Two Palmer School Students Presented at a National Book Conference

In January 2009, Sheelagh Bevan and Jennifer Chisnell, Long Island University students at the Palmer School of Library and Information Science, Manhattan, presented papers at the first biennial conference of the College Book Arts Association, titled “Art, Fact, and Artifact.”

The conference took place from January 8 through 10, 2009 at the University of Iowa Center for the Book. “Art, Fact, and Artifact” offered presentations, papers, tours, professional development, studio demonstrations, and exhibits from artists and scholars interested in the future, present and past of the book as an expressive form. The three-day conference bridged the worlds of book art, book history, cultural criticism, and curatorial work.

Both students developed their papers in the Palmer School’s Spring 2008 Artists’ Books course, taught by Palmer faculty member Constance Woo.

“Constance Woo was primarily responsible for my being at the conference. In the artists' books class, she not only created an environment that was intellectually stimulating, but also made us feel that our critical ideas were a valid part of the discipline we were studying,” Sheelagh Bevan said.

Professor Woo encouraged Bevan and Chisnell to submit their works to the Conference, which was not a part of the class. Independently from one another, the two students were accepted and asked to present.

Chisnell’s paper was titled "A Story in the Act of Understanding Itself: Artists' Books as Metafiction," and Bevan’s was "Re-collecting the Multiplicity of Artists' Books: How We Treat Artists & Photographs at MoMA Library."

Sheelagh Bevan graduated with the optional concentration of Rare Books and Special Collections after the Artists' Books class in May 2008. She has worked at the Museum of Modern Art since 2005, first as a library assistant and now assistant librarian for reference. Jennifer Chisnell is still in the Palmer School’s 36-credit program and also is the recipient of an IMLS grant, which places interns in the CUNY system to work in special collections and archives.

The Palmer School offers a full range of graduate courses through its Master of Science in Library and Information Science and Doctor of Philosophy in Information Studies programs. Students need not select a concentration and can graduate as information specialists with interests in everything from reference, cataloging, public, corporate or legal librarianship to the digital world of metadata, preservation and conservation, digital libraries, and usability.

The ALA-accredited M.S. in Library and Information Science program is offered on Long Island at the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University as well as Manhattan at New York University's Bobst Library. Selected master's level courses are also offered at SUNY Purchase and Brentwood.

Posted: March 6, 2009