Awards and Honors
- University of Kansas Honor Scholarship, 1961-62
- University of Kansas Scholarship Hall Award, 1961-64
- Higher Education Act Title IIII-B Fellowship, Rutgers
University, 1968-1971
- Faculty Achievement Award, St. John’s University, 1995
- Nominated in 1998 for Vice President-President Elect,
Association for Library and Information Science Education
- Elected in 2003 as Secretary/Treasurer, Association for Library
and Information Science Education, 2003-2005 term
- 2004 ComputerWorld Honors Laureate, A New Search for
Heroes. Awarded to St. John's University for its
Academic Computing Initiative. Dr. James Benson was the chief
administrator for the team that developed and implemented this
Initiative. In 6 months the team established and deployed a
laptop program for freshmen that included ubiquitous
wireless campuses and an academic portal
Grants Received
The Pinetree fund of the NY Community Trust have funded Pinetree
Scholarships for students of the Division of Libray and Information
Science. The award is in the amount of $93,000 to be
disbursed over three years. The fund trustee remains
anonymous, but funded the first Pinetree Scholar for the academic
years 2001-3.
H.W. Wilson Foundation gift of $25,000 in support of
digitization of archival records. Proposal prepared by Theresa
Maylone under direction of James Benson. Summer 2000.
In 1994-95, 1995-96, 1998-2000; 1999-2001, 2000-2002, 2001-2003,
2002-2004, multiple [2 to 5 for each period] two—year fellowships
for each period were funded for students’ ion the Master off
Library Science program. Eligible students are citizens of the
Countries of the former Soviet Union. The fellowships include
tuition, fees, stipend, and transportation to and from the United
States. The fellowships are awarded for two years of study. The
fellowships are funded through the Freedom Support Act and are
administered by the ACTR//ACCELS (American Council of Teachers of
Russian/American Council for Collaboration in Education and
Language Study). The first two grants were administered by IREX.
Dr. Benson was the Program Director. Dr. Elizabeth Pollicino,
Associate Director of the Division, was the Project Director the
FSA Fellows. There have been six cohorts of Freedom Support Act
Fellows to study at St. John's University DLIS, prior to my
resignations as Director.
The H.W. Wilson Foundation awarded $10, 000 to the Division of
Library and Information Science to be used for scholarships to the
Division' programs. Within these limits, the funds may be divided
into any number of scholarships the Division sees fit. Each
recipient is to be designated as a H. W. Wilson Scholar. Drs.
Benson and Pollicino are the Project Directors and will serve as
the Wilson Scholar selection committee. During the past decade, the
DLIS has received two grants from Wilson Foundation's scholarship
program..
The Dialog Corporation awarded the Division of Library and
Information Science up to $25,000 of in-kind services for the
teaching of online database searching. This grant provides for free
use by students and faculty of online databases supplied by the
Dialog Corporation. These databases are used as teaching and
learning tools for information storage and retrieval courses,
within the Division of Library and Information Science. Dr.
Elizabeth Pollicino is the Project Manager and Dr. James Benson is
the Budget Administrator for the program. The Division has received
this grant for each of the past 12 years.
A study of relative effectiveness of books-by-mail and
bookmobiles. Funded by Alabama State Library, 1979-80.
HEA Title IIB Fellowships. 1994 (2 fellowships) 1995 (1
fellowship).