Candidate for Secretary/Treasurer

Paulette A. Kerr
Head, Department of Library and Information Studies
University of the West Indies, Mona


Candidate’s Statement

I am excited and honoured to serve on the ALISE team as Secretary /Treasurer. My extensive experience in academic librarianship and LIS education at the international level provides an excellent platform for leadership in ALISE especially in light of the directions for the Association as proposed by the 2014 President. As current Head of the Department of Library and Information Studies (DLIS) at the University of the West Indies, (UWI), Mona, Jamaica, and an exemplary academic librarian and former President of the Library and Information Association of Jamaica (LIAJA), I am passionate about forging greater connections and synergy between LIS education and the professional community for impactful research and practice. In my role as Head of Department, I have provided outstanding leadership in repositioning the department in areas of research and curriculum reform, primarily towards educating “information professionals equipped to meet the challenges of the dynamic information environment”. I developed other initiatives including an annual Research Forum for LIS educators and information professionals to showcase research and best-practice. As an academic librarian I developed and led an award-winning campus-wide information literacy programme at UWI, Mona.

I have been honoured both for leadership and research in information literacy, the most recent being the UWI Mona Principal’s Award for outstanding research publication in 2012.

I will bring these and other areas of strength to bear on my position in ALISE. While I am internationally located, I have worked closely with colleagues in ALISE over the last 5 years and I believe I am strategically positioned in the Caribbean to make an impact for ALISE especially as the Association is ‘without borders’.

Biography

Paulette A Kerr is Head of the Department of Library and Information Studies (DLIS) at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona Jamaica. She joined the Department as a lecturer (Associate Professor) in 2010 after pursuing a PhD in the School of Information and Communication, Rutgers University where she was advised by Dr Ross J Todd. Prior to Rutgers she was Reference Librarian and Information Literacy Coordinator at the UWI Mona Library. She received an MA (History) and a Graduate Diploma in Library and Information Studies from the UWI. Her research interests coalesce around theory and practice in information literacy, teaching learning in academic libraries, international LIS education and aspects of Caribbean social history. She has published and presented within the Caribbean and internationally in these areas.

Paulette has received awards including the ACURIL (Association of Caribbean University, Research and Institutional Librarians) Award for excellence in Information Literacy, a prestigious Fulbright Fellowship to Rutgers University, and the UWI Mona Principal’s Award for outstanding research publication in information literacy.

She currently serves as the representative for UWI to the UNESCO-UNAOC UNITWIN Chair on Media and information Literacy and Intercultural Dialogue (MILID) and a member of the Board of the National Information Literacy Forum (NFIL), an international consortium of scholars and practitioners of information literacy. An active member of the Library and Information Association of Jamaica (LIAJA), she served as President, and Chair of Education and Training, and Advocacy working groups. She has been a member of ALISE since 2009 (began as a doctoral student).