Speaker+Information

=Speaker Information=

Director, Center for International Scholarship in School Libraries, Rutgers University [|http://comminfo.rutgers.edu/~rtodd/home.htm] The following is an except from Dr. Todd’s description of his research direction at [|http://comminfo.rutgers.edu/~rtodd/home.htm] “My research primarily focuses on the engagement of people and their information worlds, and how this interaction can be understood to facilitate professional action and change, and make a difference to individuals, organizations, societies and nations. Drawing on an intellectually diverse and rich multidisciplinary base, it focuses on the interconnectedness of people, information and knowledge, the development of creative and responsive information and knowledge infrastructures that can make a difference to individuals, social groups, institutions and organizations, and facilitate professional action and change. Against this broad backdrop, my research continues to specifically focus on the transformative role of school libraries in 21 st century schools, their integral role in the learning fabric of schools, and their role in ongoing school improvement and reform. My research has three interrelated foci:
 * Dr. Ross J. Todd** - Keynote Speaker, Speaker - Inquiry Research Process
 * // Understanding how children learn and build new knowledge from information //.
 * // Information utilization for learning //.
 * // Evidence-based practice for school libraries. // “

// Mission //// : Empower staff and students to leverage information resources and technology to achieve their personal, professional, and collective learning goals. // As Director of Information Resources and Learning Technologies for Rockland BOCES, Sarah Chauncey is focused on empowering staff and students to leverage information and technology resources to achieve their personal, professional, and collective learning goals. Ms. Chauncey comes to BOCES from the East Ramapo School District, where she served as a Library Media Specialist for six years. Ms. Chauncey has earned a BS in Education, an MBA and an MLS. She is currently enrolled in a doctoral program at Syracuse University and will complete her coursework in May. Additionally, Ms.Chauncey is an adjunct online instructor for McDaniel College in Maryland.
 * Sarah Chauncey** - Speaker, "Build Your Virtual Dream Library and They Will Come"

Phyllis DiBianco has been a School Library Media Specialist in New York for over twenty years. In addition to her current position as librarian at Scarsdale High School, she is a 2001 American Memory Fellow of the Library of Congress, USA, and is a regular columnist for //The InfoSearcher Newsletter//. She has presented at state and national conferences in the US and was a founding member of the American Association of School Librarians ICONnect technology initiative.
 * Phyllis DiBianco** - Speaker, Students as Historians: Using Primary Sources in the Library

**Melissa Jacobs-Israel -** Speaker, "Best of Web 2.0 for Teaching and Learning" Melissa Jacobs-Israel is the Coordinator of Library Services for the New York City Department of Education. In that role, she has created the New York City School Librarian Information Sharing Tool (NYCSLIST) Listserv which hosts over 1,000 school librarians in NYC. Melissa earned her MLS from Queens College and holds a MS in Educational Administration and Supervision from Touro. She has 11 years experience as an elementary school librarian and teacher of adults with developmental disabilities. Currently, Melissa serves as a member of the AASL Best Websites for Teaching and Learning Task Force and enjoys emerging technologies, social media, lifelong learning, and obsessively collecting cookbooks.

M. Grace Cantwell is Community Relations Manager at Barnes & Noble City Center in White Plains, where she works with schools and libraries to enhance their literacy programs, plan fundraisers and develop their digital library strategies. She has partnered with the Westchester Library System to conduct two successful How to Market Your Library Like a Bookstore workshops. In the past year Ms. Cantwell has also conducted a Lexile® measures seminar entitled Matching Readers With Targeted Books and a Grant Writing Workshop for educators. She has more than 25 years marketing communications experience in the business world, with almost ten years in the publishing industry working for Random House Publishing and Forbes Magazine. A respected consultant in the business community, she holds a M.S in Mass Communications from Iona College.
 * M. Grace Cantwell**

**Buffy Hamilton** Buffy Hamilton is the founding librarian of “The Unquiet Library” at Creekview High School in Canton, Georgia. She is passionate about creating library experiences for her students that will encourage them to be lifelong learners; she collaborates extensively with the teachers and students in her school to create learning experiences to foster students’ information fluency and digital citizenship skills, the cultural capital students need to fully participate in today’s society. Her media program at Creekview HS was named one of two exemplary high school programs for the state of Georgia in 2010.  Hamilton also serves as Social Media Chair for the AASL National Conference 2011 Committee and is a member of the Interdivisional Committee on Information Literacy AASL / ACRL.


 * Laura Pearle**
 * Laura Pearle ** began her library career with a three-year stint as a student library aide at Emma Willard School, followed by a 16-year hiatus while she explored the varied worlds of college, Off-Broadway theater, investment banking and executive recruiting, among others. Since returning to independent school libraries in 1996, she has focused on the evaluating accreditation process, and investigating the K-20 skills curriculum. She is co-presenting the preconference program “Books, E-ink and Databases, Oh my! Collection Development in the 21st Century” at the AASL National Conference, October 2011.

A graduate of Fordham College at Rose Hill, the Graduate School of Education at Fordham University, and the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at Queens College, CUNY, Joe Mannozzi has worked in schools for 8 years, as an elementary school teacher and a library media specialist. He is currently LMS at Rye High School in Rye, New York, where he and Jo Alyce Newgaard are implementing a Nook lending program. Joe is Chair Elect on the SW BOCES SLS Council.
 * Joe Mannozzi**

Jo Alyce Newgaard, a graduate of the University of Kansas and Georgia State University, started her teaching career as a high school German teacher and then switched to the library field. She is the school library media specialist for Rye Middle School, working in the shared Rye Middle/High School Library. She and Joe Mannozzi are implementing a Nook lending program. Jo Alyce served on the SW BOCES Council in prior years.
 * Jo Alyce Newgaard**

Tina Pantginis has been a Library Media Specialist for sixteen years. Fifteen of those have been at Mamaroneck High School. An active collaborator in her school community, she sits on several committees, including district technology and runs the selection committee for the high school’s community read. Tina also enjoys offering programs that bring in dynamic speakers and to highlight the multiple talents of Mamaroneck High School’s students and faculty.
 * Tina Pantginis**

A life long book lover, the library has always felt like a second home to Maria. After several years of teaching, she decided that working with books and children was her true calling. A recent graduate of the Palmer School at Long Island University, Maria is currently working as a Youth Services Librarian at the Mount Kisco Public Library.
 * Maria Ciccone**