[Asis-l] UNC SILS Professor Amelia Gibson Receives IMLS Early Career Award

[Perales, Katherine Pearl]

UNC SILS Professor Amelia Gibson will use IMLS grant to research how libraries can better engage people with Autism and their families

UNC School of Information and Library Science (SILS) Assistant Professor Amelia Gibson has received an Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) Laura Bush 21st Century Early Career Award to support a project titled "Deconstructing Information Poverty: Identifying, Supporting, and Leveraging Local Expertise in Marginalized Communities."

The three-year project, which received over $336,600 in funding from IMLS, will examine the potential for libraries to help people with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and their families fulfill their information needs and reduce information poverty in local ASD communities. It will also investigate how members of marginalized communities can act as self-advocates on a local level, and how libraries can recognize, empower, and educate all members of their communities through programming, planning, and collection development.

Gibson will collaborate with the Durham and Charlotte Public Libraries and the Autism Society of North Carolina (ASNC) for the project, which will culminate in the development and dissemination of an online toolkit that describes community assessment and engagement processes.

Read more at https://sils.unc.edu/news/2017/gibson-imls