Shari Lee, Ph.D.
St. John's Professor Recognized for Leadership and Excellence in Library Science
Shari Lee, Ph.D. ’04MLS, ’10APC, assistant professor of Library and Information Science, is rapidly establishing a name for herself in her chosen field. Lee’s most recent recognition comes from the Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE), which presented her with the Norman Horrocks Leadership Award for “exemplifying the excellence that ALISE encourages in the Library and Information Science community.”
“This award acknowledges how outstanding Shari’s contributions have been,” said Jeffrey Olson, J.D., Ph.D., associate provost for academic assessment, and director, Division of Library and Information Science. Olson joined Lee at the 2014 Annual ALISE Conference, held in Philadelphia in January.
“ALISE is an international organization of professors who work together by sharing experiences, ideas, and research in an effort to move the discipline forward through the people we educate— informational professionals,” said Lee. “I’m humbled to have been selected.”
No stranger to accolades for her work, Lee received the Eugene Garfield Dissertation Award from ALISE in 2011 for her thesis—“Teen Space: Designed for Whom?”—which focuses on creating authentic public library spaces for teens. She was also awarded the Library Scholars Program Fellowship at UCLA, where she earned her Ph.D., and is a Gates Millennium Scholar.
Lee is the author of a variety of scholarly articles, including her most recent work, “Beyond Books, Nooks, and Dirty Looks: the History of Library Services to Teens in the United States,” published in the Journal of Research on Libraries and Young Adults.
“It’s an important piece for me because teens are an underserved group and we’re not seeing much improvement in the services they receive,” Lee explained. “The lack of research on the area is part of the problem.”
A self-described “St. John’s girl,” Lee chose to pursue her graduate studies at SJU after being impressed by the faculty and students during a visit to the Queens campus. “I received great personal attention,” she said. “I knew St. John’s was going to be my home.”
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