The Department of Information Science (DIS) is pleased to announce that five DIS faculty have been awarded two grants from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS).

As one of 32 projects selected by the Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program, Associate Professor Jeongyhun Kim will serve as the Principal Investigator (PI) for the project titled “Students Data Literacy Needs in Community Colleges: Perspectives of Librarians, Students, and Faculty”. This project, awarded in the amount of $118,996 will involve conducting an 18-month planning project to examine the current perspectives of community college librarians, faculty, and students regarding data literacy, and identify data literacy competencies needed for students. The project will also focus on developing data literacy action plans for community college libraries to assist librarians in assessing their capability and creating a road map to incorporate data literacy into existing literacy programs. The findings of this project will identify the role and position of community college libraries in facilitating and enhancing the development of the data literacy competencies of students. The project team includes Co-PIs, Assistant Professors Lingzi Hong and Sarah Evans. Professor Daniella Smith will serve on the project advisory board.

"I am thrilled to receive this grant award from IMLS as data literacy matters more than ever and in ways it never has before," said Kim. "Data literacy is now a skillset that empowers all levels of workers. We hope that this project can set the foundation for a large-scale project designed to build and grow community college librarians’ foundational data skills and pedagogical capacity."

Jeonghyun Kim is also the recipient of a grant for the project titled “Connecting Communities with Libraries, Archives, and Historians through Oral Histories”.  Kim will work with Co-PIs Todd Moye, professor in the UNT Department of History and Ana Roeschley, assistant professor, Information Science. Partnering with the UNT Oral History Program, this project will host a series of forums to identify best practices and strategies to respond to challenges around building, implementing, preserving, and accessing community oral history projects.

"We anticipate highlighting the value and power of oral history in community-based archives through this project. I am excited to be working alongside my esteemed and like-minded colleagues at UNT for the project," said Kim.

The project team will convene librarians, archivists, oral history practitioners, public historians, community-based memory workers, and others working in oral history to identify good practices, share challenges and lessons learned, and prepare an actionable roadmap for building, implementing, preserving, and sustaining community oral history projects. The forums will result in a white paper summarizing the current state of the community oral history field and provide recommendations for future direction. It will also result in an annotated resource guide of existing oral history guidelines, projects, programs, and collections. This project is one of 39 projects selected by the National Leadership Grants – Libraries.