Recent Syracuse University School of Information Studies (iSchool) graduate Gwen Glazer G’10 has been selected as the Google Policy Fellow for the American Library Association (ALA). Glazer was one of 17 fellows selected for the Google Policy Fellowship out of a pool of more than 500 applicants.
The Google Policy Fellowship began in 2007 with the purpose of placing qualified students with advocacy organizations working on policy issues fundamental to the future of the Internet. The 17 students, from 14 schools in four countries, have studied a range of fields from law to library science to mathematics and biology, and will be working for ten weeks in one of four cities: Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Toronto, and Ottawa. A full list of participating institutions can be fund at the Google Policy Fellowship home page.
“This summer, I’ll be investigating digitization projects around the country,” Glazer said. “I’m hoping to gain some insight about how the policy world works from the ALA’s perspective and understand more about lobbying and advocacy.”
Glazer, an M.S. Library and Information Science graduate, will be working in Washington, D.C., where she had worked in journalism for eight years before coming to the iSchool. A native of Lancaster, P.A., she attended Wesleyan University in Connecticut for a degree in liberal arts. She is currently the staff writer and editor at the Cornell University Library and on the board of Trustees for the Tompkins County Public Library. Her strong interest in library policy motivated her to apply for the fellowship.
“I would like to work for ALA or another lobbying group at some point,” she said. “I’m also a big believer in public libraries and hope to work in that sphere at some point.”