Dr. Mary Wagner, MLIS Fulbright scholar in Zambia - College of St ...

T HE FRIENDS OF THE LIBRARIES
NEWSLETTER
INSIDE THIS ISSUE:
Happy Retirement 2
Magical Realism for
Non-Believers
Friends of the Libraries 3
MLIS Accreditation
2
4
Volume 4
Dr. Mary Wagner, MLIS
Fulbright scholar in Zambia
By Karen Harwood
Our friend and colleague, Mary has
returned from her sabbatical year spent
teaching and learning in Zambia, Africa
as a Fulbright scholar.
Her primary activity was as a guest lecturer
in the Library Studies Program of
the University of Zambia in Lusaka. The
program has 600 students at the diploma
and BA level and has begun a graduate
program. Her courses included electronic
resources, basic reference, a seminar in
legal issues in libraries, and tutorials.
She developed curriculum for school
teacher librarians and gave workshops
on marketing libraries. Educational methodology
and the complex examination
procedures were a challenge.
She contributed to the Lubuto Library
Project, which provides libraries as space
for children to learn, read, and do art
and drama, and was on site weekly to
tell stories and read to the children.
Mary attended and contributed to a number
of conferences throughout the year.
Among them, the Annual Conference of
the Zambian Library Association, The
International Board for Books for Youth,
Africa held in South Africa, and the 19 th
Standing Conference of Eastern, Central,
Southern Africa Library and Information
Association held in Botswana where she
played the role of “Monster” in a
performance of Ablyoyo, a story-song.
September 2011
Mary’s family, husband Bill and daughters,
Lebo and Nora, were part of this
exceptional year contributing their
talents to the community and experiencing
the culture during many adventures
to Victoria Falls, the Fleeing the Waters
Ceremony, and also during holiday celebrations
on Thanksgiving and Black
History month.
Mary is a gifted story teller. Come and
hear her experiences with children, libraries,
library education and Zambian culture
at the annual Friends of the Libraries fall
Gala held Thursday, October 27 th from
5:30-7:30 in the Faculty Study at the
St. Paul Library campus. Perhaps she will
wear her chitenje.
Mary with her family wearing traditional
Zambian dress.

Page 2 Volume 4
Happy Retirement
Sister Margery Smith, CSJ, Professor Emerita, retired from
St. Catherine University Archives this past June. Before becoming
the Archivist, she had a long and illustrious career beginning in
1968 as a member of the English Department, and for a number
of years after taking on the archives job, she continued to teach
the “History of the Book” for the Dominican University MLIS program
and two courses in the English department.
“The archives were a challenge," says Sister Margery, looking
back over the decades. "If it weren't for Paula Braegelmann Loch
'95 and Sarah Hansen '94 who taught me everything I had to
learn, I would never have survived that first year." Along the way,
Sister Margery learned the rudiments of artifact conservation, the
mysteries of acid-free paper and ph neutral adhesive, and how to
find a patron's Great-Aunt Matilda who went to St. Catherine's in
1915 and needed to have her birth date certified for the Federal
government. "We have the handwritten matriculation and academic
records of every student from 1905 to 1935. Each one records
the student's birth date.”
The Archives were first organized in 1976 by Sister Mary William
Brady, CSJ. The collections hold over 3,000 artifacts and more
than 4,500 photos of the university’s first hundred years. Alumnae
and faculty sent back mementos of their overseas travel; faculty
on Fulbright awards gave the archives items they had purchased
for show and tell in their classrooms. There are
pieces of intricate needlework, Japanese scrolls and fans,
dreidels from Israel, wooden figurines of Chaucer's
'Canterbury Tales,' papal blessings, and an appointment card
from the Sorbonne for Sister Antonius Kennelly, CSJ, to interview
Marie Curie in Paris when Sister was a student at
Munich in 1930. The first issues of Ariston, LaConcha, and
The Catherine Wheel are stored in their print editions along
with the papers of the early Presidents, departments and
faculty.
Today, the new
University Archivist
Deborah Kloiber
faces the challenge
of a digital archives.
But the history still
lingers in the library
storerooms, amid the
beanies and basketball
photos. Sister
Margery can be
reached in her office,
CdC 060, 651-690-
6085, in the Library
for one more year.
Magical Realism for Non-Believers By Anika Fajardo
As a 12-month, part-time librarian, I usually spend my summers at the reference desk at the St. Paul campus where
I help students and faculty with summer courses and catch up on work that gets set aside during the busy school
year. This summer, though, instead of heading to St. Paul like I usually do, I drove downtown Minneapolis each
morning to the Loft Literary Center. The Loft rents Writers’ Studios, quiet and
calm spaces for writers to find their muse, and during the summer I used the
studio space to complete a draft of my memoir-in-progress, Magical Realism for
Non-Believers. This creative time was made possible by an Artist Initiative Grant
from the Minnesota State Arts Board. The Artist Initiative Grant supports and
assists artists at various stages in their careers, encouraging artistic development,
nurturing artistic creativity, and recognizing the contributions individual
artists make to the creative environment of the state of Minnesota.
Anika Fajardo, Reference Librarian
St. Catherine University Library
Sister Margery Smith, CSJ holding
Pope Leo XIII’s red velour shoes
The funding for this grant comes, in part, from the Minnesota arts and cultural
heritage fund as appropriated by the Minnesota State Legislature with money
from the Legacy Amendment of 2008.
I am grateful to the Libraries at St. Catherine University for allowing me a leave
of absence and I’m grateful to the people of Minnesota who are willing to support
arts and culture.
Find my latest publication (a memoir excerpt) in the online journal,
Hippocampus Magazine:
http://www.hippocampusmagazine.com/2011/09/playing-poohsticks-anikafajardo/

The Friends of the Libraries Page 3
Dear Friends of the Libraries,
For the past three years, the Friends’ goal has been to raise
money to increase the MLIS Scholarship Endowment to $100,000 in support
of the MLIS accreditation process. It was a time to celebrate libraries
and the students who will take our place in the future. We invited
Ginnie Cooper, Chief Librarian of the District of Columbia Public Library,
to be our Gala speaker in 2010 and had a wonderful time with friends
and colleagues. Today, we are pleased to report that the fund stands at
$51,698, double the amount when we started. This achievement is due
solely to your gifts and we are very grateful for your generosity. In 2010,
scholarships were awarded to Candice LaPlante and Christine Simon and
in 2011, Brian Huffman was the recipient. While we did not meet our
original goal of $100,000, we now have an accredited MLIS program and
have doubled the endowment for scholarships.
At the February Executive Committee meeting, Shawn
Swearingen was re-elected President, Karen Stauber became Vice-
President, and Deb Rash, Secretary. And, for the second year in a row,
the Friends sponsored an early summer picnic for MLIS students, MLIS
faculty, and alums on the quad. Attendance at this event has increased
each year thanks to Karen Stauber’s and Stephanie Klenk’s great
organizing skills.
Sadly this year, Karen Harwood resigned from the Executive
Committee after serving since 1997, the year the Friends were founded.
Karen will continue as a library advocate in her capacity as a member of
the Alumnae Council and will be sorely missed. In her place, we have a
new Executive Committee member, Matthew Lee (see side-bar on this
page).
In other news this year, the Friends voted to start a new
fund raising goal, one that goes back to supporting the needs of the
Library collections and the University’s strategic plan by increasing the
funds available in the June Smith Endowed Library Fund for the
Multicultural Collection. One of the University’s goals is to enhance
our commitment to multicultural understanding, a key purpose for establishing
the June Smith Library Endowment. In a perfect tie-in, our Gala
speaker this year is Dr. Mary Wagner, newly returned from her year at
the University of Zambia as a Fulbright Scholar. We are delighted to welcome
her home and invite you to come to campus to see and hear of her
experiences in another part of the global library community.
Please join us Thursday, October 27 from 5:30–7:30 pm in the
Faculty Study of the St. Paul Campus Library. Food, door prizes and
lively talk await you.
President of the Friends of the Libraries
Shawn Swearingen, President of
Friends of the Libraries
Matt Lee, our new Friends
Executive Committee member,
is a librarian at Minitex
where he provides instruction
on and support for the statewide
Electronic Library for
Minnesota databases, among
other duties. He has worked
at the James J. Hill Library in
St. Paul as a Business Information
Specialist and in the
Hennepin and Anoka County
library systems as a substitute
librarian. Matt graduated
with an MLIS from St. Kate’s
in 2004.
Matt Lee, Librarian
Reference Outreach & Instruction, Minitex

Published by Friends of the
Libraries NEWSLETTER
staff
Editorial Board:
Carol Johnson, Deborah Kloiber,
and Rita Schultz (Desktop
Publisher)
St. Catherine University
Library, F-10
2004 Randolph Ave
St. Paul, MN 55105-1750
MLIS Accreditation at
St. Kates
By Deborah S. Grealy, Ph.D.
Associate Dean & Program Director MLIS
In January 2011, the American Library
Association granted initial accreditation to the
Master of Library and Information Science
(MLIS) Program at St. Catherine University. This
decision underscores and affirms the value and
academic excellence of our program.
Accreditation offers MLIS expanded opportunities
for national recruiting and marketing, and it
offers our current students strong prospects for professional-level
employment nationwide—in academic,
public, special, and school libraries, archives and
entrepreneurial settings.
Our MLIS program has a strong legacy in
community-based library education, dating back to
1917. The baccalaureate library-and-information
program that St. Kate’s offered for decades evolved
into a master’s-level program affiliated with Dominican
University in 1991 and has been operating
independently since 2008. Now it is nationally
recognized and is ALA-accredited.
The MLIS program is at the center of the
Graduate College and the School of Professional
Studies, which were created in June 2009 when
St. Catherine became a university. The MLIS program
benefits from St. Catherine’s investment in graduatelevel
research, ongoing planning and assessment, and
collaboration across the university’s four schools and
three colleges.
Many thanks to all of our students, alumnae/i,
friends, faculty, staff, and colleagues for their ongoing
support and encouragement. We are very excited
about the program’s future here at the university. All
of the St. Kate’s community worked hard to make this
happen for all of us.