Marija Dalbello, Ph D
 

Marija Dalbello is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Library and
Information Science, School of Communication, Information and Library
Science at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. Her research
interests and publications are in the area of knowledge creation as
related to print and electronic culture. She focuses on the interplay
between technology and society in the context of modernity, focusing on
digital libraries, transformation of visual genres and modernity, memory
and identity, and the role of memory institutions in shaping access to
information and national identity. She uses critical theory, qualitative
research methods and historical approach in her work. Her doctoral thesis
was a cultural analysis of Croatian diaspora almanacs. She has presented
and published on Croatian cultural history in Book History, Slavic and
East European Information Resources, book history and information science
conferences. She is invited to edit a special issue of Vjesnik
bibliotekara Hrvatske devoted to the history of books and printing in
Croatia for which a call for papers will be available shortly. She is
co-organizer of an annual conference and summer seminar in Dubrovnik,
Libraries in the Digital Age (http://knjiga.pedos.hr/lida/venues.php) and
has been involved with this international conference from its beginning.
She was involved with a digital art project Peace 2000 (linked from the
home page of the Philosophy Faculty in Zagreb at
http://www.ffzg.hr/peace2000/fragility.html ). Since last year, she has
been on the board of the Croatian Academy of America. Her goal is to aid
the establishment of this notable scholarly organization's archives. You
may learn more about Dr. Dalbello and her other research and teaching
activities at
http://scils.rutgers.edu/~dalbello .
Her email is: dalbello@scils.rutgers.edu .


Marija Dalbello
Assistant Professor
Department of Library and Information Science
School of Communication, Information and Library Studies
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
4 Huntington Street
New Brunswick, New Jersey 08901-1071
Voice: 732.932.7500 / 8215
Internet: dalbello@scils.rutgers.edu
http://www.scils.rutgers.edu/~dalbello

EDUCATION

University of Toronto Ph.D., Information Studies, April 1999
Major fields: history of books and printing; ethnography
Dissertation: Croatian Diaspora Almanacs: A Historical and Cultural Analysis

Kent State University M.L.S., 1991
Master's research paper: Hrvatski kalendar (=Croatian Almanac): A Case Study in Ethnic Publishing

Philosophy Faculty. University of Zagreb Diploma of Graduate Librarian, 1988
Thesis: The Methodology of Compilation of a Bibliography of Ethnic Groups

Philosophy Faculty. University of Zagreb Diploma, English and Indiology, 1984
Major: English language and literature; Minor: Sanskrit
Thesis: Austin's Taxonomy of Speech

WORK EXPERIENCE

Assistant Professor. Department of Library and Information Science. School of Communication, Information and Library Studies. Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. July 2000 to date

Visiting Assistant Professor. School of Library and Information Studies. University of Wisconsin-Madison. Aug. 1999 to May 2000

Visiting Assistant Professor. School of Library and Information Science. The Catholic University of America. Aug. 1997 to May 1999

Teaching and Research Assistant. Faculty of Information Studies. University of Toronto. Sept. 1992 to Aug. 1997

WORK EXPERIENCE IN LIBRARIES

The Ohio State University Libraries (Columbus, Ohio).
Cataloger, Charvat Collection of American Fiction., Sept. 1988 to Dec. 1990
(full time until mid-Sept. 1990)
Library Assistant, Special Collections Cataloging, Sept. 1987 to Sept. 1988

Institut za etnologiju i folkloristiku Archive and Documentation (Zagreb, Croatia)
Librarian, July 1984 to Sept. 1986
Library and Documentation Assistant, Sept. 1982 to July 1984

GRANTS

Rutgers Research Council Grant ($1,500) (2002/2002) (study: Theorizing Spectacle: The Transformation of Vision, 1886-1925)
Reinvest in Rutgers grant "Gendered Public Policies" ($1,700) (2002) (for course development: 'Gender & Technology')
Andrew A. Mellon Foundation colloquium participation grant ($500) (2002) (to showcase research project, Photography, Shadow Theatre, Silent Film: Transformation of Vision, 1886-1925)
Rutgers Research Council Grant ($2,000) (2001/2002) (study: Global Processes and Localization Strategies: A Cross-Cultural Study of National Digital Library Projects)
Andrew A. Mellon Foundation time-release grant ($6,000) (2001/2002) (for research and course development using Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum materials)
WebWorks Grant Program (1999). UW-Madison (application of web technology in classroom instruction)


FELLOWSHIPS AND AWARDS

Ontario Graduate Scholarship
(held in 1995/96) (also 1994/95 recipient)
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Doctoral Fellowship
(held in 1994/95)
University of Toronto Open Doctoral Fellowship
(held in 1991/92, 1992/93; 1993/94; 1995/96)
Research fellowship at Fudan University, Shanghai
(held Sept. 1986 through Feb. 1987)

PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES

Invited speaker:

The University of Osijek, the University of Zagreb, and the regional chapter of Croatian Library Association in Rijeka "Education for Librarianship in the United States: Tradition and Transformation" three lectures10-16 June 2002.
National and University Library (Zagreb, Croatia), "Building Archival Digital Libraries: The Model of an Information Mosaic," 13 June, 2000.
Colloquium "Global Perspectives in Librarianship." School of Library and Information Studies. University of Wisconsin-Madison. 13 October, 1999.
Toronto Centre for the Book. Special Session for Graduate Students. Toronto, 29 January, 1997.

Contributor, International Dictionary of Library Histories (Ed. David Stam. Chicago, Ill.: Fitzroy Dearborn, forthcoming 2000).

Panelist, "Libraries and the Internet: Promises and Pitfalls." LIDA (Libraries in the Digital Age) 2000. Dubrovnik, Croatia, 25-28 May, 2000.

Referee, Information Processing & Management, 2000; Canadian Journal of Information and Library Science, 1997.

Consultant, the Canadian Review of Books, 1997.

Reviewer, Index to volumes 1-30 (1960-1989) of Journal of Croatian Studies (New York, 1995), 1996.

Conference co-organizer, Connections '96 Great Lakes Doctoral Students Conference
Planning, Review Committee, Panel Chair

Member, SHARP (Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing) (1994- ); Modern Language Association of America (1995- ); American Printing History Association (1995-1997); American Library Association (1989- ). Association of College and Research Libraries; Academic Library Association of Ohio (1989-1990); ASIST (1999-); Croatian Academy of America (1994- ); Croatian Library Association (1984-1986).

Seminar participant, Rare Book School (Charlottesville, Va.): Electronic Texts and Images (SGML workshop) (1999); Rare Book Cataloging (1989)

CIVIC OR OTHER ACTIVITIES

"Project Gutenberg" digital libraries initiative (volunteer contributor of etexts -- still working on Ivana Brlic Mazuranic's fairy tales)
"Kareta," Canadian charitable organization helping women, victims of war, 1996.


Teaching Focus: In most general terms, my teaching focuses on the creation, diffusion and use of knowledge as shaped by social and cultural forces. Courses taught reflect interest in reading and reading genres, information sources and scholarly communication, culture of the book, print culture, electronic publishing, historical and naturalistic research methods, rare books and special collections librarianship, organization of information and knowledge organization, history of libraries and information science as a field of study, social aspects of technology, and its intersections with gender, race, and class. In the delivery of courses and integral to the learning process is the use of technology in expanding the notions of literacy and writing and as agency for knowledge production and diffusion.

Student Projects: Significant group projects include Frautschi Letters Virtual Archive and The Wisconsin Mosaic, a digital library of historical materials developed by the M.L.S. students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (and in collaboration with Max Kade Institute, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison). The story behind the creation of the Wisconsin Mosaic presents the history and the rationale for this project. A group of students involved in creating a component of the Wisconsin Mosaic received an award for the innovative use of technology. At Rutgers, the Journals Database is an online assignment focusing on domain knowledge building in scholarly communities of practice; it is updated on an ongoing basis by M.L.I.S. students enrolled in the Knowledge Structures and the Information Professions class. This project was executed in collaboration with the Scholarly Communication Center (Rutgers University, Alexander Library). A resource page listing virtual communities emerging around popular reading and genre fiction is regularly updated with reviews and links contributed by students in the Reading Interests of Adults class. Several generations of students from the Reading Interests of Adults class presented their research at the New Jersey Library Association annual meeting in April 2003, featured in a panel titled Reading, Readers, Reading Genres.

The record of a semester-long online participation of the students enrolled in my book history class, with the class taught by John Unsworth at the University of Virginia's English Department, can be found at the 20th Century American Bestsellers site (archived). The experiences of that project are discussed in an article titled "Is There a Text in This Library? History of the Book and Digital Continuity."

At Rutgers, I advise M.L.I.S. student group SOURCE (Student Organization for Unique and Rare Collections Everywhere). This community consists of M.L.I.S. students interested in historical aspects of book, paper, and writing materials, and bridges between digital librarianship and special collections, rare books, visual resources librarianship and archives. It was founded in Fall 2000.