Global Studies Librarian, Professor Lynne Rudasill:

The Center for Global Studies is very pleased to introduce Lynne Marie Rudasill, Associate Professor of Library Administration, as its Global Studies Librarian and Information Officer. The half-time post was created by the University Library in cooperation with the Center for Global Studies. This is a unique position that promises to be a model for other university research libraries and National Resource Centers in international and global studies Some of you already know Lynne from her work as the subject specialist for political science and speech communication in the Education and Social Science Library. In Lynne's new position, she will be working to enhance access to information resources for and about the five Clusters of Excellence around which the work of the Center is focused. She is excited to have the opportunity to support the expansion of the University's international focus. Lynne is a University of Illinois "ibid." having earned an undergraduate degree in political science and a master's degree in library and information science at the U of I. After several years as reference librarian at Eureka College (yes, Reagan's alma mater), she joined the Reference Library faculty. Until 2002, Lynne served as the Reference Coordinator and subject specialist in political science and sociology at the Education and Social Science Library. In 2002, Lynne moved from sociology to speech communication specialist. Lynne also teaches on occasion at the Graduate School of Library and Information Science. Currently, Lynne's research is focused on national and supra-national information policy. She has also published in the areas of library user instruction and web page development. Lynne has presented papers at conferences in Ireland, Poland, South Africa and Greece. The concept of global communication was driven home to her in 1997 when, upon rounding a curve in Soweto Township, the graffiti likeness of Bart Simpson greeted her! Lynne also serves on the Faculty Senate, the Military Education Committee, and is a member of the Library's Executive Committee. Lynne is presently working to identify and purchase items to support research in global studies. She will be happy to facilitate the purchase of items that support the clusters of excellence within the Center, partly supported by annual grant of $10,000 between 2003-06 under the Center's Title 6 designation as a National Resource Center. As soon as the new web page for CGS is up and running, Lynne plans on doing several things. First, she hopes to publish pages to facilitate access to library resources, including keeping all informed concerning new monographic acquisitions by the University Library. Lynne is especially interested in working with faculty to identify journal articles, public documents, and data sources of interest to them. Lynne also hopes to provide content on current awareness services for journals and databases. A long-term goal is to facilitate access to the "grey literature" that is rarely captured, but frequently important to researchers. Ultimately, these two projects will be part of a Center website that will include news, data, and outreach to all those interested in global studies. Another area of interest for Lynne will be the provision of library use instruction and tutorials. One of the most important skills the global citizen can possess is the ability to access and assess information in a variety of formats. She is very interested in working with those developing courses in the related fields. Please contact her to discuss the integration of information resources into your curriculum at all levels. She is available for consultation concerning strategies of inclusion of critical thinking skills, effective library use, and ways of bringing information resources into the classroom. She would be happy to provide information access instruction to your classes as well. Whether the information needs are targeted to the scholar or the K-12 classroom teacher, she is here to assist you. Lynne Rudasill will be in the Center offices two and a half days each week with her other time being at the Education and Social Science Library. Feel free to contact Lynne at anytime via e-mail (rudasill@uiuc.edu) or phone (265-6879). She is looking forward to hearing from you.