Osborne Named Coordinator for USM’s Fay B. Kaigler Kids’s E-book Competition
Fri, 07/21/2023 – 01:03pm | By: David Tisdale
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 Kids’s E-book Competition after not too long ago being named Assistant to the Director and Particular Occasions and Outreach Coordinator within the Faculty of Library and Info Science (SLIS).
Dr. Stacy Creel, director and professor within the SLIS, stated Dr. Osborne’s tutorial background and experiences as a author, editor and blogger within the style make her an important 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,” stated Dr. Creel. “She has modifying expertise as effectively, 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 outstanding 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 regarded ahead to it yearly, so it’s wild to suppose that now I’m serving to set up it,” she stated. “We’re additionally so honored to host the Ezra Jack Keats assortment within the de Grummond Kids’s Literature Assortment and thrilled to characteristic the Ezra Jack Keats Award on the competition.
“There’s an enormous group of parents that make all of it doable, and I’m simply completely happy to be a component it.”
Dr. Osborne heard in regards to the CBF coordinator place from a buddy who’s a librarian and with ties to the USM Faculty of Library and Info Science, which sponsors the annual occasion.
“She knew I liked kids’s literature and had a background in it, so she steered 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 tons of of holiday makers from throughout the nation and all over the world, is hosted by the USM Faculty of Training and Human Sciences’ Faculty 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 stated she was first drawn to USM by the chance to check with its glorious kids’s literature students and to reap the benefits of the analysis alternatives within the de Grummond Assortment. Her doctoral analysis centered on incapacity research and youngsters’s literature, wanting 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 invaluable useful resource for any kids’s lit scholar,” Dr. Osborne defined. “I’m most excited to delve into the library aspect of youngsters’s literature, particularly as questions on entry sprout up within the public sphere.”
In the course of the relative quiet of the summer time, Dr. Osborne says she’s been utilizing her time properly 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 Competition,” she stated.
With the SLIS and de Grummond Assortment college and employees members working intently collectively on the CBF, Dr. Osborne says presenting the competition is an all-around group 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 Kids’s E-book Competition, because it’s not solely vital for the varsity, however for the preservation of and research of youngsters’s literature typically.”
Study extra about USM’s Fay B. Kaigler Kids’s E-book Competition on-line. Study extra in regards to the Faculty of Library and Info Science, which is housed within the Faculty of Training and Human Sciences.