September 21, 2013
Christine Angel has a gift for making connections. As an Assistant Professor at St. John's University in the Division of Library and Information Science (DLIS), she shares this gift with her students and together, they connect information to share with the world.
Christine's area of research is the organization and representation of information in libraries, archives, museums and online. Through her teaching, research and scholarship, she aims to increase the quality of information representation so that the information can be retrieved more effectively.
Christine came into this field of research after being troubled by the limited reach of the archaeological fieldwork she did as an undergraduate. She says the artifacts they found would sit in the lab, and she wondered how the information discovered was communicated to people outside the dig. Thus began her interest in connecting nodes of information.
Hands-on Training
Through the Academic Service-Learning (AS-L) platform at St. John's, Christine's students are directly involved in her research and help produce this linked environment.
"All the projects my students produce within the Academic Service-Learning platform have tangible evidence that students are able to provide on their resumes," she notes. "It's provided jobs for my students and networking opportunities."
An AS-L collaboration with the Paulist Fathers at their Queens and Washington, D.C., archives has taught her students how the Paulist Fathers provided service to those in need and has also illustrated the stepping stones for entering the priesthood. A student who worked with Christine this spring on the organization, representation and digitization of objects is now considering the priesthood.
"It's interesting to see how different projects and assignments have touched my students," Christine remarks. "That's one of my favorite parts."
The work that Christine and her students have done has also helped grow awareness of DLIS and St. John's in the New York metro area and in Washington, D.C. Their work makes accessible resources that had previously been untapped.
"We not only preserve history through digitization, but we also make it available to the public via the World Wide Web," Christine says.
Christine believes her responsibility as a St. John's professor is to deliver excellence in teaching, which has helped her grow as a person and enabled her to help her students grow.
Summarizing her experience, Christine notes, "The Vincentian culture of St. John's is transmitted through the Vincentian behaviors of its community. I have been provided with the opportunity to mold future professionals utilizing the Vincentian construct of social justice practiced through the lens of transparency."
Learn More
Contact Susan Damiani at damianis@stjohns.edu or 718-990-7562 to uncover ways to provide long-term support for programs in areas of study like the Division of Library and Information Science through your estate plan.
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