UBC iSchool (Library, Archival and Information Studies) is pleased to announce Dr. Tess Prendergast, as a new Lecturer in Librarianship.
An alumna of the iSchool (class of ’96), Tess has spent the past few decades working as a children’s librarian and raising her family. She received her Ph.D in literacy education from UBC’s Department of Language and Literacy Education in 2018. Her doctoral research explored the inclusion of children with disabilities in early literacy learning opportunities in their communities.Her study suggested that social discourse surrounding early learning mainly presumes normativity and that parents must advocate for their disabled children’s inclusion in community-based early learning. When looking at libraries, she found that parents and children’s librarians rarely collaborate on inclusive support strategies and that librarians indicated that they lack knowledge about how to maximize the inclusiveness of their libraries’ programs for young children.
Tess will be teaching librarianship and children’s literature courses, and she is particularly excited about helping to prepare new librarians for their important roles in diverse communities.
