Division of Library
and Information Science student wins Best Student Research Paper
Award
April Earle is the first St. John’s University
student to be awarded the prestigious Pratt-Severn Best Student
Research Paper Award. The award,
established in 1972, is administered by the Information Science
Education Committee for the American Society for Information
Science and Technology (ASIS&T). Since 1996, it has been
sponsored by Pratt Institute’s School of Information and Library
Science, on behalf of the late David Severn, a 1968 Pratt Alumnus.
The Award recognizes the outstanding work of a current student in a
degree-granting program in the information field. The purpose of
the Pratt-Severn Best Student Research Paper Award is to "encourage
student research and writing in the field of information
science."
Each year nominees are evaluated by the same
rigorous standards used for all papers submitted for the Journal of the
American Society for Information Science and Technology. The
best student research paper is judged on technical competence,
significance of findings, originality and clarity of
expression.
Past
winners of the award have come from universities such as:
Stanford University, University of California, Berkeley, University
of Michigan, Georgia Institute of Technology, University of North
Carolina, Chapel Hill, University of California, Los Angeles, and
Case Western Reserve University.
April’s paper, Design of an Application
Profile for the St. John's University Oral History Collection,
was her final project in the LIS 237 course she took in the spring
2011 semester. Her paper explores the process of designing an
application profile (AP) for the St. John's University Oral History
Project; a collection currently being developed by students
in
HIS 404/LIS 253, a new course offered as part of the
University’s new program in
Public History. As described by April, “My paper compares
existing metadata standards, discuss the trade-offs between using
one standard over another, and finally arrives at an AP (a set of
metadata elements and defining standards that dictate the policies
and best practices appropriate to an application) that should
facilitate the cataloging and/or web-based presentation of these
oral history interviews by putting the content analysis of the
resource in the hands of the interviewers; the Oral History
students.”
April’s paper was nominated by Associate
Professor of Library and Information Science,
Dr. James Vorbach. In describing Dr. Vorbach, April says, “My
understanding of the technology behind facilitating access to
information is due in great part to the teaching and guidance of
Dr. Vorbach who is without a doubt one of the best professors I
have ever had. He is everything a professor should be; informed,
patient, present, and supportive. He makes me feel very confident
about the quality of my work and now ASIS&T has recognized
it.” As a pre-cursor to writing her paper, April had the
opportunity to take an independent study with the public history program director,
Dr. Kristin M. Szylvian. April indicated, “This allowed me the
opportunity to expand the collection with interviews I conducted
with various alumni, faculty, and former administrators.” Portions
of the collection are currently being used to create a presentation
for the upcoming Lewis Avenue Reunion.
As the recipient of this award, April will
present her paper at the 75th anniversary American Society for
Information Science and Technology annual conference in Baltimore,
Maryland in October. This year’s conference theme is “Information,
Interaction, Innovation: Celebrating the Past, Constructing
the Present and Creating the Future.”
For more information, please contact Rosann
Kelly, Assistant Director Library and Information Science, by
calling (718) 990-1457, or by e-mail kellyr1@stjohns.edu