Kent State University’s School of Library and Information Science (SLIS) is pleased to announce the winners of its 2016 research fellowships: the Jacqueline M. Albers Guest Scholar in Children’s Literature Fellowship and 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 picturebooks, posters or ephemera related to picturebooks 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.
The School received 14 proposals this year, from scholars around the world, and awarded one Albers Fellowship and three Marantz Fellowships.
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.
The 2016 recipient is Zoe Jacques, Ph.D., from Cambridge University, whose proposed project is “Interactive Books, Active Readers: 1800-2000.”
Marantz Fellowships
The Marantz Fellowship was created by the late Dr. Kenneth A. and Sylvia 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 picturebooks.
The 2016 recipients of the Marantz Fellowship are Nicole Cooke, Ph.D., University of Illinois Graduate School of Library and Information Science, whose project is titled “Something Beautiful: Social Justice, Empathy, and Cultural Competence in Children’s Books”; Nicola Daly, Ph.D., Te Toi Tangata Faculty of Education, The University of Waikato, New Zealand, “Language Use in Dual Language Books in the Marantz Picturebook Collection”; and Claudia Mendes, Ph.D. candidate and graphic designer, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, “Impacts of European Avant-garde in American Picturebooks: A Comparative Study between Brazil and the United States.”
The selection committee for the fellowships included SLIS Assistant Professor Marianne Martens, Ph.D.; Associate Professor Meghan Harper, Ph.D.; Assistant Professor Belinda Boon, Ph.D.; Senior Lecturer Mary Anne Nichols, M.L.S.; and Reinberger Children’s Library Center Coordinator Michelle Baldini, M.L.S.
Reinberger Children's Library Center
The mission of the Reinberger Children's Library Center is “to build diverse collections of children’s literature spanning geographic, cultural, physical, technological and temporal borders. These collections represent the best literature and related materials for young people. They also demonstrate the processes involved in producing, publishing and marketing such literature over time, from evolving means of production to differing constructions of childhood. In addition, the state-of-the-art center provides opportunities to study connections between literacy, reading and digital technologies, which is valuable for practitioners, as well as scholars.
One of the jewels of the Reinberger Children’s Library Center is the Marantz Picturebook Collection for the Study of Picturebook Art (Marantz), a one-of-a kind picturebook collection, cataloged according to illustrator, artist or paper engineer. The Marantz holds more than 30,000 picture books, 2,000+ publisher posters and original artwork from notable illustrators covering the past 40+ years. The collection represents the Marantzes’ enduring respect and devotion to the art of picturebooks (written as one word in honor of Dr. Marantz).