Picture of Joan

Joan R. Kaplowitz has a Doctorate in Psychology as well as a Master’s in Library Science. She retired in 2007 after 23 years as a librarian at UCLA. Dr. Kaplowitz worked at UCLA since graduating from UCLA’s Library and Information Science program in 1984. She began her career as a reference/instruction librarian and later Educational Services Coordinator and Head of Public Services at the Education and Psychology Library. She ended her UCLA Library career as the Head of the Research, Instruction and Collection Services division at the UCLA Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library in June 2007.

Joan Kaplowitz has been a library professional and educator since 1984 with many Publications and Presentations to her credit.

Dr. Kaplowitz was heavily involved in information literacy instruction at the local, state, and national levels for her entire career and continues to be active in this area despite her retirement from the UCLA library system. During her early years at UCLA she taught several sections of UCLA’s undergraduate course “Library and Information Resources.” In 1989 she collaborated with UCLA’s Esther Grassian to propose and develop the UCLA graduate library program’s course “Information Literacy Instruction: Theory and Technique.” She and Ms. Grassian have alternated presenting this course since 1990 and Dr. Kaplowitz is continuing to teach this course despite her retirement from the library. Dr. Kaplowitz was also part of the faculty development team for Association of College and Research Libraries’ Institute for Information Literacy’s Immersion Program and taught in six of the programs between 1999 and 2004.

Dr. Kaplowitz was awarded several Librarians’ Association of the University of California research grants in support of her research and publication endeavors. She held office in the American Library Association’s New Members Round Table and the California Clearinghouse on Library Instruction (now know as SCIL or the Southern California Instruction Librarians group). Dr. Kaplowitz was also involved with the American Library Association’s Committee on Accreditation and served on several ad hoc teams reviewing ALA accreditation for several graduate library programs.

From 2001 to 2003, Dr. Kaplowitz was a member of the UCLA Library’s Information Literacy Initiative’s steering committee and remained on that body when the Initiative became a full-fledged program. She remained involved until her retirement in 2007.

Dr. Kaplowitz has published and made numerous presentations on various topics such as the psychology of learning and cognitive styles, assessment in information literacy, student-centered learning, and mentoring within the profession. She is the co-author (with Ms. Grassian) of Information Literacy Instruction: Theory and Practice (2001) which received the ACRL Instruction Section’s Publication of the Year award, and Learning to Lead and Manage Information Literacy Instruction (2005). The Neal-Schuman Company published both books.

Dr. Kaplowitz and Ms. Grassian are currently working on the second edition of Information Literacy Instruction: Theory and Practice and are writing the “Information Literacy Instruction” section for the next edition of the Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science. Dr. Kaplowitz recently completed the chapter on the Psychology of Learning for the 2008 Information Literacy Handbook published by the Instruction Section of the Association of College and Research Libraries. She has recently made presentations for the UCLA’s Department of Information Studies in the area of student learning outcomes, active learning, and assessment and for the California State University at Los Angeles Library on active learning and Learner-Centered Teaching.