Kent State University’s School of Library and Information Science (SLIS) is pleased to announce the winners of two $1,500 research fellowships: Vikki C. Terrile of Brooklyn, N.Y., will receive the Jacqueline M. Albers Guest Scholar in Children’s Literature Fellowship. Denice L. Baldetti of Tiffin, Ohio, will receive the Kenneth and Sylvia Marantz Fellowship for Picturebook Research.
Each fellowship provides a stipend of up to $1,500 for outstanding scholars to spend approximately one week on site at Kent State University, researching picture books, posters or ephemera related to picture books in the Reinberger Children’s Library Center and Marantz Picturebook Collection for the Study of Picturebook Art in the School of Library and Information Science.
Albers Fellowship
The Albers Fellowship, created by SLIS alumna Jacqueline M. Albers, M.L.S. ’94, allows a guest scholar to study children’s literature using the collections in the School’s Reinberger Children’s Library Center.
During her one-week visit to Kent State in July, Terrile examined “housing and homes in contemporary picture books” for young children. She currently serves as the director of community library services at Queens Library in Jamaica, N.Y.
Terrile received her undergraduate degree in English from Wells College, M.S. in library science from Long Island University Palmer School of Library and Information Science and M.A. in urban affairs from Queens College, City University of New York.
Marantz Fellowship
The Marantz Fellowship was created by Sylvia and the late Dr. Kenneth Marantz to encourage scholars from the United States and around the world to use the resources of the Marantz Picturebook Collection in their research on the study of picture books.
Baldetti’s research on “Picture Clues: Exploring Visual and Textual Clues in Children’s Mystery Picture Books” will offer a “critical examination of picture book illustrations, and particularly, how illustrations connect with the storyline to move the text of a mystery picture book forward.” She will visit Kent State in fall 2015.
Baldetti currently serves as the elementary library media specialist and computer instructor at Boulder Creek Elementary School at Paradise Valley Unified School District in Phoenix, Ariz. At the same time, she is pursuing her Master of Library and Information Science, with a focus in children’s literature and museum studies, in Kent State’s School of Library and Information Science. She holds a bachelor’s degree in interior design from Bowling Green State University with a library science minor and a master’s in elementary education with library endorsement from Arizona State University.