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Congratulations go to Jerry D. Saye, a graduate of Pitt’s
MLIS program (1971) and PhD. Program (1978) in Library
and Information Sciences. Dr. Saye, a Professor in the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s School
of Information and Library Science (SILS), was recently
honored with SILS’ “Outstanding Teaching
Award,” a student-initiated recognition accompanied
by a $2,500 prize. This is the second time that this
talented educator has won this award, which recognizes
excellence in teaching, commitment to students, and effectiveness
in teaching. His efforts in teaching have also been recognized
with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s “Distinguished
Teaching Award for Post-Baccalaureate Instruction,” and
the Association for Library and Information Science Education’s
Award for “Excellence in Teaching,” an
honor granted annually to a LIS educator in the US
and Canada.
Jerry finds that winning this SILS award is “humbling,
to tell the truth. It’s very rewarding to know
how highly the students regard your teaching, but it
is also a bit overwhelming.” Jerry is the only
SILS faculty member to win the “Outstanding Teaching
Award” twice (he’s been nominated numerous
times), a testament to his skills. He is noted by students
and faculty alike for his dedication, enthusiasm and
accessibility. His teaching philosophy is centered on
student participation in the process – “I
feel strongly that active involvement by students in
the learning process enhances their learning experience
and mine,” he explains.
The groundwork for his teaching excellence was laid
here at Pitt – “I had the great good fortune
to study with Martha L. Manheimer, a former faculty member
at SIS. She changed my life in so many ways -- she took
such an active interest in me as a student and as a person.” When
he entered the MLIS program, he planned on becoming a
head of a cataloging department indexer, but Dr. Manheimer
had other ideas – “You will become an educator,
she declared,” notes Saye with a laugh. “I
had never even thought of becoming an educator, but when
Martha said something, you did it!” he laughs.
In addition to his coursework for the master’s
and doctoral programs, he also audited a wide variety
of courses (more than 27 credits worth one semester)
and taught several classes on cataloguing and non-print
cataloging. He and Dr. Manheimer went on to become friends
and close colleagues. “My wife and I would come
back to Pittsburgh for a football game and stay with
Martha. As a matter of fact, I ‘inherited’ her
book from her,” notes Saye. He is referring to
Manheimer's Cataloging and Classification, the seminal
textbook by Dr. Manheimer. After planning to work with
her on a new edition of the text, Dr. Saye assumed its
authorship after the esteemed educator’s death.
He has written the third and fourth editions and is currently
working on its fifth edition. Originally titled Cataloging
and Classification, he re-titled it in her honor.
 Dr. Saye is the author of numerous professional papers.
Additionally, since 1997 he has served as the co-editor
of the Association for Library and Information Science
Education’s Statistical Report and the author of
its student chapter. This reports publishing data on
faculty, students, curriculum, income and expenditures,
and continuing education for all school’s with
ALA-accredited master’s programs.
Since gaining his advanced degrees from Pitt, Saye has
on been on the faculties of Fairmont State College in
West Virginia and Drexel University in Pennsylvania.
A faculty member at UNC Chapel Hill since 1985, Dr. Saye
offers courses on organization of information, the history
of books and libraries, and cataloging and classification.
From 1990-1996, he served as the Associate Dean of the
School of Information and Library Science at Carolina
In addition to his work in North Carolina, Saye has served
as an advisor and faculty member for SILS’ Summer
Seminars at Oxford University, Charles University in
Prague. This past June, he led a similar program at the
University of Ljubljana in Slovenia. The Summer Seminars
allow students and other LIS professionals from across
the US to gain perspective on libraries and librarianship
in other countries. The participants visit university,
public, school, and special libraries in the host country.
Jerry was a Fullbright Scholar Slovenia at the University
of Ljubljana’s Department of Library and Information
Science and Book Studies in 2003.
Dr. Saye’s connections to Pitt are still quite
strong – he is serving on a doctoral thesis committee
for Daniel Joudrey, a Ph.D. candidate in the Library
and Information Science program. In fact, many of Dr.
Saye’s colleagues also have a Pitt connection.
The current Dean of SILS is Jose-Marie Griffiths, a former
chaired professor here at SIS. SILS faculty members Claudia
Gollop (Associate Professor and Associate Dean), Jane
Greenberg (Associate Professor), and Stephanie Haas (Associate
Professor) are all graduates of the Ph.D. Program in
Library and Information Science. And, Dr. Saye is still
a fervent Pitt football fan, rooting for the Panthers
from the sunny south! |
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