Osborne Named Coordinator for USM’s Fay B. Kaigler Youngsters’s E-book Pageant
Dr. Mary Osborne, a College of Southern Mississippi (USM) alumna who earned her Ph.D. in English with an emphasis in kids’s and younger grownup literature, will function coordinator for its internationally famend Fay B. Kaigler Youngsters’s E-book Pageant along with her new function as Assistant to the Director for Particular Occasions and Outreach Coordinator within the College of Library and Info Science (SLIS).
Dr. Stacy Creel, director and professor within the SLIS, mentioned Dr. Osborne’s educational background and experiences as a author, editor and blogger within the style make her an amazing match for the place.
“Mary’s Ph.D. in English with an emphasis in kids’s and younger grownup literature and her weblog creation and writing made her a stand-out candidate,” mentioned Dr. Creel. “She has modifying expertise as properly, which makes her match for the print supplies created for the competition every year. We’re actually enthusiastic about her becoming a member of us as to coordinate the competition and rising our on-line presence with some authentic content material creation.”
No stranger to the competition, Dr. Osborne grew to become acquainted with the CBF whereas finding out at USM when she relished the chance to listen to from and meet the distinguished authors and illustrators who attended, together with the occasion’s high award recipient, the Southern Miss Medallion winner, and people acknowledged throughout its Ezra Jack Keats E-book Award ceremony.
“I appeared ahead to it yearly, so it’s wild to suppose that now I’m serving to set up it,” she mentioned. “We’re additionally so honored to host the Ezra Jack Keats assortment within the de Grummond Youngsters’s Literature Assortment and thrilled to function the Ezra Jack Keats Award on the competition.
“There’s an enormous staff of oldsters that make all of it doable, and I’m simply comfortable to be a component it.”
Dr. Osborne heard concerning the CBF coordinator place from a buddy who’s a librarian and with ties to the USM College of Library and Info Science, which sponsors the annual occasion.
“She knew I cherished kids’s literature and had a background in it, so she prompt I apply and see what occurred,” Dr. Osborne defined. “I instantly felt a connection to each the place itself and my potential coworkers, who had been all so welcoming. Attending to work on the College, advocating for and selling such a long-running kids’s literature competition is a dream.”
The CBF, an annual occasion that started in 1968 and attracts lots of of holiday makers from throughout the nation and all over the world, is hosted by the USM School of Schooling and Human Sciences’ College of Library and Info Science (SLIS) on its Hattiesburg campus. The aim of the competition is to advertise kids’s literature, in addition to the writers, illustrators, publishers, librarians, and educators who work within the style.
In 2001, the competition was named in honor of Kaigler, a retired educator who taught in her native Mississippi and in California for greater than three a long time. Kaigler was a long-time participant and beneficiant supporter of the competition.
A Georgia native, Dr. Osborne mentioned she was first drawn to USM by the chance to review with its wonderful kids’s literature students and to benefit from the analysis alternatives within the de Grummond Assortment. Her doctoral analysis targeted on incapacity research and kids’s literature, trying on the intersections of the nonnormative physique in younger grownup literature; she graduated in 2020.
“I particularly got here to USM as a scholar to be near the [de Grummond] assortment – it’s such a precious useful resource for any kids’s lit scholar,” Dr. Osborne defined. “I’m most excited to delve into the library facet of kids’s literature, particularly as questions on entry sprout up within the public sphere.”
In the course of the relative quiet of the summer season, Dr. Osborne says she’s been utilizing her time correctly to get organized and prepared for when preparations for the 2024 competition begin choosing up.
“Proper now, I’m excited to be planning a few journeys to assist promote the CBF, together with attending the Mississippi E-book Pageant,” she mentioned.
With the SLIS and de Grummond Assortment college and workers members working intently collectively on the CBF, Dr. Osborne says presenting the competition is an all-around staff effort.
“So many individuals put their skills collectively to assist the occasion work, and that collaborative spirit is a part of what drew me to this job,” she continued. “USM is lucky to have the Kaigler Youngsters’s E-book Pageant, because it’s not solely vital for the varsity, however for the preservation of and research of kids’s literature basically.”
Study extra about USM’s Fay B. Kaigler Youngsters’s E-book Pageant on-line. Study extra concerning the College of Library and Info Science, which is housed within the School of Schooling and Human Sciences.