Faculty & Staff

Director of the Reinberger Children’s Library Center

Michelle R. Baldini, MLS, is Director of the Reinberger Children’s Library Center at Kent State University in Kent, OH. She earned her master’s in library science from Long Island University, C.W. Post. Baldini serves on the Virginia Hamilton Board, Marantz Picturebook Research Symposium, and Reinberger Children’s Library Center advisory boards, and currently serves on the Arnold Adoff Poetry Award committee.  She is the author of the young adult novel, Unraveling (Delacorte Press, July 2008). Email: mbaldini@kent.edu


Kent State iSchool Youth Faculty

Katie Campana, PhD, is an assistant professor at Kent State University. She focuses her research on understanding the learning that is occurring for children and youth in informal learning environments and the role that the environment plays in that learning. She teaches in the area of youth services librarianship. Prior to joining Kent State, she taught courses at the University of Washington iSchool and managed Project VIEWS2, an IMLS grant that worked to establish the early literacy impact of public library storytimes. She also has a background in corporate and school libraries.

Megan Harper, PhD,

Meghan Harper, Ph.D., has been an iSchool faculty member since 2001. She currently serves as the MLIS program coordinator as well as the school library media concentration coordinator. Harper is co-director of the Virginia Hamilton Multicultural Literature Conference, the longest running national conference of its kind. She has published numerous articles, chapters, manuscripts and reviews relating to her research interests, which include school library administration, facility design, multiliteracies, care-based practices, electronic portfolios, cataloging, evaluation and assessment. Harper is also the author of Reference Sources and Services for Youth and has two more books slated for publication. You can read more about her at  http://www.meghanharper.org/

Marianne Martens, PhD, has been an iSchool faculty member since 2012. She teaches courses in the area of youth services librarianship. Her research connects children’s librarianship and publishing, and stretches from historical perspectives on the interconnected-fields, to contemporary studies of how books paired with technology are changing the reading experience for young people. Martens is fluent in English, Danish, German, Spanish and French, and has translated more than 100 children’s books into English. You can read more about her work at mariannemartens.org.

Mary Anne Nichols, MLS, has taught at Kent State iSchool since 2006. Previously she was a school age and young adult librarian in the Akron-Summit County Public Library in Akron, Ohio. She also is series co-editor of Libraries Unlimited Professional Guides for Young Adult Librarians. Her teaching awards and honors include receiving the Kent State University College of Communication and Information Outstanding Teaching Award (2012) and the Kent State University Graduate Applause (2008; 2010). She is an active member of the American Library Association’s Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), serving in many capacities on various committees.