Via Rutgers University:
Dr. Kay Vandergrift, Professor and Dean Emerita
Library and Information Science Department
School of Communication and Information
September 20, 1940 – July 1, 2014
“We are helping to raise children to think and use their minds in different ways through … libraries.â€The School of Communication and Information community of Rutgers University is saddened by the death of Prof. and Dean Emerita Kay Vandergrift, who was a colleague from 1985 – 2004, and served the students and faculty in many capacities. Dr. Vandergrift died on July 1 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania where she lived following her retirement in 2004. A nationally esteemed educator in the field of Children and Young Adult Literature, she was the consummate academic whose authoritative research and classroom teaching united the theoretical and critical knowledge of children’s literature with the practice of librarianship. Her vibrant and articulate voice contributed significantly to the ranking of the Department of Library and Information Science (LIS) as among the top ten programs in North American and as the top program in Services for Children and Youth by U.S. News and World Report during her tenure at Rutgers.
As a beloved colleague and as an admired role model and mentor to many of the School’s graduate students, her contributions to the life of the School went far beyond teaching and research. She served as Chair of the Department of Library and Information Science, Director of the MLIS program, Director of Distance Education, and Associate Dean. Prior to joining the faculty at Rutgers, Professor Vandergrift had been a professor and librarian at Columbia University, where she earned her MA and Ed.D. degrees, and she taught at Barnard College, Queens College, and at other colleges in the U.S. and Canada. Dr. Vandergrift was founding Director of the Information Technology and Informatics undergraduate major as well as a full member of the Rutgers Graduate School’s Doctoral program in Communication, Library and Information Science. She was known for her dynamic teaching and willingness to make a course exciting by involving authors of children’s books. Kay was an inspiration to many with her commitment to both literature and the creative use of information and communication technology for teaching and learning. Anyone who stepped into her office was immediately greeted by the whimsical, imaginative, and delightful world that influenced Kay in her approach to life.
One of Professor Vandergrift’s legacies is the establishment of the undergraduate Information Technology and Informatics degree program at Rutgers. For more than a decade the LIS Department nurtured a vision of developing and offering a program for undergraduates that concentrated on the technological knowledge of its faculty. It was Kay Vandergrift, then SC&I Associate Dean, who, by spearheading the creation of the undergraduate program in Information Technology and Informatics (ITI), made the vision a reality.
During her career in higher education, Kay received many awards and accolades from her peers. She was awarded the prestigious Teaching Excellence Award from the Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE), the highest award for teaching at Rutgers University, the Warren I. Susman Award for Excellence in Teaching, and the Educational Press Association Award for Excellence in Educational Journalism. In 1997 she was named a Rutgers University Fellow by the Teaching Excellence Center. Through her time in higher education she was successful in receiving grants from the Mellon Foundation, Toyota Foundation, the Middlesex County Cultural and Heritage Commission, and numerous grants from the University.
A prolific contributor to research and professional LIS literature, Prof. Vandergrift was on the cusp of online education and pioneered the web as an online teaching presence. Her highly visited website on children’s literature was linked to over 500 sites and was often noted as one of the best sites for children and those who work with them. Combining feminist and multicultural theoretical perspectives, her website was deemed an outstanding scholarly contribution by the Chronicle of Higher Education that named it the ‘site of the day’ in 1997. She was an early adopter/adapter of Web technology, learning coding and enhancements before many professors even thought of having a website of their own.
After retirement from academe, Kay and her longtime companion and professional partner Dr. Jane Anne Hannigan, in her own right a powerhouse in the field of Library and Information Science, launched a new project in the Lancaster, Pennsylvania area – The Life of the Mind. They recruited talented residents of the Willow Valley retirement community to enliven and rejuvenate school libraries with murals, other art, and “critter sitters,†small stools for children to use when reading books. The critter sitters were built by Millersville University Industrial Arts students and painted in bright colors by the Willow Valley residents. This project reminded those who knew Kay of how she persuaded several Rutgers Information Technology and Informatics students to volunteer at senior citizen facilities in New Brunswick, NJ where they helped the seniors learn about using computers. She was a great networker and connector of people to the benefit of all. The Willow Valley residents often spoke of the pleasure and enrichment that participating in the schools and working with children brought them. The Life of the Mind project also sponsored workshops, symposia and grants at nearby Millersville University. As the website for Life of the Mind proclaims, “The Life of the Mind celebrates the fact that life is an ongoing quest for ideas, knowledge, understanding, and joy,†and that statement is a fitting summation of Kay Vandergrift’s philosophy and worldview.
