FACRL Presents Academic Libraries & Student Success for the Next Generation

Join us for an interactive preconference on back-to-basics strategies for teaching information literacy skills to the next generation of college students. This event will feature various speakers from academic libraries across Florida.

Speakers:

Rachel Cooke
Florida Gulf Coast University
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Rachel Cooke is the current President of the Florida Association of College & Research Libraries (FACRL). Rachel is employed as the University Librarian for Education and Arts at Florida Gulf Coast University. Rachel is a regular contributor to Choice Magazine and has published numerous articles related to information retrieval, information literacy, academic librarianship, and higher education.

Shane Roopnarine
University of Central Florida
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Shane Roopnarine is a Subject Librarian at the University of Central Florida. His areas include Health Sciences and Social Work. He earned his Master of Library and Information Science degree from the Florida State University and a Master of Arts in Instructional Design and Technology from the University of Central Florida. His primary interests include instructional design and online learning. Prior to UCF, he was a reference librarian at the Orlando Public Library. Shane is the current President of the Florida Library Association.

Richard A. Hodges, Ed.D.
Florida Southwestern State College
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Richard Hodges, Ed.D. has served in academic leadership and faculty positions in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Mississippi, and Virginia. He currently serves as Director of Library Services for Florida Southwestern State College in Fort Myers. Richard has served as a member of the international Expert Panel for the creation of the annual EDUCAUSE Horizon Report. The Report observes trends in technology usage throughout higher education and examines possible future usages and innovations. As former Director of Learning Resources at Thomas Nelson Community College in Virginia, Richard represented the Virginia Community College System as a member of the State Council of Higher Education’s Library Advisory Committee and as the committee's liaison to the Virginia Scholarly Communications Interest Group examining trends effecting scholarly communications. Richard’s research interests focus around the intersection of race, business and higher education in the Deep South during the period 1954-1966. His dissertation, Emerging from Resistance: The Origins of the Virginia Technical College System, was the result of extensive research into the relationship of Virginia’s political response to the Brown v Board of Education rulings of the mid-1950s and the eventual founding of the Virginia Technical College System. This was a story that had never been investigated. Additionally, he contributed entries to the five-volume Encyclopedia of Higher Education published by SAGE. The entries are on the effects of Race on Teaching and the role of the Arts in higher education. Along with his library background, Richard is an accomplished musician having appeared as saxophone soloist in Europe, Canada, and throughout the United States including his debut recital in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in New York City. He has served as a music faculty member in Mississippi, New Jersey, and Virginia and as Assistant Conductor of the Youth Orchestra of Central Jersey. Richard holds a bachelor’s degree in applied music from Wichita State University (Kansas), a master’s degree in applied music from the University of Mississippi, a master’s of library and information science degree from Louisiana State University, and a doctorate in education in education policy, planning, and leadership from William & Mary (Virginia).

Clarissa West-White, Ph.D.
Bethune-Cookman University
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Dr. Clarissa West-White is the University Archivist, Assistant Professor at Bethune-Cookman University in Daytona Beach, Florida. She holds degrees in Creative Writing, Curriculum & Instruction English Education and Information from Florida State University. Dr. West-White has experience as a middle and high school English teacher, program coordinator, adult literacy director, university English department chair, reference librarian/research instructor and assistant professor and adjunct at a number of public and private universities in the state of Florida and online. She has completed archival projects, given presentations and conducted research on Dr. Mary McLeod Bthune and served as an education consultant with the U.S. and Florida Department of Education. She has received several fellowships and scholarships and was most recently elected President-Elect of the Florida Association of College & Research Libraries.

Rachel Edford Trnka
UCF
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Rachel is an Instruction & Engagement Librarian at the University of Central Florida. She has an interdisciplinary background with a PhD in English and an MA in Liberal Studies as well as an MLIS. Her research interests include online pedagogy, information literacy instruction, and the history of librarianship.

Cameron Riopelle
University of Miami
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Cameron Riopelle is Head of the Data & Visualization Services department at the University of Miami Libraries and a Librarian Associate Professor. He received his PhD in Sociology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2017, his Master of Science in Statistics (concentration: Applied Statistics) from UIUC in 2015, and Master of Arts in Sociology from UIUC in 2012. His research interests include research methods and data literacy, criminology, teaching pedagogy, sea level rise, and theories of colonialism and the state. In addition to his background in statistics and social scientific methods, Cameron has expertise in oral history and historical-archival research.

Angela C. Hall
Valencia College
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Angela Hall has been a librarian at Valencia College since July 2019. Angela's background includes working in academic, public, school, and special libraries. A native North Carolinian, Angela earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Administration from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte (1987) and a Masters' degree in Library Science from Clark Atlanta University (1994). Angela loves teaching students and faculty how to successfully navigate the information highway!