Katie Campana, Ph.D.

Katie Campana focuses her research on understanding the learning that occurs for children, youth, and families in informal and digital learning environments and how those environments support and impact the learning process. She teaches in the area of children’s and youth services and museum studies. She is the Principal Investigator for Project VOICE and Project SHIELD, both funded by IMLS, as well as Read Baby Read, funded by the William Penn Foundation. Her work has been published in Library Quarterly, Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, Information and Learning Sciences, and Journal of Education for Library and Information Science, among others. She received her doctorate from University of Washington’s Information School. While working on her doctorate, she served as a lead researcher on two IMLS grants: Project LOCAL—which explored how libraries are using outreach programs to support children and families in underserved communities—and Project VIEWS2—which worked to establish the early literacy impact of public library storytimes.

*The School of Information faculty are superstars in the field. Therefore, it is impossible to list all of the great work they do on one page. Listed below is a small selection of their work. Further information can be viewed in Dr. Campana’s CV (found below), on her Google Scholar page, or on ResearchGate.

Teaching/Advising

Academic Program
Library & Information Science

Youth Engagement: Information, Culture and CommunityCultural Heritage Informatics (Museum Studies) 

Courses
LIS 60010    The Information Landscape (Co-developed)
LIS 60625    Engaging Young Children and Families (Developed)
LIS 60629    Engaging School-aged Children (Co-Developed)
LIS 60703    Museum Users (Co-Developed)

Research Specialties

Children's Information BehaviorChildren's ServicesCommunity-led ServicesSocial JusticeThe Digital DivideChildren's Literature & Services in the Digital Age

Selected Publications

Campana, K. (2021). Characterizing an information environment for supporting learning. Information and Learning Sciences, 12(5/6), 341–359. https://doi.org/10.1108/ILS-08-2020-0206

Mills, J. E, Kociubuk, J., & Campana, K. (2021). Understanding social justice through practitioners’ language. The International Journal of Information, Diversity, & Inclusion, 5(2). https://doi.org/10.33137/ijidi.v5i2.34760

Campana, K., Martens, M., Filippi A. & Clunis, J. (2020). A “Library School:” Building a collaborative preschool-library partnership to support whole family engagement. Early Childhood Education Journal. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-020-01127-4

Lenstra, N., & Campana, K. (2020). Spending time in nature: How do public libraries increase access? Public Library Quarterly. https://doi.org/10.1080/01616846.2020.1805996

Campana, K. (2020). As easy as 1, 2, 3: Exploring early math in public library storytimes. The Library Quarterly, 90(1), 20-37. https://doi.org/10.1086/706310

Grants

Principle Investigator on IMLS National Leadership Grants for Libraries Planning Grant (with Michelle Baldini, Kent State University; and in partnership with Kent State University’s College of Nursing), for “Project SHIELD (Supporting Healthy Infant Early Learning and Development)," endorsed by the Brain Health Research Institute at Kent State University, $99,982, awarded August 2021

Principal Investigator on William Penn Foundation Grant (with Dr. J. Elizabeth Mills, University of Washington), for the evaluation of the Read, Baby, Read Program at the Free Library of Philadelphia System, $275,754, awarded 2020

Principal Investigator on IMLS Research in Service to Practice Grant for Libraries (with Dr. Michelle Martin, Dr. Ricardo Gomez, and Dr. J. Elizabeth Mills, all of University of Washington), for “Project Voice (Value-sensitive design of Outcomes Informing Community Engagement)," $421,533, awarded September 2019

Awards/Achievements

• Nomination for Excellence in Research Mentorship Award, Kent Sate University, 2019
• 2018 ALISE/Bohdan S. Wynar Research Paper Competition Award for Mills, J.E., Campana, K., Bayo, I., Capps, J.L., Carlyle, A., Metoyer, C., . . .Kotrla, B. (2018). Early literacy in library storytimes, Part 2: A quasi-experimental study and intervention with children’s storytime providers. The Library Quarterly, 88(2), 160-176. https://doi.org/10.1086/696581
• 2015 President’s Award for Excellence in Research (to the VIEWS2 Team) - Washington Library Association

Professional Service

• Member of Research Forums Committee, LRRT (2021-2022)
• Member of Professional Recognition and Scholarships, ALSC (2020-Present)
• Evaluator for Bay Area Discovery Museum’s Reimagining School Readiness project (2019 - Present)
• Member of Melcher and Bound to Stay Bound Scholarship Committee, ALSC (2019 - 2020)
• Co-editor of a Special Issue of Information and Learning Sciences (2018 - 2019)
• Consultant for ALSC’s Young Children, New Media, and Libraries Survey (2018 - 2019)
• Advisory Board Member for Marantz Picturebook Research Symposium (2017 - Present)
• Executive Board Member of Reinberger Children’s Library Center (2017 - Present)
• Co-chair ALSC Research Agenda Task Force (2017 - 2019)

Affiliations

• American Library Association (ALA)
• Association of Library Services to Children (ALSC), a division of ALA
• Library Research Round Table (LRRT), a round table of the ALA