Washington DC—The Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) is pleased
to announce the selection of Elisabeth A. Jones as the 2008 recipient
of the Paul Evan Peters Fellowship for graduate study in the
information sciences or librarianship. Jones is currently a PhD
student in information science at the University of Washington. The
fellowship, which was established to honor the memory of CNI founding
Executive Director Paul Evan Peters, recognizes outstanding
scholarship and intellectual rigor, as well as civic responsibility,
democratic values, and imagination.
With a research agenda that focuses on large-scale information-
digitization initiatives, such as Google Book Search, Jones is
interested in the complex web of social and political issues that
affect, and are affected by, these ambitious undertakings. While a
student at the University of Michigan (UM) School of Information,
Jones served as a research intern for the UM-Google Library
Partnership, according her first-hand experience with the project.
Jones approaches her current pursuits with the benefit of a diverse
background, including anthropology, the visual arts, and
librarianship. Her experiences in both political activism and
community service help to inform her curiosity and concern regarding
the transformations digitization initiatives can elicit. She
expresses a “desire to support artistic and intellectual flourishing,
and through it fundamental democratic values, through research and
teaching.”
Described by University of Washington professor Joseph Janes as having
a “wry sense of humor,” Jones has proven herself to be a leader among
her peers, and someone who motivates others to think probingly about
challenging issues. In a statement about this year’s fellowship
winner, selection committee member Barbara Dewey of the University of
Tennessee said, “Elisabeth Jones is an exceptional 21st-century new
scholar in the spirit of Paul Evan Peters's creativity and leadership.”
