Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Lois Lenski, A Friend To Children: An Interdisciplinary Analysis Of A Children's Book Author, Stephanie Evans Thomas

Master's Theses

In her lifetime, Lois Lenski wrote, illustrated, and otherwise contributed to more than one hundred books for children and preteens. This study focuses on Lenski’s regional books for preteens, novels that Lenski claimed were written from real life. Using interpretive narrative analysis, this study evaluates two of Lenski’s regional novels: Strawberry Girl (1945), the 1946 Newbery award-winner and second installment in the American Regional series, and High-Rise Secret (1966), the eleventh installment in the Roundabout America series, focusing specifically on Lenski’s creative process. The analysis of Lenski’s works was contextualized using literature focusing on the concepts of character representation, authority, …

Making Voices Heard: Collecting And Sharing Oral Histories From Users Of Segregated Libraries In The South (Presentation For The Oral History Association Annual Meeting, October 2017), Matthew R. Griffis

Publications and Other Resources

From the conference program: "This presentation reviews the progress and objectives of a federally-funded, 3-year oral history project that explores how segregated Carnegie libraries were used as places of community-making, interaction, and learning for African Americans before integration in the 1960s. Known then as “Carnegie colored libraries,” these public libraries opened in eight southern states between 1900 and 1925 and were an extension of the well-known library development program funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York. Some operated for as many as six decades until, by the 1970s, most had closed or were integrated into the library systems of …

A Separate Space: Remembering Meridian’S Segregated Carnegie Library, 1913-74, Matthew R. Griffis

Publications and Other Resources

This article explores the largely undocumented history of Meridian, Mississippi’s 13^th Street library, a segregated branch library constructed in 1912-13 with funds from Carnegie’s famous library program. Although the library no longer stands, it remains an important connection between libraries in Mississippi and the history of race relations. Using archival sources as well as oral history interviews with some of the library’s former users, the article considers the library’s importance as an early symbol of civic autonomy for Meridian’s African Americans and how it became a valued educational support center and community space. The article closes with a call …

Slis Connecting Volume 6, Issue 1, Stacy Creel, Ph.D., Teresa S. Welsh, Ph.D.

SLIS Connecting

SLIS Connecting Volume 6, Issue 1 (Spring/Summer 2017)

Public Libraries And The Economically Disadvantaged: A Bibliometric Assessment Of Published Research, 1996-2016, Scott A. Manganello

SLIS Connecting

One of the greatest challenges that American public libraries have faced is serving the disadvantaged and homeless population. This research project analyzed publication trends in LIS literature from the past 20 years pertaining to research related to public libraries and the economically disadvantaged, specifically publication trend over time, core journals, most prolific lead authors, and focus of the studies.

African American Archival Resources: Representation In North Carolina, South Carolina, And Georgia, Tekla Ali Johnson

SLIS Connecting

The breadth, scope, security, evaluation, and preservation of African American archival resources in the United States are all understudied. Moreover, the scope and contents of the majority of African American resources are likely unknown. The purpose of this study was to compile a record of collections holding primary resources on African Americans to conducting research on African American Archival Resources in three states, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia.

Gender Roles And Gender Stereotypes In Four Newbery Award-Winning Books, Alex Paige Brower

SLIS Connecting

As gender equality has become a more prominent issue and men and women have become more equal, one would expect this change to be reflected in children’s literature. This study examines four Newbery-Award winning books to determine if this change is apparent.

Emerging Roles: Academic Libraries Crossing The Digital Divide, Kenneth Angell

SLIS Connecting

For every advance of information and communication technology in the 20thand 21st centuries, there has been gap between those who can readily adopt and benefit from it and those who cannot. As higher education becomes increasingly enmeshed in Internet-based learning, academic libraries will need to maintain and even increase digital literacy and fluency instruction in spite of presumed reduced need. Furthermore, academic libraries themselves will need to examine their own status in the divide.

Student Associations: News And Events, Usm School Of Library And Information Science

SLIS Connecting

News and events from SLIS student associations: Library and Information Science Students Association (LISSA) and Southern Miss Student Archivists (SMSA).

From The Gas: Congratulations, Publications, Presentations, Usm School Of Library And Information Science

SLIS Connecting

News and congratulations from SLIS Graduate Assistants for student, alum, and faculty accomplishments, publications, and presentations.

Spotlights: Faculty, Alum, And Courses, Usm School Of Library And Information Science

SLIS Connecting

Spotlighting SLIS faculty Dr. Chris Cunningham, SLIS alumna Tamara Nelson, Information Science courses and British Studies.

Slis Director's Update, Usm School Of Library And Information Science

SLIS Connecting

News and updates from Southern MIss School of Library and Information Science Director, Dr. Teresa Welsh.

Buildings And Books: Segregated Libraries As Places For Community-Making, Interaction And Learning In The Age Of Jim Crow (Presentation For The Society For The History Of Authorship, Reading, And Publishing Annual Conference, June 2017), Matthew R. Griffis

Publications and Other Resources

From the conference program: "This presentation reviews the preliminary findings of a federally funded, 3-year historical study that explores how segregated Carnegie libraries were used as places of community-making, interaction, and learning for African Americans in the age of Jim Crow. Known then as "Carnegie Negro libraries," these public libraries opened in eight southern states between 1900 and 1925 and were an extension of the well-known library development program funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

"Drawing on archival sources, including newly completed oral history interviews with surviving library users, this presentation explores how these libraries helped foster a …

Oral History With Karen Edwards-Hunter, Matthew R. Griffis

Oral History Archive

Karen Edwards-Hunter was born in Louisville, Kentucky in 1950 and has lived most of her life there. Her father was a mail carrier and her mother, who was originally a homemaker, was later a Teacher’s Assistant at Perry Elementary School. Edwards-Hunter grew up on 15^th Street in the city’s Russell neighborhood and attended Perry Elementary School and Harvey C. Russell Junior High School when both were still segregated. She later attended Louisville Male High School before earning a B.A. in English at Eastern Kentucky University and the University of Louisville. She completed further studies at Bard College in New …

New Online Archive On Racially Segregated Libraries, Matthew R. Griffis

Publications and Other Resources

Matthew Griffis (matthew.griffis@usm.edu), Ph.D., an Assistant Professor in the School of Library and Information Science at the University of Southern Mississippi, has conducted extensive research as the lead investigator on racial segregation in public libraries in the South. His research has been digitized is now available online. The archive, made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services is entitled “The Roots of Community: Segregated Carnegie Libraries as Spaces for Learning and Community-Making in Pre-Civil Rights America, 1900-65.” Griffis’s primary area of research is the library as place, including library buildings as social architecture, public libraries as …

Capturing Their Stories: Collecting Oral Histories From Users Of Segregated Libraries In The South (Presentation For The Southern History Of Education Society Annual Meeting, March 2017), Matthew R. Griffis

Publications and Other Resources

From the conference program: "This presentation reviews the progress of a federally-funded, 3-year historical study that explores how segregated Carnegie libraries were used as places of community-making, interaction, and learning for African Americans in the days of Jim Crow. Known then as “Carnegie colored libraries,” these public libraries opened in eight southern states between 1900 and 1925 and were an extension of the well-known library development program funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York. Some operated for as many as six decades until, by the 1970s, most had closed or were integrated into the library systems of their larger …

Oral History With Houston A. Baker, Matthew R. Griffis

Oral History Archive

Born in March of 1943, Houston Alfred Baker Jr. grew up in segregated Louisville. His mother was a schoolteacher; his father served as chief administrator of the city’s African-American hospital, the Red Cross Hospital, and had earned a master’s degree in hospital administration from Northwestern University on a Rockefeller fellowship. When Baker was a child, his family lived on Virginia Avenue, where Baker attended Virginia Avenue Elementary School. After his family moved to Broadway Street, Baker attended Western Elementary, later Western Junior High School, and then Male High School before leaving for Howard University in 1961. The family attended Grace …

Oral History With Maxine Turner, Matthew R. Griffis

Oral History Archive

Maxine Turner was born in 1940 in Holt, Alabama, and moved to Meridian, Mississippi when she was three years-old. After living in the George Reese Courts, Turner’s family moved to 34^th Avenue and 13^th Street in the northwest part of town. They attended St. Paul Methodist Episcopal Church, just across the street from the 13^th Street library.

Turner began using the library when she was in third grade, mostly for personal reading and to support her schooling. She attended several of Meridian’s segregated schools, including St. Joseph Catholic School, Meridian Baptist Seminary, Wechsler Junior High School and …

Fay B. Kaigler Children's Book Festival, Karen Rowell, The University Of Southern Mississippi, The University Of Southern Mississippi's School Of Library And Information Science

Fay B. Kaigler Children's Book Festival Programs

The program for the fiftieth annual Fay B. Kaigler Children's Book Festival held on the campus of The University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg, Mississippi in 2017.

Everyone's Invited: A Website Usability Study Involving Multiple Library Stakeholders, Elena S. Azadbakht, John Blair, Lisa Jones

Faculty Publications

This article describes a usability study of the University of Southern Mississippi Libraries website conducted in early 2016. The study involved six participants from each of four key user groups— undergraduate students, graduate students, faculty, and library employees—and consisted of six typical library search tasks, such as finding a book and an article on a topic, locating a journal by title, and looking up hours of operation. Library employees and graduate students completed the study’s tasks most successfully, whereas undergraduate students performed relatively simple searches and relied on the Libraries’ discovery tool, Primo. The study’s results displayed several problematic features …