nine-year-olds!)
Share something about yourself not related to librarianship your job.
I’m a martial artist—a fifth degree black belt in the traditional Korean martial art of Kuk Sool Won, which I’ve studied for over 25 years, and which my two almost-adult kids have also studied for most of their lives. I started it on a whim in grad school (a friend said, “You should come to class with me”) and all these years later, it’s a huge part of my life.
How does your faith inspire or fit in with your work?
The study of literature should naturally lead readers to consider the moral, philosophical and religious underpinnings of the text. In my professorial life and in my creative writing, I don’t ever try to be a theologian or catechism teacher; that’s not my job. I don’t think the work of a novelist—or of a college professor—is to provide answers to the big questions of life, but rather, it is to encourage readers—and students—to carefully ponder the big questions in all their messiness.

That said, my three early readers—the Eleanor and Owen series—were published by a Lutheran-owned press and do deal explicitly with issues of faith, but (I hope) without being didactic. These books definitely grew out of my own beliefs as a progressive Christian.
When and why did you get involved in the CLA?
I was delighted to be asked to interview the Regina Medal recipients the last two years for the CLA online conference; it was a joy to interview Kate DiCamillo in 2019 and Christopher Paul Curtis in 2020. (It was also a little scary, because I love their writing SO MUCH!)
How has being involved with the CLA been important to your professional development?
I have become much more aware of the work of the organization—which was not very much on my radar before becoming involved with the conference! And on a relatively minor note: I’m impressed with how well the CLA runs an online conference, excelling at it well before the pandemic forced other in-person conferences to go online.
 

2020 John Brubaker Award Given to David C. Miller

10/23/2020

The Catholic Library World Editorial Committee selected David C. Miller, a retired scholar formerly with Longview College in Kansas City, Missouri, as the recipient of the John Brubaker Award for 2019-2020 for his study "Armand-Gaston Camus: Catholic Scholar, Revolutionary, and Founder of the National Archives of France" from the December 2019 issue.

The Brubaker Award was established in 1978 to recognize an outstanding work of literary merit published in Catholic Library World during the publishing year prior to the award presentation, and Miller's study of Armand-Gaston Camus (1740-1804) clearly deserves this distinction. Building on his previous scholarship on Camus in the Catholic Historical Review, Miller’s work considers how Camus’s background of Gallican Jansenism, dedication to Classical learning, and legal brilliance combined with his support for the ideals of the French Revolution to influence his tenure as the founder and first general director of the National Archives of France.  He astutely considers Camus’s views on selecting records for preservation and how he negotiated the various phases and personalities of the Revolution to defend and advance the work of the archives. Miller also devotes considerable attention to Camus’s much-criticized insistence on disregarding archival provenance by choosing to separate records into artificial categories based on chronology or subject matter. He provides a qualified defense of the archivist by pointing out how this practice, borrowed from contemporary librarianship, was considered an acceptable practice in Europe at the time. For his skillful examination of Armand-Gaston Camus’s administration of the French National Archives viewed within its Revolutionary context, the committee gratefully presents the 2019-2020 Brubaker Award to David C. Miller.
 

2020 Jerome Award Winner - Mariological Society of America

3/3/2020

The Mariological Society of America is a Catholic theological association dedicated to studying and making known the role of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the mystery of Christ and in the Church and in the history of salvation. Through its annual meetings and in its publications, the Society seeks to promote comprehensive and integrated study of the person and the role of the Virgin Mary so as to foster a well-informed and theologically sound devotion and spirituality.

The Mariological Society of America was founded by Fr. Juniper B. Carol, O.F.M., in October 1949. The charter members gathered for the first meeting in Washington, D.C., in January 1950. Since that time, the MSA has met annually in various cities throughout the United States. In 1954, the Society was recognized as a corporation “organized exclusively for charitable, religious, educational, and scientific purposes.” Listed in the Official Catholic Directory as one of the national organizations of the United States Catholic Conference, it is recognized as a tax-exempt organization. Since 1979, the office of the executive secretary of the MSA has been located at the Marian Library of the University of Dayton.

Gloria Dodd, STD, Promotion Committee Councilor on the MSA Administrative Council, will accept the award on behalf of the MSA at the CLA 2020 Spring Virtual Conference. Gloria is originally from Washington, D.C., and grew up as a bibliophile. Her mother had such a wonderful library of Catholic books that all of the walls of her family's living and dining rooms had bookshelves where the books were cataloged by her! She worked at the library of Christendom College as well as the library of the Dominican House of Studies, which helped her to get my current job where she answers research questions on a regular basis.
 

2020 St. Katharine Drexel Award Winner - Dr. Lesley Farmer

3/3/2020

Dr. Lesley Farmer, Professor at California State University Long Beach, coordinates the Teacher Librarianship program, and manages the California State University ICT Literacy Project. She earned her M.S. in Library Science at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, and received her doctorate in Adult Education from Temple University. Dr. Farmer has worked as a teacher-librarian in K-12 independent and public school settings as well as in academic, public, and special libraries. She chaired the IFLA School Libraries Section, serves as IASL’s Library Education SIG chair, and is a Fulbright scholar. Among other awards, she was honored with the ALA Beta Phi Mu Award for contributions to library education, and the LIRT Librarian Recognition Award. A frequent presenter and writer for the profession, including Catholic Library World, Dr. Farmer’s research interests include information and digital literacy, technology equity issues, and assessment. Dr. Farmer’s most recent books include Managing the Successful School Library (American Library Association, 2017), Library Improvement through Data Analytics (American Library Association, 2016) and Information and Digital Literacies: A Curricular Guide for Middle and High School Librarians (Rowman & Littlefield, 2015).
 

2020 Regina Medal Award Winner - Christopher Paul Curtis

3/3/2020

Christopher Paul Curtis was awarded both a Newbery Honor and a Coretta Scott King Honor for his debut book, The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963, and won the Newbery Medal and the Coretta Scott King Award for his second book, Bud, Not Buddy. Mr. Curtis is also the author of the Golden Kite Award-winning Bucking the Sarge, as well as The Journey of Little Charlie, a 2018 National Book Award finalist for Young People’s Literature, The Mighty Miss Malone, and two previous books in The Buxton Chronicles: The Madman of Piney Woods, the Newbery Honor book Elijah of Buxton.
 

2020 Aggiornamento Award Winner - FORMED

3/3/2020

FORMED started as a collaboration between the Augustine Institute, Ignatius Press, and Lighthouse Catholic Media as a way to connect all Catholics, parishes and Catholic organizations with the best Catholic content to help them grow and share their faith. The initiative provides Catholic content from more than sixty organizations on a platform that can be streamed to TV. Content includes thousands of movies, children’s programs, ebooks, audio, parish programs and studies. FORMED helps parishes, families and individuals explore their faith anywhere.

Matt Meeks is the Chief Marketing and Innovation Officer at the Augustine Institute and Director of FORMED. He previously served as Chief Digital and Marketing Officer at the LA Archdiocese and in various executive positions in the advertising and entertainment industries. Meeks will accept the Aggiornamento Award at the CLA 2020 Spring Virtual Conference on behalf of FORMED.

Matt’s background in media, creative, digital, communications, and analytics is strengthened by his global perspective and passion for creative thought, human expression and technology. Meeks has advised Hollywood studios, game developers and publishers, celebrity talent and tech startups from an enterprise, brand, product and campaign standpoint with an exemplary track record recruiting, training and managing driven teams that achieve success and positively impact the bottom-line.