Washington DC—The Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) is pleased to announce the selection of Elisabeth A. Jones as the 2008 recipient of the Paul Evan Peters Fellowship for graduate study in the information sciences or librarianship.  Jones is currently a PhD student in information science at the University of Washington.  The fellowship, which was established to honor the memory of CNI founding Executive Director Paul Evan Peters, recognizes outstanding scholarship and intellectual rigor, as well as civic responsibility, democratic values, and imagination.

With a research agenda that focuses on large-scale information-digitization initiatives, such as Google Book Search, Jones is interested in the complex web of social and political issues that affect, and are affected by, these ambitious undertakings.  While a student at the University of Michigan (UM) School of Information, Jones served as a research intern for the UM-Google Library Partnership, according her first-hand experience with the project.

Jones approaches her current pursuits with the benefit of a diverse background, including anthropology, the visual arts, and librarianship.  Her experiences in both political activism and community service help to inform her curiosity and concern regarding the transformations digitization initiatives can elicit.  She expresses a “desire to support artistic and intellectual flourishing, and through it fundamental democratic values, through research and teaching.”

Described by University of Washington professor Joseph Janes as having a “wry sense of humor,” Jones has proven herself to be a leader among her peers, and someone who motivates others to think probingly about challenging issues.  In a statement about this year’s fellowship winner, selection committee member Barbara Dewey of the University of Tennessee said, “Elisabeth Jones is an exceptional 21st-century new scholar in the spirit of Paul Evan Peters's creativity and leadership.”

"We had a fabulous candidate pool for the fellowship this year; Paul Peters would have been proud of the quality, insight, and diversity of the new generation of information professionals,” stated CNI Executive Director Clifford Lynch.  “Elisabeth Jones is a wonderful choice; her work and her achievements beautifully match what we look for in honoring Paul's memory through this award," added Lynch.

A four-member committee selected Jones for the award.  The committee included Kathleen Christoph, Director of Academic Technology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison; Barbara Dewey, Dean of Libraries at the University of Tennessee; R. Bruce Miller, University Librarian at the University of California, Merced; and Joan Lippincott, Associate Executive Director of the Coalition for Networked Information.  

About the Fellowship

The Paul Evan Peters Fellowship was established to honor and perpetuate the memory of the founding Executive Director of the Coalition for Networked Information.  Funded by donations from Peters's colleagues, friends, and family, the fellowship provides a two-year award of $5,000 per year to a student who demonstrates intellectual and personal qualities consistent with those of Peters, including:

    — a commitment to the use of networked information and advanced technology to enhance scholarship, intellectual productivity, and public life;

    — an interest in the civic responsibilities of networked information professionals, and a commitment to democratic values and government accountability;

    — a positive and creative approach to overcoming personal, technological, and bureaucratic challenges; and

    — humor, vision, humanity, and imagination.

The fellowship will be awarded next in 2010; applications will be available on the Web site of the Coalition for Networked Information.

More information about the fellowship is available online at http://www.cni.org/pepfellowship/.

CNI is a coalition of some 200 institutions dedicated to supporting the transformative promise of networked information technology for the advancement of scholarly communication and the enrichment of intellectual productivity.  The Coalition, which is sponsored by the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) and EDUCAUSE, is headquartered in Washington DC.  CNI is on the Web at http://www.cni.org/.

ARL is a nonprofit organization of 123 research libraries in North America.  Its mission is to influence the changing environment of scholarly communication and the public policies that affect research libraries and the diverse communities they serve.  ARL pursues this mission by advancing the goals of its member research libraries, providing leadership in public and information policy to the scholarly and higher education communities, fostering the exchange of ideas and expertise, and shaping a future environment that leverages its interests with those of allied organizations.  ARL is on the Web at http://www.arl.org/.

EDUCAUSE is a nonprofit association whose mission is to advance higher education by promoting the intelligent use of information technology.  The current membership comprises more than 2,200 colleges, universities, and educational organizations, including 250 corporations, with 17,000 active members.  Learn more about EDUCAUSE at http://www.educause.edu.