The iSchool at Drexel has an eighth-place ranking in the Information Science/Studies category of the Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index (FSP Index) published by Academic Analytics, LLC. Our faculty are ranked among those at Ivy League univer-sities and some of the largest information science institutions in the country. The FSP Index ranks PhD faculty productivity based on five factors: books published, journal publications, citations of journal articles, federal-grant dollars awarded, and honors and awards. The 24 iSchool PhD faculty identified by the Index scored well in many of the subcat-egories: fourth in journal publications per faculty; fifth in citations per faculty; seventh in percentage of faculty with a journal publication.

The top ten listed universities are: 1. U. Pennsylvania (Computer and Information Science) 2. Cornell U. (Information Sciences) 3. Carnegie Mellon U. (Language and Information Technologies) 4. UC - Irvine (Information and Computer Science) 5. UC - Berkeley (Information) 6. U. Delaware (Computer Information and Sciences) 7. Penn State U. (Information Science) 8. Drexel U. (Information Studies) 9. Ohio State U. (Computer and Information Science) 10. U. Michigan - Ann Arbor (Information) Source: Academic Analytics

A collaborative effort between SUNY Stony Brook and Educational Directories Unlim-ited, Inc., the FSP Index ranks the output of professors in doctoral programs around the country to assess the relative strength of PhD programs.

In line with the College’s continuing efforts to maintain cutting-edge programs for its students, recent revisions have been made to both the graduate and undergraduate curricula.

The Master of Science (MS) in Library and Information Science now offers five optional concentrations in Library and Information Services, Competitive Intelligence and Knowl-edge Management, Digital Libraries, Youth Services and School Library Media. The MS program consists of six required courses with the balance of the program being completed either through a broad range of electives or a concentration consisting of five courses plus four electives of the student’s choice. This assures students of a solid introduc-tion to the field, a logical progression of coursework, and a wide variety of electives. No structural changes were made to the degree, but the new concentrations werecreated to support program planning and will be recorded on transcripts. They replace several informal specializations previouslyoffered.

In addition to the concentrations listed above, students may take courses in other specialized areas such as healthcare informat-ics or archives.

Drexel University has opened a Center for Graduate Studies in Sacramento. The iSchool’s Master of Science in Library and Information Science and Master of Science in Information Systems will be among the first five master’s programs offered in January 2009. A $10 million Sacramento

Leaders Fellowship Fund for graduate student support has been established to encourage prospective students to pur-sue advanced education that a growing innovation economy demands. The College is proud to be part of this initiative and looks forward to serving its new students. Visit http://sacramento.drexel.edu/ for more information.

Drexel’s online library science program is the fifth largest according to “Grad School’s a Click Away” in the January 21, 2008 issue of U.S.News & World Report. The College’s online Master of Science in Library and Information Science was launched in 2000.

School DrexelatTheCollege of Information Science and Technology

INFOSPHERE

The at Drexel’s Newsletter iSchool

NUMBER 51 SUMMER 2008

Drexel Launches Sacramento Graduate Center

U.S. News Surveys E-Learning Programs

iSchool Ranked Eighth by FSP Index

iSchool Programs Revised

cont’d pg. 4

Marie Fazio, Project Man-ager, received The iSchool at Drexel’s Employee of the Term Award for Winter 2007-2008. Fazio was nominated by numerous faculty who recognized her for the tremendous work she does for the doctoral committee, her assistance in helping faculty meet

grant deadlines and her support in the grant preparation process. In addition to being the point person for doctoral students in all matters, Fazio takes responsibility for the doctoral retreat, the doctoral admissions process, and the admin-istration of the doctoral program. Beyond her handling of her workload, her expertise and work ethic, each nomination contained a reference to Fazio’s people skills. As Dr. Prudence Dalrymple noted, “…Marie is proactive as well as responsive, and she carries out her responsibilities with grace and good humor.”

David Raiken, Special Projects Assistant, was the winner of the Employee of the Term Award for Fall 2007-2008. Raiken was recognized for his preparedness, good execution and his strong organizational skills as well as his willingness to help and accept challenges.

Raiken received several nominations from staff but Dr. Denise Agosto observed the following of Raiken’s search committee’s ongoing work: “He is not only organized and efficient, he is not afraid to offer his own ideas for committee process improvements. As a result, my workload has been reduced, and the committee is running more efficiently than ever before.”

Jennifer Lally, Career and Event Services Coordina-tor, was chosen for the Employee of the Term Award for Summer 2006-2007. Lally was nominated by Kate Inman, Administrative Assistant, MS ‘07, who wrote: “Every event planned by Jen is well-organized and has a

well-balanced menu...I have heard comments from fellow students (even at Commencement) about how much they have enjoyed events here at the iSchool, which I know is so important to creating goodwill and long-lasting bonds. She has definitely contributed to that effort. Jen is a conscientious, courteous, and hardworking employee, and her professionalism is to be commended.”

a n n o u n c e m e n t s

asso

ciat

e d

ean’

s no

te

Dean David E. Fenske introduced the award and Elliot Shelkrot, then President of the Free Library of Philadelphia, made the presentation to Michael Berenstain on October 16, 2007 at the Carolyn W. Field Award Luncheon during the Pennsylvania Library Association’s Annual Conference in State College, PA. Established in 1963, the Drexel University/Free Library of Philadel-phia Children’s Literature Citation is awarded to authors, illustrators, publishers and others who have made outstanding contri-butions to the field of children’s literature.

Since its move to Drexel (January 2007), the Internet Public Library (IPL) experienced an active year in its reference service, the development of its consortium, grant funding, publicity and technological adaptations to meet these evolving needs. Interest in research projects through the IPL’s cleansed data of answered questions has grown. The IPL is unique in that it provides a real reference service while working with faculty and students of LIS institutions to teach digital reference skills. Student participation peaked at over 500 during the fall and spring terms. Throughout the year, the IPL saw a steady increase in returning users, questions and ques-tions answered. Contact Cathay Crosby, Assistant Director, User Services, at cathay.crosby@ischool.drexel.edu to volunteer and for more information.

The Computing Resource Center (CRC) has a new name to go along with its new look — iCommons! Kim Braun, MS ’08, was the winner of the CRC renaming contest. Braun said the following of her entry: “This area will serve as an Information Commons. More than just computers and printers, the newly refurbished CRC will also serve as a meeting place and area for collaboration (e.g., the computing booths). The name iCommons plays off of the term iSchool.”

In past articles and newsletters, you may have read about our mentor programs. Our two existing programs have become wildly successful, and our newest program will begin in Fall 2008.

The idea for the mentor programs came about after I attended a conference. The concept was presented as a way to help with retention rates. By mentioning this I don’t mean to imply that our retention rates aren’t good. In fact, they are among the highest at Drexel University. However, we can always be better. Therefore, the first mentoring program to be launched was the Undergraduate Peer Mentor program.

The program began in the Fall of 2006 with 11 mentors. Each of the mentors received a $1,000 scholarship for their work. At the time, we weren’t sure what to expect, but I am happy to report that we have heard many individual stories of success directly linked to our mentors.

Recently at a recruitment event, the mother of a prospective student told me that the reason her son has decided to come to the iSchool was because of talking to one of our Peer Mentors about our programs. She said that he was able to relate to her son in a way that no one else could, and that made all the difference. I also was made aware of a Drexel student who was struggling with his current major and felt like his only option was to leave Drexel and start over. Fortunately, he was friends with one of our Peer Mentors. Our Peer Mentor was able to talk to him about his options, including iSchool programs. The student ended up changing his major to Information Technology and is very pleased with his decision now.

Our Alumni Mentoring Program was launched in Fall 2007. It has already matched many prospective, current and former students with successful alumni in a more traditional mentor relationship. Alumni mentors give advice from a professional perspec-tive and talk through problems and questions with mentees. The program is a great way for iSchool students and alumni to get experienced insight and support.

Based on the successes of these mentoring programs, we are now launching a Graduate Peer Mentor Program. It is similar to the one for under-graduates, while incorporating qualities specific to our graduate students. For example, some men-tors will be available online so that they can relate to our ever growing online-student population. The endeavor will surely have challenges, but if it ends up being half as successful as our other mentor programs, the students are sure to reap benefits.

Lynne Hickle, Associate Dean for Student and Academic Support Services

Drexel University/Free Library of Philadelphia Children’s Literature Citation

IPL Update

Employees of the Term

CRC Renamed iCommons

Twenty-two iSchool undergraduate stu-dents and 32 graduate students became members of Upsilon Pi Epsilon (UPE) on April 30 at the Spring 2008 Induction Ceremony held in the Rush Building’s Alumni Garden. UPE is the International HonorSociety for the Computing and Information Disciplines.

Congratulations to Jeff Gardosh, BSIS ’08, who received this year’s Outstanding Senior Award. This award “is presented to gradu-ating seniors who demonstrate both active involvement and leadership in university activities and community organizations, as demonstrated through commitment of time and assumption of high levels ofresponsibility.”

Gardosh, an Information Systems major, has been very active in extracurricular activities during his time at Drexel. In addition to his responsibilities as President of the Under-graduate Student Government Association and Chair of the Steinbright Career Devel-opment Center (SCDC) Student Committee, he has served on the iSchool Alumni Board and as a Peer Mentor. Associate Dean Lynne Hickle nominated Gardosh for this award. The formal presentation of the award was May 3 at the Alumni Association Awards Ceremony in conjunction with Blue & Gold Days Alumni Weekend.

Chrisi Giannakaris has been appointed as the SCDC Cooperative Education Coordinator for the iSchool. Contact her at cgiannakaris@drexel.edu or 215.895.2191.

I n f o r m a t i o n Systems major Purvi Patel was one of eight students “cho-sen from 84 nominees for their exceptionalefforts in fulfilling the goals and ideals of co-oper-ative education” to receive an Outstanding Co-operative Educa-

tion Award. Patel was nominated by her Co-op employer, David Greenland, for her work at SAP America. Students and employ-ers were recognized at the Drexel University 18th Annual Outstanding Cooperative Edu-cation Awards Reception held on May 29.

Maureen M. Beatty, Cooperative Educa-tion Coordinator at the Steinbright Career Development Center, retired as of March 31. Beatty helped thousands of iSchool stu-dents through the process of securing a Co-op position. She was conscientious, thorough and thoughtful in her approach and unwavering in her care and concern for her students, employers and colleagues. The iSchool community will miss her, but every-one, especially the students, is grateful and wishes her the best as she spends more time with her family and catches up on “dreams deferred.”

The Drexel Theta Chapter of Kappa Theta Epsilon (KTE) hosted the 2008 KTE National Convention in Philadelphia March 27-30. KTE is the National Cooperative Edu-cation Honor Society. The iSchool’s Manuel Harnisch, Drexel KTE President for 2007-2008, welcomed the convention delegates. In attendance were four former KTE officers, all iSchool alumni: Paul Cork-ery, BS/MS ’06, Irina Dymarsky, BS/MS ‘06, MSSE student Patrick Freestone, BSIS ‘07, and Ilya Rabovetsky, BSIS ‘07, and Maureen Beatty, the outgoing Chapter Advisor, whose participation will be missed.

SPHERE 3

Jeff Gardosh Named Outstanding Senior

u n d e r g r a d u a t e n e w s

Honor Society Upsilon Pi Epsilon Inducts New Members

New Co-op Advisor Named

KTE News

Cooperative Education AwardThe fourth Annual iSchool Senior Design Challenge was held on June 11 in Behra-kis Grand Hall. Over 100 undergraduate students were involved in senior design projects with instructors Martin Donaldsonand Dr. Gregory Hislop; 11 groups presented at the pre-event showcase which resulted in the selection of the five groups for the Senior Design Chal-lenge. Faculty judges, Glenn Booker and Thomas J. Smith, with alumni guest judges Lucy Boardway, MS ‘82, PhD ‘92, and Steven Melick, BSIS ‘94, made the following awards:

First PlaceNTLB - No Teacher Left Behind

Kevin Barry, Josh Caplan, Phil Cross, Joe Gravante, Chris Nies, Anthony Veiga

Second Place Fresh - iBrewery

Jeff Gardosh, Eric Gromball, Stephen Klim, Rich Loser, Ed Taylor

Third Place

GST - EZ-CommerceNick Emanueli, Edward Fedeli,

John Fish, Neil Forshey

Honorable MentionLeft Field - What’s Happenin?

Gabe Albert, Patrick Dahl, Kristen Hultberg, Alec Klishevich, Ajay Vallabh, Joseph Warner

OAT - Online Security Audit System

Matthew Clare, Joseph Matteo, Dennis Mongello, Conrad Nzeribe,

Tim Rohrer, Kaushal Toprani

People’s Choice AwardFresh - iBrewery

Product Presentation AwardNTLB - No Teacher Left Behind

The iSchool Senior Design Challenge

Maureen Beatty Retires

In the Fall of 2008, the iSchool will begin a Graduate Peer Mentor Program to enhance the College community by connecting suc-cessful graduate students with new andcontinuing students. Eligible students must have a cumulative GPA greater than (or equal to) a 3.5, have 12 credit hours completed at the time of applying, enroll at least part time in three terms, and major in one of the iSchool’s master’s programs. New mentors will also be rewarded with a scholarship of $250 per enrolled term (for a maximum of $1,000) which will be applied to their 2008-2009financial aid packages.

PhD student Xiaohua (Davis) Zhou was selected as a Drexel Excellence in Research Award recipient at the Drexel Graduate Student Day held May 8. Zhou was one of only three graduate students to receive this prestigious award. In the past five years, his research has had high tech-nical merit and broad social impact. Also honored at Graduate Student Day were Robert Mayer, MS ‘07, who was recognized as one of the Most Outstanding Master’s Graduates for 2008 and Maria Sogegian, MS ’08, who received a commendation.

u n d e r -

SPHERE 4

Graduate Peer Mentor Program

g r a d u a t e n e w s

This reorganization provides students with greater flexibility to design a program that meets their educational and career goals.

Revisions were made to the Bachelor ofScience in Information Systems (BSIS) and the Bachelor of Science in Information Tech-nology (BSIT). The revisions, which focused on the first two years of these programs, included new courses, changes to course requirements, degree requirements and revised degree outcomes and objectives. The motivation behind the changes include specific introductory programming issues such as student learning, the need to inte-grate programming with IS/IT and changes in how software is acquired and built as well as generic issues, such as a general need for updates, technology change and changes in the knowledge of incoming students. The programming sequence will be taught in a broader context in relation to database management or Web development rather than taught in isolation.

Visit the College’s website www.ischool.drexel.edu for specific information.

Graduate Student Day Honors

Sofia Jeon Athenikos, PhD student, was selected as a finalist for the 2008 Google Anita Borg Scholarship. As a finalist, she receives a $1,000 award from Google and was invited to the 2008 Google Scholars’ Retreat, held in April in San Francisco, CA.

Doctoral student Don Pellegrino’s poster “Automatic Hypothesis Generation and Evaluation by Network Structure Content Analysis and Visualization” took first place in the Department of Homeland Security Uni-versity Summit poster competition in March.

Karen Vigneault, MS ’08, librarian at Maric College–San Diego, became one of the San Diego County Women’s Hall of Fame 2008 Inductees on March 29.

MS student Margie Weil was recognized as the Outstanding School Library Student from Drexel at the Pennsylvania School Librar-ians Association Conference held in May.

The Master of Science in Information Sys-tems (MSIS) program is now divided into a series of core courses, distribution courses and electives. Required concentrations were replaced by 12 credits of distribution courses.

Student Awards

RESEARCH OFFICE UNIVERSITY AWARDSGraduate Award for Humanities & Social SciencesJoan Beaudoin “An Investigation of Image Users Across Disciplines: A Model of Image Needs, Retrieval, and Use”

Graduate Award for Computation, Modeling & Simulation (other than Biological) Don Pellegrino “Hypothesis Generation by Associative Network Analysis”

COLLEGE AWARDS Dean’s Awards

Kenneth Allendoerfer, doctoral student Dr. Chaomei Chen, advisor “Do Information Visualization Systems Improve Users’ Understanding of Data?”

Don Pellegrino, doctoral student Dr. Chaomei Chen, advisor “Hypothesis Generation by Associative Network Analysis”

Dean’s Honorable Mention

Lillian Rozaklis, Craig MacDonald, both doctoral students, and Dr. Eileen Abels “An Exploratory Study of the Internet Public Library’s Ask a Question Service: An Analysis of Users and Their Questions”

Tenth

Annual

Research

Day

The College had over 30 posters displayed throughout the Daskalakis Athletic Center for Research Day 2008 on April 22. Content areas represented included information visualization, data-bases, library and information science, human-computer interaction, software engineering and artificial intelligence. Following the day’s event, a reception was hosted in the Alumni Garden to recognize all the participants, including the winners of the College awards and the faculty judges.

iSchool Programs Revisedcont’d from pg. 1

Dr. Stahl Awarded Tenure

SPHERE 5

f a c u l t y n e w s

Dr. Gerry Stahl was granted tenure at the Board of Trustees Meeting held on May 22. Stahl came to Drexel in 2002 after previous positions at the Department of Computer Science and Institute of Cogni-tive Science in Boulder, Colorado where he was an assistant research professor, and at the Fraunhofer Institute for research in applied information technology near Bonn, Germany. He earned a PhD and an MS in computer science from the University of Colorado and a PhD and an MA in philoso-phy from Northwestern University. Stahl has

had extensive industry and academic experi-ence and has published many papers, technical reports and conference presentations in artificial intelligence, computer-supported cooperative work and collaborative knowledge building.

Stahl teaches human-computer interaction, computer-supported cooperative work and computer-supported collaborative learning. His research approach includes theory building, system devel-opment and empirical studies of softwareusage. Stahl has developed software system prototypes to explore support for design rationale, perspectives and negotiation. His theory combines various sources fromphilosophy, education, sociology, communi-cation and anthropology.

Stahl is the founding Executive Editor of the International Journal of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (ijCSCL) and the author of Group Cognition: Com-puter Support for Building Collaborative Knowledge, 2006, MIT Press. He is also a member of the Drexel 10^6 Club for hav-ing raised more than $1 million dollars in research grant funds in one academic year.

Dr. Eileen Abels, Master’s Program Director, was approved for promotion to professor at the May Board of Trustees Meeting. Abels joined the faculty in January 2007 as a ten-ured associate professor. She has a BA in French from Clark University, an MLS from the University of Maryland, and did her PhD

in LIS at UCLA. In ad-dition to being a faculty member at the Univer-sity of Maryland for over 15 years, Abels’ professional experience includes positions in a variety of special librar-ies. Her major teach-ing areas are electronic

resources and business information with primary research interests focused on access in electronic environments and information seeking behavior.

Abels is the principal investigator on the grant project “A Virtual Learning Laboratory for Digital Reference: Transforming the Internet Public Library,” funded by the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services. She was therecipient of the Special Libraries Associa-tion’s Rose L. Vormelker Award in 2007 and has served as co-editor of Advances inLibrarianship since 2005. Abels is widely published in the area of virtual reference and has made numerous presentations on the subject. She is the first author of Business Information: Needs and Strategies, currently in press.

Dr. Prudence W. Dalrymple has been named Director of the Institute for Healthcare Informatics (IHI). Dal-rymple was appointed to the teaching and research faculty at the iSchool in January 2008. The IHI is supported

by Drexel’s College of Nursing and Health Professions, School of Public Health and the iSchool . Dalrymple has a broad background in library and information science, a recent post-doctoral fellowship in health informat-ics, and more than a decade of experience as an educational administrator and leader.

She received her MS in Health SciencesInformatics, from the Johns HopkinsUniversity School of Medicine, and a Cer-tificate in Health Communications from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She holds a PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Library and Informa-

tion Studies; an MS from Simmons College, Library Science and an AB, cum laude, from Clark University, in English.

Dalrymple’s goals for the Institute include: encouraging faculty research collabora-tion among the participating colleges; encouraging multidisciplinary participation in developing and delivering informatics courses; increasing the national and interna-tional profile of health informatics at Drexel, and building student enrollment.

Informatics is a rapidly evolving interdis-ciplinary field that blends information technology and health. The Institute is currently offering an online three-course Certificate in Healthcare Informatics which is open to working professionals from many related disciplines. Students enrolled at the graduate level in any of the partici-pating schools (College of Nursing and Health Professions, School of Public Health, iSchool) may also take informatics courses as electives. Email prudence.dalrymple@ischool.drexel.edu for more information.

On October 15, 2007, Dr. Xiaohua (Tony) Hu, Associate Professor, gave a keynote speech entitled “Data Mining in Bioinformatics” at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics En-gineers (IEEE) 7th International Conference on Bioinformatics and Bioengineering held at the Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA.Dr. Hu was honored during the conference with the receipt of the 2007 IEEE Bioinfor-matics and Bioengineering Outstanding Contribution Award.

Associate Professor Denise Agosto was selected by Dean David E. Fenske as the recipient of the 2007 Outstanding Contribu-tion to Online Learning Award. “This award recognizes one person from each college/school at Drexel University, as selected by his/her dean, who has demonstrated a com-mitment and contribution to the field of online learning.” An awards reception was conducted on November 13, 2007 at the Paul Peck Center to recognize these accom-plishments. Mayor Michael A. Nutter and senior Drexel administrators presented the awards.

Dr. Abels Receives Promotion

Dr. Dalrymple Named IHI Director

Dr. Hu Recognized by IEEE

Dr. Denise Agosto Honored

The charitable gift annuity is among the oldest, simplest, and most popular of the charitable life-income plans. In exchange for a transfer of cash, marketable securities or, in some circumstances, real estate, we contractually guarantee to make specified annuity payments to you and/or another beneficiary for life, the payout rate depend-ing on the age and number of beneficia-ries.

This table shows sample rates of return that apply to both men and women, as recom-mended by the American Council on Gift Annuities (an association of philanthropic organizations that reviews and sets these rates).

You can claim a current charitable deduc-tion for the portion of the transfer that represents the charitable gift element—the amount by which the present value of

SPHERE 6

The College received a significant soft-ware gift to benefit their students from soft-ware company, TARGIT. Dr. Il-Yeol Song, received 100 licenses of TARGIT TEST Environment and user license valued at $250,000. The software will be installed on the server in the Data Mining and Bioinfor-matics Lab.

The iSchool also received a significant software donation from Satori Group, Inc. valued at $155,400. Last year, Satori gener-ously contributed, $120,000 in software to the iSchool.

Mary Ann Conway, Director of Develop-ment, says corporate partnerships, such as these are invaluable to the iSchool. The College looks forward to a long relationship with TARGIT and the Satori Group.

d o n o r n e w s

The iSchool Receives Significant Software Gifts from TARGIT and Satori Group

Age Rate Age Rate Ages Rate Ages Rate 60 5.7% 75 7.1% 60,60 5.4% 75,75 6.3% 65 6.0% 80 8.0% 65,65 5.6% 80,80 6.9% 70 6.5% 85 9.5% 70,70 5.9% 85,85 7.9%

Please contact us for our current rates.

the property transferred to us exceeds the present value of the annuity received. Note: Payments from a gift annuity receive favor-able tax treatment (similar to a commercial annuity) in that a portion of each payment is considered tax-free return of principal over the donor’s life expectancy.

Example: Mrs. F, 75, transfers $25,000 to us in exchange for an annuity payment of $1,775 a year for life. Of this amount, $1,058 will be treated as a tax-free return of principal for the next twelve years (her life expectancy) and only $717 will be treated as ordinary income. Thereafter, the entire $1,775 will be treated as ordinary income. In addition, Mrs. F realizes a charitable deduction of $11,873 that, in her 28% bracket, generates a net tax savings of $3,324.

Payments may begin immediately or, with a deferred-payment gift annuity, at a set time in the future—at retirement, for ex-ample. A deferred gift annuity is particularly attractive if you are in the 40- to 60-year age bracket, have a high current income, can benefit from a current tax deduction, and are interested in augmenting potential re-tirement income on a tax-favored basis.

The Gift Annuity

Gift Annuity Payout RatesOne Life Two Lives

Judy Feller, MS ’63, spent almost 30 years helping students learn how to research when she was Government DocumentsLibrarian at East Stroudsburg University.

Today, her endowed scholarship fund helps deserving iSchool library and information science students learn to do the same.

Judy, her husband Walt, and her mare Dolly (pictured with Judy) live on 56 acres outside Effort, PA, in the same house they moved into when they simultaneously started work-ing at East Stroudsburg in 1970. Four years

after retiring in 1999, Judy established the Judith M. Feller ’63 Endowed Scholarship Fund for Library and Information Science (LIS) Students. She was moved to give back to the iSchool, she says, by a belief in the mission of the College and the quality of the education she received.

“I always felt that I got a great education at Drexel,” Judy says. “I had a good foun-dation of skills that I needed, not only for my first twenty years of library work, but into the computer age, as well. Because I established such a great career as a result of Drexel’s education, I felt contributing was a good way of expressing my apprecia-tion and commitment. The mission of the College is important to me and I want to make sure that it continues.”

The scholarship gives preference to students planning to become academic librarians, though any LIS student who demonstrates academic merit and financial need is eligible. Judy hopes the financial assistance her contributions provide will enable more LIS students to perform the

vital task of helping college students become responsible consumers of information.

“In spite of computerization, I don’t think the basic needs of our library users have changed,” according to Judy. “Although the choice of information resources is wider, they still need instruction in how to find and evaluate material appropriate to their subject. That means we still needlibrarians who understand the reference process and can convey to the students the importance of knowing where they get their information.”

Judy feels fortunate to have been able to contribute a full scholarship towardcontinuing the College’s tradition of excel-lence. She encourages other people who share her commitment to librarianship and the iSchool to help. “It’s pretty difficult for most people, with families and other ob-ligations, to establish a full scholarship,” she says. “But I think small amounts from many students over the years can help just as much.”

Judy Feller ‘63

For more information on making a gift to the iSchool, contact Mary Ann Conway,

Director of Development,at mconway@drexel.edu or

215.895.6904.

Vigilance and Education, Not a Techni-cal Solution,” that was published in the February 15, 2008 issue of Library Journal. Bonfield became the Director of theCollingswood Public Library on May 1.

Mary Chimato, MS/MSIS ‘02, Head of Ac-cess and Delivery Services at North Caro-lina State University, has been selected for the Emerging Leaders 2008 program spon-sored by the American Library Association.

Anita Chiodo, MS ‘04, became thePublic Services and Collection ManagementLibrarian at the State University of New York College at Cortland (SUNY Cortland) on May 7.

Eric Darley, MS ’99, started his position as Scientific Database Search Specialist at Thomson Reuters on April 7.

Nicole Engard, MS ’07, is chair of the Blog-ging Section of the IT Division of SLA. She is also the webmaster for GPLLA (Greater Philadelphia Law Library Association).

Tanya Finney, MS ’07, is on the Advisory Board for the SLA Philadelphia Chapter as the Employee Chair and is the Co-Chair for Technical Arrangements for PaLA (Penn-sylvania Library Association) Conference Committee.

On April 23, Andris Grunde, MSIS ’02, Business Analyst, Afilias USA, Inc., gave the presentation “Language in the Business Analyst’s World” to the Philadelphia chap-ter of the International Institute of Business Analysts.

Marian Hollingsworth, MS ’84, has been promoted to Director of Publisher Relations at the Scientific business of Thom-son Reuters. In her new role, she will be responsible for communications with pub-lishers regarding coverage of publications and journal metrics.

Lawrence A. James, BSIS ’02, and Drexel alumnus Christopher Holland were rec-ognized at the 25th Annual Excellence Awards: Honoring the Region’s Small Busi-nesses held on November 1 by the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce. Their company, Connexus Technology, received the Award for Innovative Business of the Year.

Gary Kaplan, MS 05, Senior Librarian, Information Services, at Thomas Jefferson Univer-sity’s Scott Memorial Library, has a co-authored article in press for Medical Reference Services Quarterly. He is also on the Board of the Philadel-phia Regional Chapter of the MLA as webmaster.

Theresa Kough, MS ‘83, the Delaware Department of Education’s Director for After School Programs, testified in front of the House of Rep-resentatives Committee on Education and Labor, Sub-committee on Early Childhood, Elementary and Secondary

Education for the hearing on the 2009 fiscal year budget for after-school programs.

Cathy Mason, MS ’06, joined Virtua Health as the Medical Librarian in the West Jersey Hospital, Voorhees Division.

Barbara Nanstiel, MS ’75, AHIP, Pharmacy Librarian of the Nesbitt College of Phar-macy and Nursing at Wilkes University, was a presenter at Wilkes’ UndergraduateSymposium.

Joseph Sherwood, MS ’99, was selected by the Board of Trustees of Tredyffrin Town-ship Libraries as the new library Director for its Strafford and Paoli branch libraries.

Joe Zappacosta, MS ’06, was appointed Director of the Ephrata Public Library in Ephrata, PA.

Mary O’Pecko Garm, MS ‘80, was elected President of the Pennsylvania LibraryAssociation for 2008. She is Administrator of the Lackawanna County Library System in Scranton, PA.

Dolores Fidishun, EdD, MS ‘82, was therecipient of the Women’s Studies Section Career Achievement Award given by theAssociation of College and Research Libraries (ACRL), a division of the American Library Association (ALA). She received the award during the 2008 ALA Annual Conference in Anaheim, CA on June 30. Fidishun is the Head Librarian at the Penn State GreatValley School of Graduate Professional Studies in Malvern, PA.

On April 1, Michael Andescavage, BSIS ‘06, moved to Seattle where he is a Systems Administrator for Worldwide Data Center Operations at aQuantive.

Dr. Steven Bell, MS ’78, conducted a work-shop for the Tampa Bay Library Consortium on the topic “Are You Feeling the Pressure? The Ratcheting Up of Library Technology” February 1 at the Seminole CommunityLibrary in St. Petersburg, FL. Bell co-authored a chapter, “Librarianship + Technology + Instructional Design = Blended Librar-ian” in Rachel Singer Gordon’s Information Tomorrow: Reflections on Technology and the Future of Public and Academic Libraries, 2007, Information Today. Bell authored “Design Thinking,” published in the Janu-ary-February 2008 American Libraries, and co-authored “Exploring the Faculty Blogoverse: Where to Start and What’s in it for Academic Librarians,” published in the October 2007 College & Research Libraries News.

Eleanor Silverstein Block, MS ‘68, retired from the Ohio State University Libraries on September 1, 2007. She was AssociateProfessor and Head of the Journalism Library. She formerly held positions with the Free Library of Philadelphia and theColumbus (Ohio) Metropolitan Library.

Brett Bonfield, MS ’07, co-authored anarticle, “Enforcing Copyright: Mediating Between Law and Technology Requires

SPHERE 7

a l u m n i n e w s

Mary Garm Elected 2008 PLA President

Recent Alumni Achievements

Dolores Fidishun Honored by ACRL

Empowering society by uniting people, technology, and knowledge through innovative education and research.

Our Vision

215.895.2474 WWW.iSCHOOL.DREXEL.EDu iNFO@iSCHOOL.DREXEL.EDu