For Immediate Release: Monday, June 4, 2007
Contact: Jessica Mackinnon, director of public relations
(708) 524-6289, jmack@dom.edu

 

 

 

River Forest, IL - Dominican University’s Graduate School of Library and Information Science (GSLIS) has appointed Steven L. Herb to the Follett Chair in Library and Information Science. This prestigious appointment is one of only four chairs in library science in the country.

An endowed chair is the highest academic honor bestowed upon a master researcher and scholar who has achieved renown in the profession. The Follett Chair is selected for his or her outstanding teaching ability and superior scholarly achievement. Herb succeeds Edward J. Valauskas, whose appointment as the second Follett Chair ended in spring 2007. Martin Dillon was Dominican University’s first Follett appointment in 2002.

“We are grateful to the Follett Corporation for creating the Follett Chair which allows us to invite the best in the field to teach at Dominican University,” said Susan Roman, GSLIS dean. “Having Steven Herb join the faculty and bring his broad experience in children’s librarianship adds prestige to an already outstanding faculty. Our students are very fortunate to have the opportunity to study with Steven Herb.”

Herb is currently head of the education and behavioral sciences library and affiliate professor of language and literacy education at Penn State University. He is also director of the Pennsylvania Center for the Book, an affiliate of the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress.

Co-author of The Nittany Lion: An Illustrated Tale, a history of Penn State’s school symbol, and two children’s literature textbooks for Neal-Schuman, Using Children’s Books in Preschool Settings (1994) and Connecting Fathers, Children and Reading (2002), Herb has a special interest in storytelling. He was named Penn State’s Most Innovative Faculty Member in 2000 on the basis of his first-year seminar, “Stories and Storytelling: How Humans Become People.”

Herb is past president of the Association for Library Service to Children and a three-term chair of the American Library Association’s Intellectual Freedom Committee. For the past six years, he has led the team that developed the online Literacy and Cultural Heritage Map of Pennsylvania, which in 2005 received the Boorstin Award from the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress. His family literacy site at the Pennsylvania Center for the Book, developed in partnership with his wife Sara Willoughby-Herb and co-sponsored by the Goodling Institute for Research in Family Literacy at Penn State, will be used this summer in connection with reading programs in 44 states across the country.

Herb holds degrees in special education, early childhood education, library science and curriculum and instruction. His research interests are in the acquisition of and relationships among multiple literacies: oral language development in infants and toddlers, print literacy in preschool and elementary school, and computer and information literacy across all ages. His work focuses on the role of libraries and traditional library materials in these emergent literacies, as well as the influence of new technologies on the relationship between libraries and literacy learning.

During his appointment at Dominican University, which begins on August 1, 2007, Herb will teach courses, pursue research and development in youth services, and develop strategic initiatives to benefit the GSLIS.

“I’m delighted to be joining the excellent faculty at Dominican University and to have an opportunity to teach new librarians. I’ve been a very fortunate person throughout my career, but to be able to work in a strong library school that truly cares about educating professionals to work with children is indeed a blessing,” said Herb.

The Follett Chair is endowed through a gift from the Follett Corporation, a leading provider of educational solutions, services and products that empower schools, libraries, colleges, students and lifelong learners.

Accredited by the American Library Association, Dominican University’s Graduate School of Library and Information Science has been educating future librarians and information professionals since 1928. GSLIS offers master's degrees in library and information science and in knowledge management.