Steve holds a Master's degree in Library and Information Science from UIUC. He was recruited from Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington where he held the post of Information Services Librarian. He has traveled widely in foreign countries across all continents and worked in Japan with the Southern Illinois University program. He is actively engaged in professional library associations and currently serves as the Secretary and Information Officer of the International Federation of Library Associations' Social Science Libraries standing committee. He brings to his post not only a rich knowledge of modern library and informational systems but also a wide number of computer skills. These will be especially important in developing the on-line services of the Center and in supporting the clusters of excellence on this campus in global studies. The abstract to the Title VI grant that describes these clusters is enclosed with this circular.

 

Beth Bailey

Beth Bailey joins us with a Bachelor's degree in Geography from the University of Minnesota. Like Steve, she has traveled widely and spent a year in study-abroad in Sweden. She is fluent in Swedish and gets around nicely in German. She will be the principal voice you hear when you telephone the Center.

The CGS is moving ahead on several fronts thanks to the programs it is supporting on campus in global studies. Future circulars will highlight these activities. Currently, approximately 25 units are in greater or lesser measure receiving funds from the Center. The CGS supports, inter alia, a new (and exciting) Master's degree in global studies in the College of Education, a half-time librarian in global studies, new undergraduate and graduate courses at all levels in the College of Engineering, LAS, ACES, the Graduate School of Library and Information Sciences, and Uni High! To these can be added assistance for speakers, conferences, workshops, and colloquia. The Center will also engage a webmaster to assist these activities and its on-line programs.

The first order of business of the Center will be to revamp its website. Specifically, faculty associated with the Center will be contacted soon by Beth Bailey to approve a brief biography of each faculty member, drawn from the biographies submitted to the Department of Education in support of the Title VI grant. A major link on the Center website will be access to faculty associates of the Center to showcase their research, publications, teaching and public engagement work, notably as these impact on global studies.

Finally, an Advisory Committee of the Center is being formed to assist the Center in supporting existing programs, promoting the Center's projects, including its upcoming FLAS Fellowship competition, and exploring ways to raise additional funding.

Please feel obliged to contact me or the Center staff with ideas about how the Center can help you and your unit in developing global studies as a central academic, intellectual and public policy concern of this campus.