Literacy Education & Outreach (LEO)

We offer a rich array of courses that focus on preparing students to work with children, teens and adult learners.

About Literacy, Education and Outreach (LEO)

This area of study focuses on:

• Literacy programs for K-12 including visual and media literacy
• School libraries and library media specialist (LMS)
• Public libraries - Children and YA Librarianship
• Museum education centers and programs
• Educational technology and user education.
• Creative teaching and learning

Increasingly, librarians are playing a pivotal role in literacy across all media
for both real and virtual users of libraries and information centers
from research and museum libraries to school and public libraries.

Curriculum

LIS Courses

LIS 608 Information Seeking Behavior
LIS 609 Interpersonal Communication for Information Professionals
LIS 673 Library Use Instruction
LIS 676 Literature and Literacy for Children
LIS 677 Literature and Literacy for Young Adults
LIS 678 Library Services for Children & Young Adults
LIS 675 Museum and Library Education and Outreach at NYPL, HSSL
LIS 674 Museum Education Libraries & Resource Centers
LIS 679 Storytelling
LIS 680 Library Media Centers
LIS 722 Cultural Diversity & Libraries
LIS 698 Practicum/ Seminar
LIS 721 Urban Public Library Service

Students may take up to 6 credits in the Department of Art and Design Education:

ADE 506 Literacy & Language Acquisition in the Classroom
ADE 524 Teaching in the Galleries
ED 606 American Urban Education: Issues & Contexts
ED 600 History & Philosophy of Education
ED 610 Child & Adolescent Development

Faculty

Our faculty is interdisciplinary between information science and education.

New book by Prof. Harriet Selverstone: Encouraging and Supporting Student Inquiry: Researching Controversial Issues (Libraries Unlimited Professional Guides in School Librarianship)

To learn more about LEO contact Prof. Jessica Hochman, Program Coordinator .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Jessica Hochman - Assistant Professor, LMS, Coordinator. PhD candidate: Teachers College, Columbia University, Presently studying for a Doctorate of Philosophy in Philosophy & Education and Cultural Studies. Diversity Fellow 2001-2003, Master of Arts Degree in Instructional Technology and Media in the Program of Scientific Foundations. Completed May, 2001.

Ellen Loughran - Visiting Associate Professor. B.A., History, Marymount Manhattan College; M.S.L.I.S., Pratt Institute. Formerly, Manager Children's Services, Brooklyn Public Library

Judy Freeman - Visiting Professor. B.A., English, Livingston College; M.L.S., Rutgers University, Children's literature consultant, lecturer, writer; member, Newbery Committee, Children's Book Award. Author of Libraries Unlimited Series Books Kids Will Sit Still For

Harriet Selverstone, Associate Professor. Formerly a high school library media specialist and Department Chair of the Library Media Department at Norwalk High School, Norwalk, CT. She was President of the American Association of School Librarians and two-term President of the Connecticut Educational Media Association and the American Library Association's Intellectual Freedom Committee. She has authored chapters on censorship issues in two texts, Children and Books, HarperCollins, 1996 and Collection Management for School Library Media Centers, Haworth Press, Inc., 1985-86. She is Series Adviser to Libraries Unlimited Professional Guides in School Librarianship Series. She holds a Masters degree in Library Science, an Advanced Certificate in Information Management and an honorary doctorate degree from Pratt Institute.

David Walczyk - Assistant Professor. B.S., Computer Information Systems, The College of Saint Rose; Ed.D., Columbia University. Dr. Walczyk brings to Pratt professional experience as a designer, advisor, researcher, and interdisciplinary collaborator at the intersections of people, culture, and interactive media. He completed his doctorate in Communication and Education at Columbia University. His teaching and applied research includes interaction design, information architecture, usability, and media ecology.

Carolyn Ward - Visiting Professor. B.A., English, Caldwell College; M.L.S., Drexel University.
Coordinator of Children's Services, The Ferguson Library, Stamford, Conn.

Gary Wasdin - Visiting Associate Professor. B.A., Theater, Augusta State University; M.S., Instructional Technology and M.L.S., Southern Connecticut State University; Director, Office of Staff Development Director of Staff Development at NYPL. Formerly the Director of the Library at The New School.

History

1896 - Pratt Institute Free Library introduced the 1st children's room

In 1894 the American Library Association declared that public libraries should not bar children from entering, and further, that children should have special rooms where they can choose books to read and these special rooms should be staffed by people who like children.* In 1896 The Pratt Institute Free Library in Brooklyn was the first library to create a special room for children, and they hired Moore [Anne Caroll Moore], who had just graduated from Pratt Institute's library program, to serve as head of the children's department. During the ten years she worked at Pratt she became one of the leading authorities on library work with children and in 1906 she was hired to be Supervisor of Work with Children at the New York Public Library, a position she held for 35 years and a position which offered her the opportunity to give shape and content to the new profession of library service to children and to define the role a public library could play in the life of a child. She abolished the age limit that barred children under the age of 14 from some of the branch libraries, improved the content of collections and the services, established the position of Children's Librarian, and created reading rooms for children so they could come and read at the library, not just select books to take home. She instituted storytelling hours, helped establish Children's Book Week, wrote articles for library journals and reviewed books for the New York Herald Tribune, and The Bookman and Hornbook magazines.

From: Recess: The World of Children's Culture Every Day by Rita Smith

* Sayers, Frances Clarke. Anne Carroll Moore, a Biography. New York: Atheneum, 1972.